Vinyl Torture Tracks - Inner Grooves, Sibilants, Hotly Cut Tracks, Sudden Volume Bursts, etc.

Martin Hannett’s Sibilance Button™️

 

King Crimson Epitaph when that crescendo happen..

 

Pretenders - Stop Your Sobbing (single)

The B-side - an alternate Nick Lowe produced version of "The Wait" - has some wicked vocal sibilance mixed with aggressive tambourine.

 

Lorde - Pure Heroin - side A is torturous for all the heavy bass.

 

Velvet Underground - All tomorrow parties

 

I realized today that I have yet to find any 1980s UK or Japanese pressing of Japan's Gentlemen Take Polaroids where David Sylvian's vocals on "Taking Islands in Africa" aren't a bit sibilant/distorted in the S's and a little grainy overall. The rest of the album is fine, though.

Totally unrelated: The other night I was listening to Magazine's Magic, Murder and the Weather, and that album is so bright and thin sounding - as it was mixed by Martin Hannett - that I was expecting some fairly serious sibilance and distortion, but surprisingly, the record (a Canadian pressing) was pretty much fine throughout with the exception of a couple of the S's in the chorus of "Suburban Rhonda," the second to last track on side 2. That song, in particular, used to sound awful when played with inferior cartridges.

 

I need that 45! My New Order 7" game needs some work.

 

I'm still missing a couple where unique edits exist, Procession (any color) has eluded me for years due to UK shipping being so expensive

 

Same for me on GTP, I broke down and got the reissue (i think you said it was good in another thread) because I wanted an upgrade from my worn copy. The new one is great.

Magic, Murder and Weather is a head scratcher for me, I can't believe it's a Martin Hannett production. I have the UK pressing on vinyl and CD, it is thin.

I got another track that gives me problems. Cocteau Twins song, Heaven or Las Vegas. Only my mircoline will track it without distortion, the 150SA can't hang.

 

I've heard the mastering and EQ is very nice on the latest reissues, but I skipped it due to reported speed problems on some tracks plus the usual QC issues that seem to affect AR 1/2 speed releases (channel imbalance, pressing issues, etc.). I just can't deal with that stuff. I stuck with my early UK vinyl and U.S. Caroline CD. If memory serves the channels may be swapped on the Caroline disc...

 

The newish 2xLP half-speed mastered GTP does indeed sound great, but I found it to have some issues: mainly, I went through two copies and both had some ripple-like warping that looks minor but results in a bumpy ride for the cartridge's suspension.

Maybe I should give the single-LP version a try?

Magic, Murder and Weather was actually produced/engineered by John Brand (who, IMO, did some great production work for The Go-Betweens and Gene Loves Jezebel). But the band were apparently unhappy with how it sounded, so they brought in Hannett to mix it. It's a harsh sounding album, and it's pretty much devoid of any mid-range.

I have an original UK Heaven or Las Vegas, and yeah, the title track does get a bit grainy sounding. I got my copy secondhand, so I don't know if the grooves are worn, but even my VM540ML does not quite nail it.

I still need to try and figure out whether the three GTP tracks that are slightly slower are supposed to be that way; i.e., if the slower versions match standard tuning, they were probably recorded that way and then sped up slightly to fit onto the original 1980 release. But if they are lower in pitch than standard tuning, then it's likely that Miles Showell screwed up. Even if they were sped up for the original release, it can still be a bit off-putting to hear them slowed down if you're sensitive to slight changes in pitch. But yeah, I really wish Abbey Road would use a different pressing plant, because it's absurd to boast that you're offering a superior mastering only to undercut it with a shoddy pressing.

 

What's funny is I only very rarely have problems with Optimal pressings when they are used for say independent label releases like say Brownswood or Gearbox. Most of the time they are quite fine, though I have had problems with two releases specifically. These are surely pressed in much smaller quantities than the AR 1/2 speed releases...not sure if that has anything to do with it or if they are just rushing things at Optimal to meet major label deadlines.

 

Red Sun from Buckingham/McVie

It's the second to last track on side 1 (the last usually tracks better!) but it's a very trebly mix anyway and lots of "s" sounds makes it pretty messy.

 

I got the single LP, no problems. It’s perfect, flat,no pops. It is one I can crank it loud and it sounds fantastic. I’m only having bad luck with US indie I get off bandcamp. Two washing with audio intelligent #15 is becoming the normal/fix. I don’t have the option of returns because the record is sold out (150 copies only)

I’ve not notice the slower tracks, I think my happiness of having a noise free copy over my original UK rice crispy maybe over powering it.

 

Which version of this do you have? Mine is the late 80s reissue from Beggars Banquet's Lowdown series.

I just gave this LP a listen the other night. For years I've opted to listen to the CD, so I thought I'd see how the LP sounds with my current setup.

"Life on Deck" holds up OK until about the last 30 seconds or so, when that very loud, chaotic chorus at the end of the song repeats ad nauseum - specifically, the point where a loud overdubbed/backing vocal from Newman comes in in the right channel. "B" generally holds up a little better, but the last 30 seconds or so don't exactly sound amazing. These are both super challenging tracks to put on the inner grooves of an album. It probably would have been better if they'd cut the album a little quieter.

I wonder how the reissue/remastered LP from 2016 sounds. I steered clear of it because I got the 2016 Not To on CD, and the remastered sound was loud, compressed, bright, and very fatiguing, and I figured even if the LPs from that series were quieter, they'd still probably suffer from compression and piercing EQ.

 

Yeah, it took me a while to find a truly quiet UK copy of GTP. I'll have to make a note to check out the single-LP remaster. It's one of my very favorite albums, so I'd love to find a perfect (or nearly perfect) copy on vinyl.

 

I didn't realize those were pressed at Optimal. Optimal used to seem fairly reliable, but it seems they've let things slip in the past few years. Probably cutting corners to meet demand. The kind of warping I've seen on the AR half-speed 2xLP releases is indicative of the plant not allowing the vinyl to cool before packing it.

 

I got an original UK. I’m afaird to buy the reissue. I love the cd of this lp. That my preferred version.

 

Good luck on that. I did play this today. I think the speed issue is there on the single version also. I don’t think I would have noticed it if I wasn’t looking for it

 

Its not confirmed as I know. I dont know anyone with a good stylus that has tried a first cut and some say the later cuts sacrifice lots of fidelity to reduce the sibilant parts.

 

Sounds worn indeed.

 

Ive seen certain punk or hard rock titles where the whole side is like that.

 

I had some IGD on my Rhino Kevin Gray copy before getting my SL1210GR so its also a good one to test with.

 

I thought this was all analog.

 

I was just talking of the cd version. Don't know whether it is all analog...