Big Star SACD

Just what the name says.
Chris M
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Postby Chris M » Thu Dec 01, 2005 10:40 pm

How are the Sister Lovers tracks on the Rhino 19 Years Chilton comp?
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MK
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Postby MK » Thu Dec 01, 2005 11:22 pm

Did Fry also engineer the Sister Lovers sessions? It's pretty thin on the Rykodisc CD, NO bass warmth and a pretty hard, bright sound a la the Bowie Rykodisc CD's, but I thought that was Toby Mountain's doing. Maybe he left it alone.

I was thinking of buying the SACD, but if it's really that screechy, extra resolution is worthless, I might as well burn a CD-R with my own EQ.

Kind of sucks about the compression, even if it's only a "little," but supposedly the other CD releases are compressed even more.
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Chris M
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Postby Chris M » Fri Dec 02, 2005 12:44 am

Fry did in fact engineer Sister Lovers...
"I've had 40 years experience with hearing tape and vinyl. I was recording tapes before you were born" - Grant

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Postby damianm » Sat Dec 03, 2005 10:55 am

I've not finished reading this thread yet, but since the topic's at hand .. am I the only one who's perfectly happy with the '92 Ardent disc? I've not heard this material in any other incarnation, but the '92 CD sounds .. OK.

Yeah, it's bright as all heck, but as it's been said here and elsewhere a zillion times, that's very likely what the 'sound' of those recordings 's always been like, in the first place.

Having said that, I'd still love to hear what an EL-PEE of Radio City mastered by ESS AICH could sound like. There, I said it :oops:

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Postby Xenu » Sat Dec 03, 2005 6:57 pm

Chris M wrote:How are the Sister Lovers tracks on the Rhino 19 Years Chilton comp?


Bright. Deeply, deeply bright. Far brighter than the Ryko, if that's possible.

Does anybody want to hear samples of the Line and Castle versions of the disc? The Line has the least offensive EQ of all of 'em, but is probably mastered from tapes at least a generation down...
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Postby Crummy Old Label Avatar » Mon Dec 05, 2005 7:24 am

The original vinyl is bright. In fact, everything recorded at Ardent Studios during this period could be characterized as "bright." It's just the Ardent signature sound.
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Postby Crummy Old Label Avatar » Mon Dec 05, 2005 7:31 am

damianm wrote:I'd still love to hear what an EL-PEE of Radio City mastered by ESS AICH could sound like. There, I said it :oops:


I believe he's already stated that he'll "fix" it by shaving off the top end. Add the usual SH midrange boost and call it another typical Hoffman piece o' product.

For the millionth time: access to first generation masters and a console with a "midrange boost" button would make you or your pet monkey Steve Hoffman.
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Postby Andreas » Mon Dec 05, 2005 7:55 am


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Postby lukpac » Mon Dec 05, 2005 3:31 pm

Crummy Old Label Avatar wrote:I believe he's already stated that he'll "fix" it by shaving off the top end. Add the usual SH midrange boost and call it another typical Hoffman piece o' product.

For the millionth time: access to first generation masters and a console with a "midrange boost" button would make you or your pet monkey Steve Hoffman.


What SH CDs have a "midrange boost"? One good example in the other direction would be The Doors - the DCC has a fair amount *less* midrange than the HDCD remaster. Less of an 'AM radio' sound certainly.
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Postby Xenu » Mon Dec 05, 2005 8:02 pm

Crummy Old Label Avatar wrote:The original vinyl is bright. In fact, everything recorded at Ardent Studios during this period could be characterized as "bright." It's just the Ardent signature sound.


The Rhino is bright-ER, though.
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Postby lschwart » Wed Dec 07, 2005 9:24 am

Crummy Old Label Avatar wrote:The original vinyl is bright. In fact, everything recorded at Ardent Studios during this period could be characterized as "bright." It's just the Ardent signature sound.


