The Outlaws-An Open Discussion.

Just today I found a gently used Hurry Sundown LP. Loved this album back in the day ( had the eight track). Bring It Back Alive is also a big favorite.

 

NICE! enjoy...it's impossible not to when it comes to The Outlaws!

 

two winners! Hurry Sundown is an amazing song...it has it all.

 

Hey friend, here it is:

1. Song For You (3:31)
2. Song In The Breeze (Live) (4:54)
3. Cry No More (Live) (4:32)
4. Love At First Sight (2:47)
5. Freeborn Man (4:51)
6. Knoxville Girl (3:30)
7. South Carolina (3:05)
8. Hearin' My Heart Talkin' (4:11)
9. Cold & Lonesome (Live) (3:33)
10. Take It Anyway You Want It (3:19)
11. Cry Some More (3:42)
12. You Are The Show (4:54)
13. White Horses (3:56)
14. Don't Stop (5:01)
15. Devils Road (4:41)
16. Gunsmoke (4:17)
17. (Ghost) Riders In The Sky (5:50)
18. Hurry Sundown (4:11)
19. There Goes Another Love Song (Live) (4:09)
20. Green Grass & High Tides (9:49)

 

wow! excellent song list...

 

I've been going through my CD collection as of late, checking out what I am missing, and identifying what I should get rid of. When I got to the Outlaws, I realized I owned two versions of their debut, an ancient Arista disc mastered by Bill Inglot and Ken Perry and a 2001 Buddha set mastered by Elliott Federman. I spun them both, only to find the latter to be utterly horrendous. I am not sure why I kept it so long, but its songs have been dynamically crushed, yielding a homogenized, distorted mess. Sad indeed. Fortunately, the Inglot/Perry disc sounds great, with dynamics aplenty. I am unsure why I retained the Buddha release through the years. It pretty much gathered dust on my shelf, and now I clearly know why. I must have played it at some point, but placed it in my subconscious out box. Now it will go in my real one. Time to pop that Inglot/Perry disc back in again. This is surely one of the greatest rock albums of all time.

 

totally agree...I favor the Original as well...glad I own it.

 

Ugh. Depressing. I checked my collection and all I have of the 1st 3 albums are the Buddahs. Must have got rid of the original Aristas (?) since as we all know remasters are "better" and no need to keep the older ones. Dammit...

 

According to Dynamic Range Database, the debut album seems to be the worst of the bunch among the Buddha remasters done by Elliott Federman. It has an overall dynamic range of 8, whereas the subsequent two albums both have an overall DR of 10. I have not heard these others, but given the numbers, I would have to believe they sound better. Two important caveats, however, are that DRs are not everything and Federman has produced some pretty mediocre sounding CDs through the years.

I should also note, according to the Discogs website, it does not appear Inglot/Perry mastered any of the other albums. And there do not appear to be many other early CD options. My recommendation would be to at least go back and get the Arista debut, ARCD-8301. It unquestionably sounds far better, with all musical elements gaining their own space.

And believe me, we have all made the mistake of cashing in early discs for "improved" remasters. I commiserate.

 

Thx for that info above.

I "upgraded" everything back in the day and with very few exceptions did not keep my original releases. Luckily for the most part listening to bad remasters doesn't bother me too much but does pisss me off that I bought into the remaster hype in the first place. For ones that do bother me I have gone back and rebought something which I either gave away or traded in at a store for pennies but now buy back at discogs/ebay/etc for like 2x what I originally paid for it in the first place. Crazy! Oh well.

 

For some time, I have owned 2003's Platinum & Gold Collection by The Outlaws and have always thought it sounded pretty good. Remarkably, then, I believe its mastering is based on the 2001 Buddha album remasters, including the debut's, which I had previously maligned. What gives? Well...the mastering engineer for Platinum & Gold is not Elliott Federman, who redid the albums, but Dennis Drake, who is unquestionably one of the finest in his trade. And in this instance he has proved you can indeed polish a.....

It turns out the differences between peaks and RMS values are quite similar for the three tracks from the 2001 debut remaster also appearing on Platinum & Gold (see data below). These numbers are 10.07 and 9.99 dB for Keep Prayin', 8.80 and 8.85 dB for There Goes Another Love Song, and 9.28 and 9.34 dB for Green Grass & High Tides Forever. This is what led me to believe Drake was given the 2001 remasters as the basis for making Platinum & Gold. However, he made the best of a bad situation, and by tweaking equalization, enhanced both vocals and guitar interplay, which become much less buried and more powerful on Platinum & Gold. Too bad Drake did not do the actual album remasters, themselves, for history would suggest he would have done his best to spare the dynamics. And truth be told, though he may have made things sound better on Platinum & Gold, there is only so much he could do given what he was provided.

DR Peak RMS Filename
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
DR9 -0.10 dB -10.17 dB Keep Prayin' (2001 remaster)
DR9 -0.10 dB -10.09 dB Keep Prayin' (Platinum & Gold)

DR8 -0.20 dB -9.00 dB There Goes Another Love Song (2001 remaster)
DR8 -1.00 dB -9.95 dB There Goes Another Love Song (Platinum & Gold)

DR8 -0.10 dB -9.38 dB Green Grass & High Tides (2001 remaster)
DR8 -0.50 dB -9.84 dB Green Grass & High Tides (Platinum & Gold)​

 

We are inching closer to the century. Only a few more posts to go to bring up page 100

 

yes, we've all had times like those unfortunately!

 

I should also note, according to the Discogs website, it does not appear Inglot/Perry mastered any of the other albums.

correct. : )

 

I just did my part...bring on the 100 pages!

 

I once traded in a CD for the NEW remaster...well the remaster sucked and I immediately went back to the CD store and bought back my original that I just sold...from then on I never traded any CD for the "new" remaster. I always keep both...lesson learned!

 

Richard “Dickey” Betts Highway Call CD is a good example of this. The 1989 Japanese CD blows the early 2000s remaster out the water. There is a new version out in Japan now but I haven’t found the need to buy it as I like the 1989 version.

 

indeed! it goes both ways...

 

well we are still on page 99! lets bring it to 100!

 

I don't know how to post photos but if someone could post a few and hopefully one of HT brings up the hundy

 

Not just out of the water, it annihilates it. The 2001 cd is god-awful. It’s brick-walled. Whomever that was a good idea, was out to lunch.

 

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Here goes another post, yeah. Someone’s thinkin’ ‘ bout Outlaws again

 

we will see!

 

damn! I love it! : )