Johnny Cash on Sun

[MK]

I compared a couple of Johnny Cash CD's covering his Sun recordings. I listened to Rhino's old CD from the mid 80's, the first disc of Columbia/Sony's Essential Johnny Cash 1955-1983 (the later remastered version by Vic Anesini, it comes in a thick jewel case), a cheap Charly compilation called the Very Best of Johnny Cash, and Varese Saraband's current CD reissues of his Sun albums.

The old Rhino CD is typical vintage Rhino: really thin. They may have shaved the bass, but there's a lot of top end thrown in. Skimpy track selection and I believe it's currently out-of-print. Not worth it.

Charly's reissued this material many times, on vinyl and CD. I'm not sure if they're all mastered the same, but the annotation SUCKS. It doesn't sound bad, but it's definitely on the soft side and they NoNoised the crap out of "Mean Eyed Cat" (they may have used the same crappy dub as the old Rhino CD - on the Rhino CD, it's incredibly hissy).

If anyone has any other Charly CD's, or better yet, the Bear Family CD's, feel free to post.

Sony's set has 15 Sun tracks on the first disc, with the rest strictly Columbia era recordings. Mastered by Anesini, the Sun tracks are surprisingly the loudest compared to the other Sun CD's I heard. There MAY have been limiting, but it doesn't sound compressed. Most of the tracks are brought to digital zero or whatever the hell it's called, and if you look at the other CD's, many of them are WELL below that, so that's another reason why they're louder on the Sony set. This may have 1 or 2 decibels added in the treble region, but it's definitely not thin like the Rhino CD and definitely not soft like the Charly CD's.

Except for volume, the Varese Saraband CD's sound similar to the Sony CD's in terms of EQ. These are the most recent reissues, and they're all credited to Dan Hersch (and only Hersch) of DigiPrep. A lot of Hersch's recent masterings on Rhino SLAM the meters, but that's definitely NOT the case here.

In fact, the volume level on the Varese Saraband CD's go all over the place, even for overlapping tracks. My best guess is, NO compression or limiting was used, and for each album, every track was adjusted to the quietest one (that is, the quietest one after bringing them all up to digital zero). So the same transfer/mastering of "Big River" for example will be used on every album (when matched in volume, the waveforms look identical, like clones) but on one album it'll be set to 90% of the maximum volume and then 60% on another.

By default, the Varese Saraband CD's are the way to go because they're nearly complete, missing only a few oddball alternates that you can only get on the Bear Family box set. But even if they weren't comprehensive, the Varese CD's sound the best, IMO. It just sucks they didn't throw them on to one 3 CD set (all of Cash's Sun recordings can fit easily on three discs with PLENTY of room to spare, but no one, not Bear or anybody else, has tried this). Varese Saraband spread them all out over 7 CD's. They've packaged them in a box set, but it seems to be the individual CD's packed into a slipcase (the "limited edition" label is bullshit. Yeah, maybe the cheap cardboard slipcase is "limited," but these CD's sure aren't...)

[CitizenDan]

Thanks for the comparison. I have the 1-disc Rhino and the 2-disc Varese Cash comp from '99, along with a 5-LP Charly box from 1984.

I actually like the Charly set the best. It's got tons of outtakes, so I presume they were working from session masters throughout. The sound is rich and full, even with 8-9 songs crammed onto each side.

You're not gonna get a lot of bottom from Sun recordings no matter what. Whether or not Rhino reduced the bass, these records were made to be strong in the mid-range (to sound good on jukeboxes, one would suppose). The last thing they'd need is a high-end boost, because they're all pretty crispy to start with.

Based on what I've heard, I wonder if all Sun recordings (and from a sonics standpoint, they do mostly sound the same) are just generally better-sounding on vinyl.

