Hello...
Its a wonderful time again...when I first started this thread months ago I was looking for the really good stuff to play on my new SongTowers, and always longed for those great early bands we grew up with like the Beatles, the Stones, Elton etc...but most of these early recordings in mono and 2 track analog tape to very munch compromised vinyl recordings really sounded like well...ok not like demo quality cds made today with all the great digital recording equipment...
Well the times are changing..the entire Beatles collection is coming out on Sept 9, all remastered etc, as well as Eltons stuff...will it be demo quality , this yet remains to be seen but I did get three of the remastered cds from Elton Johns early days....comments follow!!
I just listened to Elton Johns "Madman Across the Water" from 1971, his third album. Its the newly re-mastered CD, remastered by Gus Dudgeon, Tony Cousins and Crispin Murray i London.
According to the liner notes, all the tapes used create these new masters are the original mixes. But they go on to say that many of the tapes are at least 25 years old, they have "softened up" to varying degrees. So the sound has been passed through the most up to date digital processing equipment, at 20 bit resolution, namely the Sadie Digital System and Prism Super Noise Shaper. The effect is to enhance rather than "color" the sound. AS the original producer he states he would have used this equipment at the time had it been availablef for remastering. The very nature of the analog recordings being transferred to vinyl way back then demanded major compromises. With the benefits of digital sound these contstraints are removed and the recordings can be heard much closer to the reproduction they had originally intended....
So how does it sound, compared to my original vinyl...absolutely wonderful...there still is a lack of the low end, bass and drum whacks etc..but that said its as a good as its going to get for this early stuff...for us old guys!!
So if your looking for the early stuff, from all those wonderful bands..its indeed a wonderful time to be able to re-listen to this stuff as it comes out remastered.
So maybe these new remastered cds will not have the dynamic range that can be had today, but they stand to be something that a lot of us will buy and listen to and smile alot!!
So these are demo cds in their right, just not maybe up to the absolute audiophile standards we see today in many of the recording recommended througout this thread!
All the best..and enjoy!
Alex
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