Pink Floyd - "Dark Side of The Moon" recording quality?

michaelv · « **on:** 21 Aug 2006, 06:48 pm »

Hi,
Has anyone listened to the album "Dark Side of The Moon" from Pink Floyd? ( not SACD) What do you think of the sound quality? I own the album "Off the Wall" and i like it a lot.

thanks.

gitarretyp · « **Reply #1 on:** 21 Aug 2006, 07:01 pm »

Which pressing?

PhilNYC · « **Reply #2 on:** 21 Aug 2006, 07:02 pm »

Quote from: michaelv on 21 Aug 2006, 06:48 pm

I own the album "Off the Wall" and i like it a lot.

I do too...much better than "Thriller"...

arthurs · « **Reply #3 on:** 21 Aug 2006, 07:23 pm »

I do too...much better than "Thriller"...

[/quote]

Excellent Phil....although a bit surprised you left off "Bad"....really an audiophile recording if there ever was one...

michaelv · « **Reply #4 on:** 21 Aug 2006, 07:27 pm »

It's Capitol/EMI record

I just listen to the sample of Alan Parsons "A Valid Path" . The music is quite good and it will be on my shopping list tonight...

thanks.

Russell Dawkins · « **Reply #5 on:** 21 Aug 2006, 08:12 pm »

"Thriller" was recorded by one of the most respected people in the business - Bruce Swedien. His recording career goes back to the Duke Ellington Band. I think in an interview he said he recorded the drumset on one of the tracks (I don't have the CD) with a Neumann Kuntzkopf - the binaural dummy head, so those paying attention might get a kick out of hearing very 3D drums on one track (if listening with headphones).
He also recorded Madona's "Vogue" and did a few tricks on that, like using Q-sound on the background whispers on the title track ("vogue, vogue") which seem to come from behind and beside you when listening on speakers.
just did a google and came up with this:

http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=11:m9zyxddb8oly~T1

He's still active and did his first recording in 1944 at the age of 10!!

PhilNYC · « **Reply #6 on:** 21 Aug 2006, 08:20 pm »

Wow, that's quite a resume! In addition to being a recording engineer, he's even credited as a drummer on Michael Jackson's "Bad" album.

Going to have to give this albums another listen tonight...

arthurs · « **Reply #7 on:** 21 Aug 2006, 08:54 pm »

"A Valid Path" was disappointing to me in regards to other Parsons recordings, both in content and quality....YMMV

nathanm · « **Reply #8 on:** 21 Aug 2006, 08:54 pm »

"Dark Side Of The Moon" is a very rare bootleg recording by Pink Floyd that's pretty difficult to find in stores these days. It was kind of a throw away record consisting mostly of cover tunes. I myself have never even seen a copy, but I've read they are hoarded by collectors even though the whole thing was recorded on a crummy 4-track cassette.

lonewolfny42 · « **Reply #9 on:** 21 Aug 2006, 09:25 pm »

Pick up the new Pink Floyd DVD...."Pulse". Disc # 2 is "Dark Side Of The Moon" in concert....its very good.

JeffB · « **Reply #10 on:** 21 Aug 2006, 10:25 pm »

I am not sure what to make of this thread. From the very beginning. Was the "Off the Wall" thing just a joke? Did you mean simply "The Wall"? I am going to simply assume you are Pink Floyd newbie. The Dark Side of the Moon has been well regarded over the years as both a masteful recording for sound quality and for musical excellence.
The wikipedia article is quite interesting:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dark_Side_of_the_Moon

A couple of snippets from this article:
"To this day, audiophiles use The Dark Side of the Moon as a reference standard to test the fidelity of audio equipment, despite the fact that it was originally mixed from third-generation tape with Dolby noise reduction.[1]"

"The Dark Side of the Moon is one of the best-selling albums of all time worldwide, and the 20th-best-selling album in the United States. It peaked at #1 on The Billboard 200. Though it held the #1 spot for only one week, it spent a record total of 741 consecutive weeks (over 14 years) on that list."

