Beach Boys - Pastmasters CDs

[Xenu]

For years, I had assumed that the Japanese series of "Pastmasters" CDs were, in all likelyhood, direct clones of various US discs. Extrapolating from this, I thought that the odd, single-album "Pastmasters" Beach Boys releases were either a shrewd reconfiguring of their catalogue in the two-fers-everywhere-else era, or merely a copy of US Capitol's shrewd reconfiguring of their catalogue during the two-fer era. This understanding was aided liberally by the fact that I had never actually *seen* a Pastmasters release, and consequently assumed they came out in the early nineties.

At the sh.tv board, however, they've noted that the PastMasters discs came out in the late 80's (notably before Capitol's splitting up of the Beach Boys catalogue into single albums), and that most were "flat tape copies" of the various releases. While I still doubt this with regard to various releases for which Japan had readily-available digital masters (i.e. Kate Bush), it does jibe for the Beach Boys.

Has anybody HEARD these? The Linett remasters are a bit strident, but generally fairly well done; that said, I'm curious to see if there's a better version of, say, "Today" out there. As a corrolary, which tapes were used for the later mini-LP reissues? Am I right in assuming that those discs are clones of "stock" masterings?

[Dob]

I have 5 of the Pastmasters releases (Surfin' Safari, Surfin' U.S.A., Surfer Girl, Shut Down Vol 2, and All Summer Long). And, as it happens, I recently put together a comp of the best sounding tracks of the first 4 albums, which involved a lot of comparisons.

The Pastmasters versions, as a whole, sound quite a bit better than the Linett HDCD versions IMO. As you said, the Linetts are a bit strident...whereas the Pastmasters have a better sense of breadth and depth, and have a richer, smoother sound.

The Linnets do have their (few) moments...I found myself preferring about half of the tracks from the HDCD Surfin' Safari over the Pastmasters...but that was about it. In fact, I even like some of the Pastmasters versions better than the DCC versions.

I do have one of the Japan "mini-LP" albums - Today - but I don't know/don't remember how it compares to the USA Linetts. I'll have to compare, but my guess is that the mastering is the same. Nevertheless, it may still have that "je ne sais quoi" quality that makes the Japan CDs sound a bit better, usually, than the USA counterparts (to my ears, of course).

[Xenu]

I *think* the Japanese mini-LPs predated the latter twofer reissues. I'd be interested in what you find.

[Dob]

I *think* the Japanese mini-LPs predated the latter twofer reissues. I'd be interested in what you find.

Yes, the mini-LP is dated 1997. It is definitely a different digital transfer than the 2001 Linett...this was obvious when the mini-LP "Do You Wanna Dance" faded out a couple of seconds earlier than the Linett.

I liked that cut better on the Linett, along with "Help Me Rhonda" (LP version), "Dance, Dance, Dance", and "I'm So Young". These tracks sounded better balanced in frequency response than the mini-LP, which had a somewhat hollow sound (as if some of the lower treble was missing). For the other tracks, though, the mini-LP was smoother, with the Linett returning to that slightly "strident" quality.

[Xenu]

So what tapes were used for those?

[Dob]

I have no idea about the tapes. "Do You Wanna Dance" did sound quite a bit better on the Linett...maybe they did find and use a better source for that track...possibly some of the others as well.

[dudelsack]

Save for Pet Sounds, and a couple fake stereo tracks on "All Summer Long," the Pastmasters CDs I've heard are very nice and un-futzed with...similar to the yellow label Capitol reissue LPs.

[Xenu]

I personally find it odd that Toshiba-EMI would use "other" tapes for some entries in the PastMasters series, but not for all. Did they just use their own tapes for stuff that hadn't been issued elsewhere yet?

[Ess Ay Cee Dee]

nt

[lukpac]

That didn't work.

[Ess Ay Cee Dee]

nt

[lukpac]

The link.

[Ess Ay Cee Dee]

nt

[lukpac]

For some reason the link wouldn't work when clicked on. I C/P'd it and it worked fine.

[Ess Ay Cee Dee]

nt