[czeskleba]

It just sucks they didn't throw them on to one 3 CD set (all of Cash's Sun recordings can fit easily on three discs with PLENTY of room to spare, but no one, not Bear or anybody else, has tried this

Do you mean no one has released a three disc set of JUST Sun stuff? Because the first three discs of the Bear box do indeed collect all the Sun stuff (minus apparently some recently discovered alternates).

At any rate, of the things I've listened to, I find the Bear box to be the best. I prefer it to the Rhino disc and to the two-disc Sun compilation on Varese (also mastered by Hersch). I do wish they'd made it just a Sun box. I love Cash's early Columbia stuff (I think Fabulous is his best album) but it sounds incongruous to have it included on a Sun box set.

[MK]

Sorry, I should've clarified. I meant nobody's released a Sun-only set that collects all the Sun recordings and only the Sun recordings.

The Bear Family set is really expensive, and leaving the Columbia era stuff out could've made it more affordable. You'd think someone in the U.S. would do it but nobody has.

[Crummy Old Label Avatar]

I picked up the Varese Saraband "limited edition" 7 CD box. I agree -- the box is a horrible-looking slipcase, nothing anyone needs.

Sound is good on these, but there is zero point in rereleasing these albums in this manner. All Johnny Cash Sun albums are exploitataive afterthoughts, replete with tacky dimestore bargain bin artwork. How many tracks overlap on this damn set? Probably more than 1/3 of them -- not that I've sat down and really studied it, but I'm almost positive that, if you have this set, you get several of these songs 3, some even 4 times -- and I'm not talking about alternate versions either.

If one wants all of this stuff, you're probably better off getting everything boiled down to a few CD-Rs. I picked this box up cheap, so I'm not really complaining, but spread over 7 CDs, the set is unlistenable as an enjoyable experience. Johnny Cash Sun albums are NOT like his Columbia concept records: they're merely a rag bag, arbitrary collection of singles thrown together with no regard for flow.

I think it is odd that Bear Family is even being discussed at all. That label proudly touts their use of No Noise. And we all know what a no-no NR is around here with some people.

[lukpac]

I think it is odd that Bear Family is even being discussed at all. That label proudly touts their use of No Noise. And we all know what a no-no NR is around here with some people.

They did the Beatles' Hamburg box, right? Does that have NR?

[Bennett Cerf]

I think it is odd that Bear Family is even being discussed at all. That label proudly touts their use of No Noise. And we all know what a no-no NR is around here with some people.

Are you sure about that? Three of the four Cash boxes on Bear Family include this notice on the back of the box:

These CD programs were transferred from vintage analogue tapes which may contain inherent defects such as tape hiss and distortion. In the remastering process our engineers go to great lengths to minimize such anomalies. However, it is sometimes impossible to eliminate these defects entirely without losing much of the clarity and presence of the recording. As we prefer to preserve the vitality and excitement of the original masters, we feel sure that the overall quality will more than compensate for the occasional trace of hiss or distortion.

We personally supervise all digital transfers from the original session tapes to ensure that later generation copies are never used unless unavailable. Headphone listening to vintage recordings will exaggerate tape hiss and other analogue defects.

I realize this doesn't really establish one way or the other whether No Noise was used. The engineers "going to great lengths to minimize such anomalies" suggests they were doing something to alter the sound of the original tapes, but there's also a clear awareness that NR can be harmful. If they're using No Noise, they're certainly not "proudly touting" it on these particular releases.

My other Bear Family CDs don't mention NR either. But I only have a few, so...

Frankly, it's not that big a deal to me either way, since I like the sound on the Bear Family sets regardless of how they achieved it.

[MK]

Varese won't do it, so luckily Time-Life did:

http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=am ... rv286w056a

Mastered by Joseph Palmaccio, he can be hit or miss. Doesn't squash music but sometimes gooses the top end. Then again so does Dan Hersch.

Colin Escott produces. Both he and Palmaccio were involved with the not-quite 'Complete' Hank Williams box set, the ten-disc whopper that does actually have a top end boost.