What is the best CD mastering of Genesis' Invisible Touch

Surely it's easier to find normal one than a black triangle though. Serious if you go around buying all the black triangles it's going to cost you a small fortune and is quite pointless imo.

 

I can't understand why anyone would want to be cheap about finding an older pressing of a title that's out of print. A V/C Europe Invisible Touch would be worth between $15.00 to $25.00 depending on it's condition, since it's been in print all the way up to the recent remix/remasters. There was no Definitive Edition(DE) release for this, or Genesis S/T.

Invisble Touch was released *after* Virgin Records partnered with Charisma, hence no Phonogram distributed CD exists.

If I were to somehow lose mine, I'd gladly pay that much.

So, it was in print for 20 years or more. There should be *plenty* of Virgin/Charisma's from all the different countries(EU, UK, WG etc.) of Invisible Touch and S/T floating around. The later Japan catalog numbers that were re-released are the same mastering, as well. Anything out there that's *not a 2-disc set* should give you the original V/C masterings of the two aforementioned titles.


Sad to say, nothing touches the RL LP(again, is it a surprise?). UK and US LP's were Bob Ludwig's, and *possibly* the Japan released vinyl. The V/C is a close second, though.

 

This is the most common of the Genesis 32VDs. You can get this one for around $30 normally (plus shipping). It shows up fairly often.

 

Really? Send one over if ya come across it.

 

CD (music in general) collecting is not ALWAYS about sound quality. I pay extra for first pressings simply because they are just that...first pressings.

I do the same thing with audio and video equipment... a $15.00 DVD player made in 2008 may very well produce MUCH better sound and visual quality than a 1978 Laserdisc player; but anyone can go out and buy that 2008 DVD player... how many people have a mint / like new 1978 Laserdisc player just sitting around? I wish I did!

 

Nice, and we know if you have it, that it is dead mint. Got any pics?

 

Hi Dave,

Do you know what year the original CD was released?
If it was '87 or earlier, there's a good chance I mastered the CD (I was at Atlantic until '87).

If I did do it, I would bet it was from a digital (1630) EQ'd limited copy made during vinyl mastering. (I'd have remembered originals since at Atlantic, they were few and far between.)

Wish I could remember for sure but it was long ago and the memory cells are now far, far away. ;-}

Best regards,
Barry
www.soundkeeperrecordings.com
www.barrydiamentaudio.com

 

I have a GENCD2 "Mastered by Nimbus". No indication as to where the disc was manufactured. It sounds good. How does it fare in your charts?

 

Is the Atlantic Japan-for-US CD the same as the other Atlantics? Or could it be the same as the VC/Black Triangle?

 

Barry, IIRC, it was released along with the LP and Cassette in summer 1986.

It was a digitally mixed(ADD) recording.

 

I did a BIN for this one

 

Actually, my Laserdisc player is the LD-1100 from early 1981, and it is dead-mint It's a huge beast and a nice conversation piece I wish I had one of those 1978 first generation bad boys!

 

Hi LesPaul666,

Sounds like this could well be one of mine then.
Haven't heard it since it came out.

Hi CybrKhatru,

I can't speak for the VC or Black Triangle but I would think there is an excellent (or better) chance the Atlantic and Japan for US are from the same mastering.

When I created CD masters for albums where big sales were expected, I often cloned the CD master and sent clones to several pressing facilities, including Japan.

Note that being made from the same mastering does not mean pressings from different facilities will sound identical. In my experience, how each facility cuts the glass master, the quality of the LBR they use to cut the glass, the duration of their injection molding cycles, etc. can all affect how the final pressing sounds. (Why? I wish someone could tell me. To my knowledge, there is little to no research being done on this. Most plants feel their product is "perfect". )

These will often not be "night and day" differences and what differences there are can be eliminated (or at least lessened) if the data from both disks is (properly) extracted to a hard drive.
But if you are listening to the pressings themselves in a CD player and have a good system, I would expect there to be subtle (to not-so-subtle) differences in the reproduced audio. How important this is, the individual listener must decide for him or her self.


Best regards,
Barry
www.soundkeeperrecordings.com
www.barrydiamentaudio.com

 

was the V/C mastered from a EQ limited copy
...........who was the mystery person who mastered all the V/C Genesis CDs?

 

I find it funny that for a new CD release in 1986, they would not master the CD from the Master Tapes. I thought CDs were finally popular and selling greatly in 86.

 

Hi Slipperman87,

They were off and running a few years earlier in fact.
(There was a time I said a CD of dogs barking would sell a million copies. Of course, today, they'd be remastered to make the barks louder. )

I'm with you on using masters. The powers at Atlantic at the time, however, saw it differently. They wanted to get "the same sound" on the CDs as was on the vinyl, so they gave me tapes made during vinyl mastering.

As I've said before, this was a daily exercise for me: asking for originals and getting copies. That is why those rare exceptions from those days stand out in my mind when much of the rest has faded from memory -to some degree, deliberately I think.

I felt fortunate for those occasions when I had simple analog copies of the original mixes, that hadn't been EQ'd, limited or otherwise messed with.

What a relief it was, in '87, when I left Atlantic to form BDA and always got the original mixes for mastering. (Island originally sent me digital copies of the Marley originals, when I re-mastered his catalog in 1990. I called them, saying the CD was what folks would be listening to for years to come and asked what they were saving the originals for. The next day, Fed Ex delivered a few cartons containing the original tapes.)

Best regards,
Barry
www.soundkeeperrecordings.com
www.barrydiamentaudio.com

 

Remember also that Genesis are handled by different labels in different territories. I'm not sure how label management, band and band management handle that aspect. Are Genesis's masters owned by EMI/Virgin, for example, or jointly owned with WEA. If Atlantic demand to use the masters for a release, is EMI obligated to make them available? Any thoughts, Barry?

In the it's-probably-best-you-don't-know category, I can remember being stopped dead in my tracks on several occasions when visiting Sony Music Studios (RIP) in New York. Someone from FedEx (or similar) would turn up, say, "Shipment for X!" and then roughly dump a ton of Iron Mountain boxes on the floor. Inside? Nothing much, just Miles Davis, Thelonius Monk, Weather Report, Billy Joel, etc. master tapes!!!

 

Thanks for the info Barry.

I'm a big fan of your mastering work as well.

--Matt

 

Hi Black Elk,

I could be wrong (of course) but I believe Genesis own their own masters.

The situation with not getting original tapes at Atlantic in those days, extended well beyond Genesis. With the exception of old masters done in house, they deliberately sought *not* to use masters for CD production. On rare occasions when I could find a master (e.g. a couple of AC/DCs and a handful of others), I chose to use it instead.

A nightmare! I can remember the "tape library" at the first company I worked for, who at the time, owned many of the great Chess masters. It was a dusty storage room with no climate control. !

Best regards,
Barry
www.soundkeeperrecordings.com
www.barrydiamentaudio.com

 

Not wishing to derail this thread anymore than you have, but in your country they sure do. Try ebay.co.uk.
Now let us get back to what is the best CD mastering of Genesis; Invisible Touch.

 

and it seems your opinion is all that matters to you and all you want to hear so...

 

There is one on eBay right now... it was about $43 Canadian.

 

It *was* made from the original master, which was digital.

 

Correct, IT was recorded digitally on Sony machines. I have the poster.

 

Sorry, I know we're discussing masters, but how does the album sound in 5.1? Isn't there a CD/DVD and SACD of this?