Ugh, typo/wrong copy and paste. Let's try this again, and ignore post 250. More copies: Catalog: I2 42298 Matrix: ARC-2143 5 I2 42298-2 SRC+01 XM4 S4 Peaks: 91.3/94.5/98.1/79.6/80.5/77.7/80.9/75.4/89.7/79.8/55.6 Indexing: Correct Identical to 90581-2 SRC-05 except offset. U2 - The Joshua Tree Catalog: CID U2 6 Matrix: CID U2-6 DISCTEC 03 Peaks: 91.3/94.5/98.1/79.6/80.5/77.7/80.9/75.4/89.7/79.8/55.6 Indexing: Correct Identical to 90581-2 SRC-05 except offset. U2 - The Joshua Tree Catalog: 258 219/CID U26 Matrix: SONOPRESS 258 219 A Peaks: 91.3/94.5/98.1/79.6/80.5/77.7/80.9/75.4/89.7/79.8/55.6 Indexing: Correct Identical to 90581-2 SRC-05 except offset and: - 6,275 different samples between One Tree Hill and Exit - 7,383 fewer samples between Exit and Mothers of the Disappeared U2 - The Joshua Tree Odd about the Sonopress copy. The changes certainly seem to be deliberate, rather than some sort of random error, as they directly relate to the transitions before and after Exit.
Question: I bought the Joshua Tree on CD in the USA pretty much the day it came out in 1987. Would that mean I likely would have the original USA pressing, or did a USA pressing not come out for some time after that and the first CDs sold in the USA were imports? FWIW, the CD is in another location right now so I can't personally look at it to see.
Indeed. @Stephen J , would you please let us know the cat number and barcode of your copy? An EAC test would be nice too. Thank you very much in advance. edit: I didn't notice your copy is another location. Sorry.
@marcel and @lukpac .... I dug it up from the attic: The disc says it was "made in the USA by PDO". Catalog number: 7 90851-2 Barcode: 0 7567-90581-2 6 I recall that someone once said some versions have an error on the track listing, that track 9, "One Tree Hill" is indicated on the label as being 5:23 in length, but if you play it the song is only 4:43 in length. On my copy, One Tree Hill is in fact 5:23 in length both on the label and if you play the song. FWIW, i can clearly remember buying this at a record store in Tampa, Florida in March, 1987, either release date or within days of release date. If the numbers on the disc indicate otherwise, then I must be losing my mind in old age, LOL.
Not exactly sure what that means. But near the center of the CD on its *back* side it says "90581-2 22!" . That last digit might be a "1" but i swear it looks like an exclamation point to me. Near the center of the front side of the disc, it says something similar, but it's weird, like some of the letters or numbers are inverted, or maybe this is just a mirror-image effect, I can't really tell.
That's the matrix, thanks. Heh, did a search on that and came up with another post from you: I don't see that listed anywhere else, so it isn't clear what mastering it contains. I would guess the pink mastering, but that's just a guess.
There is also an indexing error for every song on the CD. If you skip from song to song, you lose the first half-second of music on each track. Thus for example, With Or Without You has the first drum hit from Bullet The Blue Sky at the end of the track. That's really the easiest way to know you have a US first issue CD.
What pressing has such issues? I've never come across such a copy. Also, the One Tree Hill/Exit issue seems to have cropped up later, not with early pressings.
FWIW, here's a pic of the inner ring on the back of the CD, which shows the "90581-2 22!" that i mentioned earlier:
FWIW, I just played mine and at least between "With" and "Bullet" it doesn't do this, the first drum hit of "Bullet" is on the "Bullet" track not at the end of "With".
@lukpac .... thanks for doing this. It inspired me to play my CD, which I haven't done in a few years. FWIW, I don't know about the technical details of the mastering, but just listening to it now, it sounds great. Doesn't seem to have any clipping/compression issues, lots of space to 'breathe' and maintains a full clear sound even as the volume rises significantly, nice balance between bass/midrange/high, etc. No evidence of 'rot' either even though it will be 30 years old in a couple of weeks. Think I'll keep it, LOL.
