I just listened to Duran Duran's Paper Gods album and have to say by a mile, this is the WORST quality of recording I've ever heard. Its all distorted and grainy sounding, to the point its unlistenable. The clip light is constantly lit on my TC mastering display. I can't believe they let this through the way it sounds. Simply awful and absolutely sad.
I think that must be the later remaster if I am not mistaken?
The original album didn't have the issue I think.
One of my favorite albums is Katy Lied by Steely Dan. I have the original first pressing from the 70's, it sounds like they ran the music through compression several times, horrible sound quality. It was pressed on non-virgin vinyl, recycled Austin Marina steering wheel vinyl, maybe 75g.
I recall the "Hair" original broadway cast album. ISTR the big hit from it was "Good Morning Sunshine" though other bands made hits out of one or two other tunes. I had a Heathkit GD-109 stereo record player with "standard" Garrard 4-speed turntable and a ceramic cartridge that tracked at 5 grams (kinda surprised I remember such details). Other LPs sounded good (as good as one could expect from this system), but this LP had some sort of distortion from something. I've played another copy in recent decades on a much better turntable and cartridge, and while it's "better" I can still hear the same overall distortion. I don't know the source but it's baked into the recording. It's kind of like the first two Beatles LP (which have a similar quality and can be heard on the first CDs of those albums, so it must have been on the tape).
Not an album, but there was a 45 by the group People named "I Love You," a remake of a Zombies song. I heard it on the radio at the time (same 1970ish time period), but didn't notice anything bad. Maybe 20 years ago I came across a copy of the 45, and while the overall sound quality was good, the mix left something to be desired. There's a guitar lick that goes through the song, and after an instrumental organ break the lick comes on obviously louder than it was earlier in the song. It gets potted down after a couple of seconds, but apparently it was recorded and mixed live to 2-track, as opposed to multitrack that the big studios and popular bands used to get a better mixdown.
I had a copy of Katy Lied that had the center hole seriously off-center.
Not an album, but there was a 45 by the group People named "I Love You," a remake of a Zombies song. I heard it on the radio at the time (same 1970ish time period), but didn't notice anything bad. Maybe 20 years ago I came across a copy of the 45, and while the overall sound quality was good, the mix left something to be desired. There's a guitar lick that goes through the song, and after an instrumental organ break the lick comes on obviously louder than it was earlier in the song. It gets potted down after a couple of seconds, but apparently it was recorded and mixed live to 2-track, as opposed to multitrack that the big studios and popular bands used to get a better mixdown.
I had a copy of Katy Lied that had the center hole seriously off-center.
My dad blamed the poor sound on heavy drug use. Katy Lied could have been so much better than what we got.
No the issue was that the dBX noise reduction units were not working correctly - an adjustment problem from the dBX factory. Been reported many times and confirmed to humorous effect in the liner notes by Becker and Fagan in the third remastering of the CD (ask me how I know there were three). The sound was not that great either on the MFSL vinyl issued in the late 70s. But believe it or not, it was better than the third CD remaster! Case in point: the phasing in “Daddy Don’t Live in NYC.” Way better on the OMR vinyl. Quiet surface!!!!!
Exactly this one is best known as an extreme victim of the loudness war. Hence, I won't even care about the music.
Best regards!
Exactly the one that came to my mind. Can only listen to it in my car; it's a horror show on home hifi systems. Such a shame of that otherwise great album. If I was a rich man, I would have offered them big money to re-record it decently.
That was a RCA Dynagroove LP, I think: one of the first albums I ever bought. Long gone from the collection, but I remember that its sound was thin and weedy with little bass. This may have been because the sides were perhaps too long (?) and this may have affected the sound. Or perhaps it was just a lousy recording.
People complain about CD re-masters, but there were also LPs which sounded great, but when re-issued were awful: Who's Next, for example. First Australian pressing, which I wore out, excellent; second was a re-cut with a narrow groove so that the run out section on each side was about two inches wide, sounded crap compared to the first and was cut at a much lower level than the original.
Interesting to see there are so many 'votes' for Californication!
Geoff