That's true, but there are different kinds of bright. I, like Chris, have a needledrop of the original vinyl, and the brightness there is very pleasing to me. I don't know if that's the result of the mastering choices or the characteristic distortions of vinyl or what. It just sounds like the pleasing timber of a bright, ringing guitar played and amplified in a particular way rather than the same sound with an unpleasant distortion that puts my teeth slightly on edge. Mybe this is a flaw of the tape. I have no idea, but I think whoever mastered the vinyl found a wonderful way of dealing with it. I don't see why a similar sound (or maybe even a better one) couldn't be created for an SACD.

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Postby Crummy Old Label Avatar » Tue Dec 13, 2005 11:03 pm

lschwart wrote:[There] are different kinds of bright. I, like Chris, have a needledrop of the original vinyl, and the brightness there is very pleasing to me. I don't know if that's the result of the mastering choices or the characteristic distortions of vinyl or what. It just sounds like the pleasing timber of a bright, ringing guitar played and amplified in a particular way rather than the same sound with an unpleasant distortion that puts my teeth slightly on edge. Mybe this is a flaw of the tape. I have no idea, but I think whoever mastered the vinyl found a wonderful way of dealing with it. I don't see why a similar sound (or maybe even a better one) couldn't be created for an SACD.

L.


For all I know, the CD sounds closer to the mastertape than the vinyl did. Then again, maybe it doesn't.

Unless you bought an ultra-expensive (snicker) "pure signal path" (ha ha!) preamp, you can always turn your treble knob down and correct the problem you have with the CD.
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Postby lschwart » Thu Dec 15, 2005 3:21 pm

Maybe you're right about the tape and the CD, all I'm saying is that my needledrop of the the vinyl sounds bright in a different and to me more pleasing way than the CD sounds bright. Turning down the treble on the CD does not make it sound like the needledrop, which has a bunch of other characteristics that I assume are the results of its coming from the vinyl version (the medium, the particular mastering choices, not to mention the playback system and etc. that were used in making the needldrop itself).

L.

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Postby Crummy Old Label Avatar » Thu Feb 02, 2006 5:31 pm

I finally got around to playing the FLACed version of the CD layer of the Big Star SACD. (What a mouthful of an opening sentence....)

Is it just me, or does anyone else think that the 1992 disc sounds a little better -- a tiny bit more open, a tad bit more dynamic? One thing does seem certain: the tapes were in slightly better shape in 1992 (if indeed the little dropouts on the remaster are due to the condition of the tape and not a mastering error).

Really, though, the sonic differences between the two versions are so miniscule, this disc seems to be a completely pointless "remaster" -- if not outright consumer fraud.

Unusually, the tracks on the 1992 disc are, on average, very slightly louder than the remaster. Not that the differences are going to be very audible -- peak levels of -1.4 dB as compared to -1.6 dB. Things like that.

Is the CD layer of this thing supposed to be a down-conversion from DSD? If yes, I'm beginning to wonder if I can actually hear the signature sound of DSD -- and I really don't like it. I wonder this because I'm hearing similar things on DSD-sourced redbook remasters like the Eno discs and some Elvis things. I'd describe this sound as too smooth, taking a bite out of the attack and dynamics. You know, if I wanted to listen to a damn RIAA curve, I'd go to Goodwill and pick up a turntable.

Yeah, this may very well be that "analog silkiness" the DSD fanboys are always raving about. I think it's more accurate to call it veiled distortion.

But maybe what I'm hearing has nothing to do with the DSD process. It could very well be an EQ choice or some damn plugin mastering suites are using.

Reagardless, anyone who has the 1992 CD is just throwing money down the drain for this thing. (Unless you got it off BitTorrent like I did, in which case you're letting Azureus work harder than it otherwise would....)
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Postby Xenu » Thu Feb 02, 2006 10:21 pm

Following on your note, I wonder (if irrationally) if I'm hearing the same thing, especially in the Stones remasters. I think there it's just EQ, though.

Oh, DSD...
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