Are you able to use EAC or another program to rip it? It would be interesting to know what mastering it has. FWIW, unless there's an entry I'm overlooking, there doesn't appear to be a Discogs entry for that pressing.
I've ripped it using Windows Media Player. Can the mastering be determined from that? I also have a Wavepad sound editor. As for Discogs, is the "no entry" a bad thing?
If you're able to send a file, I could compare to what I have. No entry on Discogs isn't "bad", it's just that entries there are helpful for keeping track of things.
OK ... I downloaded EAC and ran a "test" (F8) using the "burst" mode on the CD tracks (i.e., i did not rip the CD to the computer, i just ran a test with the CD in the disc drive). The results for each track appear below. To summarize, unless I am missing something, the peak values seem to correspond exactly to the "light blue" mastering that you indicate in post #127 from a few years back. Is this a poor technical master? Or maybe I am misreading the results. The report did say track #10 could not be verified as accurate. Track 1 Filename 01 Track01.wav Timing problem 0:00:04 Timing problem 0:00:19 Timing problem 0:00:32 Peak level 97.0 % Extraction speed 15.4 X Test CRC 601BD54E Accurately ripped (confidence 3) [3C777780] (AR v1) Copy finished Track 2 Filename 02 Track02.wav Peak level 94.9 % Extraction speed 22.4 X Test CRC 9063DED4 Accurately ripped (confidence 3) [14059048] (AR v1) Copy OK Track 3 Filename 03 Track03.wav Peak level 99.9 % Extraction speed 24.6 X Test CRC ACFA8623 Accurately ripped (confidence 3) [A45B4E7F] (AR v1) Copy OK Track 4 Filename 04 Track04.wav Peak level 80.3 % Extraction speed 26.7 X Test CRC 2E52DAFA Accurately ripped (confidence 3) [6466E3AF] (AR v1) Copy OK Track 5 Filename 05 Track05.wav Peak level 80.3 % Extraction speed 28.4 X Test CRC BFE04940 Accurately ripped (confidence 3) [F47D67AA] (AR v1) Copy OK Track 6 Filename 06 Track06.wav Peak level 86.0 % Extraction speed 30.2 X Test CRC 035BB084 Accurately ripped (confidence 3) [5547A0BC] (AR v1) Copy OK Track 7 Filename 07 Track07.wav Peak level 89.6 % Extraction speed 31.5 X Test CRC 28CDA96F Accurately ripped (confidence 3) [58496964] (AR v1) Copy OK Track 8 Filename 08 Track08.wav Peak level 76.5 % Extraction speed 32.7 X Test CRC E93D128C Accurately ripped (confidence 3) [1F9469BA] (AR v1) Copy OK Track 9 Filename 09 Track09.wav Peak level 99.8 % Extraction speed 34.2 X Test CRC 83FACF2A Accurately ripped (confidence 3) [AC9722C0] (AR v1) Copy OK Track 10 Filename 10 Track10.wav Peak level 86.2 % Extraction speed 35.7 X Test CRC 51CA44CB Cannot be verified as accurate (confidence 16) [CBB8CB33], AccurateRip returned [92C854ED] (AR v2) Copy OK Track 11 Filename 11 Track11.wav Peak level 56.6 % Extraction speed 37.2 X Test CRC 776CCDB9 Accurately ripped (confidence 2) [6C197CC8] (AR v1) Copy OK 10 track(s) accurately ripped 1 track(s) could not be verified as accurate Some tracks could not be verified as accurate No errors occurred End of status report
Yes, that appears to be the light blue version. If you in fact purchased this disc near the time of release, it would appear that the pink and light blue versions were essentially available from the start. Odd if true. One would *assume* the pink version would be far less common if that was the case.
The more I think about it, the more certain I am i bought this no more than a week after its release date, and most likely on the release date. The most it possibly could have been was 10 days after, I was really anticipating this album. FWIW, is the light blue considered to be a lesser master in a technical sense?