The album was recorded in 1973. I don't have a good enough audio system to claim that you should use this as an audiophile reference test disk. There are bound to be better disks produced in the last 33 years. However, if you like "The Wall", then I am sure you will be happy with "The Dark Side of the Moon".

I guess perhaps there is also confusion over whether it is "The Dark Side of the Moon.", the normal album or as nathanm pointed out, "Dark Side of the Moon", a bootleg.

bundee1 · « **Reply #11 on:** 21 Aug 2006, 10:26 pm »

OK supposedly the best recording of Dark Side of the Moon is the SACD side of the Hybrid. Ive heard it and its quite good. The Mobile Fidelity gold cd is probably the best CD version available ( Ialso own it) although the 92 remaster is supposed to be very good as well. The remastered cd side of the hybrid is supposed to be the worst as there is plenty of clipping and distortion throughout.
Go figure!?!

PhilNYC · « **Reply #12 on:** 21 Aug 2006, 10:31 pm »

Quote from: JeffB on 21 Aug 2006, 10:25 pm

I am not sure what to make of this thread. From the very beginning. Was the "Off the Wall" thing just a joke? Did you mean simply "The Wall"? I am going to simply assume you are Pink Floyd newbie.

I'm sure he meant "The Wall". I was just being a wise-ass about the "Off the Wall" Michael Jackson reference...

lonewolfny42 · « **Reply #13 on:** 21 Aug 2006, 10:40 pm »

A past thread......about the remaster. If I remember correctly....we were looking for the Sony made in Japan...was a better sounding version.....or something like that....

michaelv · « **Reply #14 on:** 22 Aug 2006, 02:24 pm »

sorry for the confusion of the title. It's my bet.

This is "The Wall"
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000006TRV/sr=8-3/qid=1156256635/ref=pd_bbs_3/102-5602255-7737705?ie=UTF8

and Dark Side of the Moon
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000002U82/sr=8-2/qid=1156256738/ref=pd_bbs_2/102-5602255-7737705?ie=UTF8

I see "Dark Side of the Moon" available on amazon.com, but not sure about the recording quality, but i'll take it anyway.

I am newbie to Pink Floyd by the way...

thanks.

bundee1 · « **Reply #15 on:** 22 Aug 2006, 02:52 pm »

The reason you were looking for the Japanese Sony SACD was because the American ones pressed at the Crest factory were crumbling to pieces from the spindle hole outward. The cd sides on both sounded like cr@p though.

PhilNYC · « **Reply #16 on:** 22 Aug 2006, 03:14 pm »

Quote from: michaelv on 22 Aug 2006, 02:24 pm

I am newbie to Pink Floyd by the way...

You should also check out "Wish You Were Here" and "Animals"...

arthurs · « **Reply #17 on:** 22 Aug 2006, 03:31 pm »

Animals is one of the most underappreciated discs of all time IMO....if you like The Wall, be sure and check out The Final Cut as well....

elcaptain88 · « **Reply #18 on:** 22 Aug 2006, 05:44 pm »

I for one would never consider DSOTM a very good test recording, in fact electronic music in general is usually not a very good benchmark to use anyway. Not withstanding that, I never considered the production of this album all that great - perhaps for its time - but not on any CD version I have listened to at least. I'd like to hear the vinyl sometime.

Interestingly enough, I compared two different cd versions of this album about a year ago. One was a cd I bought in college (circa 1990) and the other was the redbook layer of the recent SACD hybrid release. I listened to both on Beyer 880's and Grado headphones and speakers. Tough to tell any meaningful differences. The only major ones were the track breaks and times, and a slight elevation of the noise floor on the hybrid release. With the hybrid redbook layer, it was easier to hear the recording noise during silent passages and dropouts. Its also easier to hear the very faint classical music on the recording at the very end of the album as the heartbeats fade out.

Most 'remasters' I've tried are hit or miss - some are an improvement, some no difference, and some are actually worse - so don't assume its better.

elcaptain88 · « **Reply #19 on:** 22 Aug 2006, 05:48 pm »

Add Meddle to the list, most albums prior to that get a little too psychedelic for me.