Unremastered Cream CD's Any Good!

Yes, I am quite familiar with John's writings on this matter.

I don't have the box, and since the tracks in question are remixed, I still think extablishing the best source for the actual original mix of Cream Live I/II is possible by considering the three options available:

Original RSO/Polydors
MOFI SET
Palmaccio Remasters

The original discs breath better, but lack deep bass and appear to have a bit of upper midrange spike. My guess is that these were EQd for vinyl tapes that were used on these, but MoFi might have indeed goosed the bass on their issue. Still, given that the Palmaccio also seems to have about as much bass as the Mofi, this would seem a bit unlikely, given that his Cream masterings don't tend to stray all that far from the tapes, near as I can tell. Even though they tend to be a bit inferior, I think that if you follow the trends cited above, the Palmaccios might help serve as a medium in terms of knowing how these tapes sound when there are major differences (Live and Goodbye).

 

You probably already know this but in case anyone reading doesn't I don't think those tracks were remixed. Pretty sure those Live Cream multitracks were lost in the Atlantic Fire. Levenson must have found some vintage alternate mixes..

 

What Steve Hoffman said about the RSO "Disraeli Gears" is exactly correct,and is exactly the same thing that Bill Levenson once told me.It IS from a copy tape.Incidentally,the RSO disc is snowed under by hiss,and marred by loads of static ticks.The only Cream multitracks lost in the Atlantic fire were studio recordings made at U.S. studios.The live multitracks were,and are, held by Bill Halverson,whose high monetary demands put them off limits to Polydor.Polydor has a mixdown master of the Oakland concert that they bought from an ex-Atlantic employee,who had the tape in his personal collection.Polydor themselves has the "Fresh Cream" multitracks,including both multitrack stages for the one mono song.

 

The remixed (or alternative mix) live tracks I know of on the "Those Were The Days" set (apart from NSU live which is a different performance - not sure why, as the one on Live Cream is absolutely magic) are:
The Oakland Coliseum tracks (Deserted Cities Of The Heart, White Room and Politician) on Live Cream Vol 2 and the live Goodbye tracks (I'm So Glad and Sitting On Top Of The World). I prefer the remixes, although the Goodbye live stuff is too deficient in the bottom end in the remix, compared with the bass heavy/treble rolled original. Something was seriously wrong with the original Oakland Coliseum mixes on Live Cream 2 - they were not well balanced left to right and sound much better in the new mix.

 

First I've ever heard this. Bill Levenson has told me several times the tapes are gone. Why would Bill Halverson have them, when Atlantic had them several times for mixing (WoF, Goodbye, Live Cream and Live Cream II)? Are you saying for every one of those releases, Atlantic had to borrow tapes from Halverson and return them? Doesn't make sense.

Yes. I'm So Glad has been mixed into stereo twice already, first on the Martin Scorsese disc, and also on Cream Gold. Neither gets the sync quite right, unfortunately.

 

Luke, Didn't Bill Levenson say that the guitar solo came in later as on the original mix, but he and Suha Gur moved it up for Cream Gold to match the Fresh Cream mix.

Here is the link.

http://www.stevehoffman.tv/forums/showthread.php?t=50878&highlight=cream+gold

Is it at least an improvement over the sync up on the Martin Scorsese disc?

 

I like Bill a lot, but I can't for the life of me believe that the solo was actually "out of time" on the multi. Doesn't make any sense. Until I hear the multis, though (!), I guess I don't know. For the record, the solo is almost *exactly* a beat off:

http://lukpac.org/mp3/samples/i'm-so-glad-guitar.mp3

That's sync'd on the solo, rather than the backing. Note how the drums basically stay in sync even though they are an entire beat off.

Yes, the solo is "more correct" on Cream Gold. But, IIRC, it drifts near the end. And (also, IIRC), the backing vocals are now way too low (they were out of time on the original remix).

I think I once did a sync-up of the mono and the Gold remix, but I apparently don't have an MP3 of it. I *do* have an MP3 of the mono and "Presents the Blues" remix:

http://lukpac.org/mp3/samples/i'm-so-glad.mp3

Mono left, stereo remix right. Not not only the guitar solo, but the backing vocals (downbeat in mono, upbeat in stereo).

 

Thank you Luke for clarifying that for me. Wow! A beat off!

IMHO, they should have left it mono!

 

Odd, could have sworn those were links before.

I was happy to finally get a stereo remix. I just wish it would have been better.

 

No, they sound terrible to me and i prefer the much improved remasters any day.

 

Hi, coming to this thread incredibly late, but did someone say that the Multitracks for Disraeli Gears are lost?

 

Either way, Cream rules!

 

Yes, as well as the multitracks for Wheels Of Fire. Not sure about Goodbye.

 

The Atlantic fire of 1976.

 

Wow! Bummer.

 

Warehouse fire? *sighs* So sad....

 

Yes, sadly.

 

For Cream:
Fresh Cream: DCC Gold (awesome)
Disraeli Gears: MFSL
Wheels Of Fire: MFSL
Goodbye: MFSL
Live Cream 1 and 2: MFSL

 

32XD Japan 1, although MFSL did Wheels Of Fire on Vinyl, they never did a CD. DCC did the CD much later. I'm not sure if DCC also did a vinyl version(that would have been something to see)

 

I think the Platinum SHM is the preferred "Goodbye" here. And for myself it sounds better than the MFSL.

 

You owe it yourself to hear the mono Fresh Cream (from the Platinum SHM-CD).

 

One of these days I'll find the MFSL Disreali for a decent price. In the meantime, I like the Drake Polydor for it, as well as Wheels of Fire (missed out on the DCC) and Goodbye.

 

I will look for it. The DCC would be hard to top though.

 

I can believe that. I wasn't 100 percent satisfied with Goodbye, but I rarely listen to it so I didn't seek out a better version.

 

You are right John, I just checked my CD rack, I have the DCC Gold of Wheels, GZS1020. It's been so long since I listened to it I thought I had it on MFSL. Honest mistake.