Unremastered Cream CD's Any Good!

I was wondering if the unremastered Polydor issues of Creams albums are anything special. did Dennis Drake do these.

 

Yeah, they're good. A lot of people dig 'em.

 

Yes, they sound great. Dennis Drake did a superb job on them. If you don't have them, next time you see them, I would grab them up.

 

Take care with "Wheels Of Fire". There was a digital skip in Spoonful in the first issue. Corrected in the remaster by Dennis Drake (the back cover of the fatboy case is grey on the remaster and had a small picture of the band on the original).

 

Hi,

I love the original WG RSO CD of "Disreali Gears" It is very natural sounding and warm. The tape hiss is noticeable. Recommended.

 

I recently replaced all of my remastered Cream CD's with the originals, & couldn't be happier. I got the Dennis Drake versions of "Fresh Cream" & "Goodbye", & the WG RSO CD of "Disraeli Gears" mentioned above. To me they all sound much better than the remasters, sounding much more natural with more air around the music. "Disraeli Gears" in particular sounded much better. To me the remasters sound bright, compressed,
& too "modern" sounding. Dennis Drake does great work, & I would recommend anything with his name on it. I recently picked up his version of "Blind Faith" as well, & was absolutely blown away at how much better that CD sounded than the DE of "Blind Faith".

 

In the past I've thought the Drake/Calbi DG had a bit too much of a midrange hump, but maybe that's just me.

 

here are my digital Cream preferences:

Fresh Cream - DCC
Disraeli Gears - MFSL UDI
Wheels of Fire - DCC (a revelation)
Goodbye - Drake Polydor
Live Cream Vols. 1 & 2 - MFSL UDII

 

On my DG RSO the tape hiss sounds louder than the music, unbelievably so. I have a Polydor DG with Drake mastering credit with hiss but at a significantly lower level. I think the RSO was made from a very high generation tape.

 

I use to have the RSO and it was quite hissy. I heard the other Cream and Clapton RSOs are also quite hissy. Fortunately, I purchased a DDC version of Fresh Cream when it came out, plus it has the shorter version of Toad.

 

I presume that was what MFSL used for their CD - it sounds very nice (although as I think you mentioned in the past, this one was no sonic masterpiece anyway, it's nice to hear it sound as good as possible ala the DCC Aqualung). Much smoother than the other ones I've heard (Dennis Drake, Those Were The Days and the Definitive Edition 2CD).

 

The Drake remasters from the 80's to me are the best of the lot fo regular releases, much better than "Guhr" remasters of a few years ago, which I found to be kinda over eq'd and brittle. To be honest, though I do love the DCC Fresh Cream, Wheels of fire and the MOFI Disraeli Gears CD's.

 

The Cream remasters were actually done by Joseph Palmaccio.

I do agree that they were too hyped-up & modern sounding. Much better dynamics on the Drake versions.

 

I just picked up a used Drake mastered copy of Fresh Cream, and I think it sounds great! I also scored a West German RSO copy of Goodbye and it sounds very good as well.

I haven't heard the DCC of Fresh Cream, but it would be difficult to imagine it sounding much better.


Evan

 

It does!

 

Has anyone heard the Drake Live Cream discs? Do they beat the MFSL?

 

Hi Barry,

I do have the MFSL as well as the WG RSO version of Volume II.

There isn't a huge difference, but I do like the RSO a little better. It seems to me that the MFSL has a slight treble and bass boost, or the RSO just sounds "flatter" and more natural when listening longer.

The recording is not a sonic masterpiece to begin with, I guess.

Never heard the "Live Cream" (Volume I), but I would expect a similar difference.

Roland

 

Thanks Roland. I have the MFSL but was considering these to try to complete the Drake Clapton series.

 

I grabbed the West German "Blind Faith" with the two bonus tracks not on the US version. It does sound like it came from a later generation tape, but the overall sound is amazing; very warm and natural sounding.

 

The WG RSO of _Wheels Of Fire_ (no mastering credit) smokes the Drake mastered US Polydor, IMO. Much less brittle and not as crispy.

Iirc, they both have the skip on Spoonful.

I hope to upgrade to the DCC one day, but the RSO is my pick for now.

 

I finally got an RSO of Vol. II, and also prefer it to the MFSL -- there's more air (real air, not treble hype) and you can hear the reverberations in the room clearly. I really enjoyed it. The MFSL has a thicker sound, but I don't think it's as problematic as some other MFSL Clapton titles (Bluesbreakers, Goodbye, Dominos In Concert).

But I DO still prefer the MFSL of Vol. I over the RSO. There seems to be a mid-treble hump on the RSO (perhaps similar to the one people are hearing in Disraeli Gears?) that the MFSL corrects for my ears/system. FWIW, the MFSL is the one I want to crank up. (I guess I'd probably go to the RSO for "Lawdy Mama," the studio track, though. That track didn't need quite as much "help.")

 

Update on some findings:

Regarding Live 1 & 2:

The WG RSO, US RSO and Polydor CD issues all appear to be intentical. The Drake mastering credit was added when the discs started being pressed in the US, but there is no difference.

The first issues (Polydor/RSO) of Live 1 & 2 seem to be midrange heavy and lacking bottom end in comparison to the MFSL set and the Palmaccio remaster. The MFSL set sounds a bit compressed in the low end to me, but it might just sound that way in comprison to the Polydor/RSO masterings. The Palmaccio is actually pretty damn good, IMO. It rolls off some top end and sounds pretty smooth, but the MFSL is probably the winner here. I am going to bet MFSL did not goose the bass on this title since the bottom end on the Palmaccio is pretty similar in the amount of bass it has, and the old RSO/Polydor discs are drastically different. Only two possibilites, I guess:

A: Palmaccio and MFSL really goosed the bottom end
B: The early RSO and Polygram issues were from EQd tapes and hence, the other two are from a better source.

Now...

We go to Goodbye:

This one is pretty simple. The Drake mastered CD I have states that it is from "original master tapes" and it sounds excellent. The Palmaccio adds a bit of top end and opens the sound up a bit, but is similar in the amount of bottom end it has. The MFSL adds so much bottom end that the difference is drastic. This is one I really suspect they goosed, but I wasn't there. If one follows the logic in this thread thus far, it should be easy to see why we can probably conclude that MOFI did jack (pun intended) the bottom end on this one.

And now...WG RSO Wheel's Of Fire - Man this is good. I just got Steve's version and I can already hear why his version is revered as the gem it is, but this WG RSO version I have sounds super. I really would suspect they had the right tapes for this In West germany back when they pressed the first RSO. I remember once comparing the Drake of this one and it wasn't as good. It sounded crispier than the WG RSO, but I wish I still had it to double check.

Disraeli - Mofi - end of story

Fresh Cream - DCC - end of story

 

John Buchanan could tell you more but the best place to find some of the Live Cream vol. 2 tracks is on the 4CD TWTD box. I can't remember if Bill Levenson found some better tapes (pre redubbed for EQ and compression tapes) or alternate mixes. Anyway, John Buchanan is the go to guy for that stuff.