"Weird Al" Yankovic Complete Works box set*

To paraphrase Don Pardo, "That's Right, Al! You Just Won! You get a Box Set, you get recognition as a classic act You're A Complete Winner"

 

"I won on Pledge Music, bay-bee....".

 

Oooooooooooo ooooooooooo ooooooooo.

 

Thanks!

I don't know how the downloads are being handled, sorry.

 

Hi Bermuda.

Do you know what plant is pressing the records? Thanks.

 

Don't know for sure, sorry. If I was to guess though, I'd say the place in Nashville that's doing a ton of stuff lately.

 

They did Alpocalypse, so it wouldn't surprise me

 

Someone just posted this but deleted the post so here it is again. Al's Beatles Taxman parody "Pac-Man" will be on the box set.

http://nerdist.com/weird-al-pac-man-box-set/

 

That's it, the set's already perfect in my eyes

 

This is great, I hope there are more tracks like this, and not just a bunch of the CD single b-sides (which I already have).

 

Looks like HDTracks just got Weird Al's entire discography tonight in 24bit. I wonder if these are the new remasters released quietly?

 

Well, they are the new remasters and even more important - the later albums finally have some dynamics!! Look at this! And the few spot checks I did sound fantastic...



I'm shocked that the modern albums doubled their dynamic range.

The older albums loss some dynamics to keep the box consistent, but these sound really good too.



The only title I didn't buy from HDTracks yet is Mandatory Fun because it's not listed as the Volcano/Legacy label like the other 13 albums are, so I'm assuming it's the "old" 2014 mastering.

 

Here are a few more of the later albums.

Some are a moderate improvement (in keeping with the entire box set's consistency)


While others are huge improvements

 

And here's a few more of the early albums.

Most are in line with the box and sound great (spot checking, obviously haven't listened to 14 albums in their entirety all this morning)


But the one odd title is Dare To Be Stupid, which seems to have been squished a bit more than the rest of the box, and it's audible. In fact, it sounds like (and this is just speculation on my part) that it might not be from the master tape, there's some weird distortion in "Like a Surgeon" that is not on the original CD. So for this one I'll stick with the original CD

 

That's unfortunate. Dare To Be Stupid is my favorite of his.

 

Pac-Man has been updated to his YouTube channel.

 

The HDTracks are 24/44.1

 

That's correct, and I'm assuming that's the best we're going to get. We are talking about a "novelty" act after all, I'm surprised we're getting anything. And the delicate mastering of the entire box is probably the biggest surprise for all of 2017 in my opinion. I was certain the box would be DR6 straight through as the last five albums have been.

 

DR6, or Even Worse!

 

Looking forward to a tracklisting for that bonus CD! Can't wait!

 

I'm pretty sure it's thanks to @AlanDistro that DR values for all of the new masters are up here at the DRD. This is excellent news indeed (minus Dare To Be Stupid; that's a shame). Being a big Al fan, I preordered the box with the hope that the mastering would be sympathetic, and it appears that we all get our wish on that front. Here's hoping the CDs are the same as what's on HDtracks!

 

This would be great. At least the original CD masters are readily available for those that wish to substitute the early albums.

 

For the time being, anyway...

 

Just bit the bullet and ordered the vinyl box set. I have very few of these LP's any more (had the classics on cassette!!) and it looks like an awesome set.

 

I had to take the plunge on this myself. Watched the trailer video on the pledge site a few too many times and it pushed me over the edge. Something to look forward to come November.