Marky I think you accidently loaded the same image twice as they look the same to me?
They are different mate. Are you viewing on your phone?
You will notice in the first image the Wav pattern is virtually touching the threshold and the top edge of the Wav is all level.
The second image shows more space above and below the Wav pattern and there are way more peaks and troughs.
My bad!! I had to paste them into a doc to view side by side and I see it now. Hicks is the same guy who does all the Beatles remasters with Giles Martin, right? I have not bothered with the new mixes of the Beatles albums but are they all brick-walled like this as well?
Marky I think you accidently loaded the same image twice as they look the same to me?
They are different mate. Are you viewing on your phone?
You will notice in the first image the Wav pattern is virtually touching the threshold and the top edge of the Wav is all level.
The second image shows more space above and below the Wav pattern and there are way more peaks and troughs.
My bad!! I had to paste them into a doc to view side by side and I see it now. Hicks is the same guy who does all the Beatles remasters with Giles Martin, right? I have not bothered with the new mixes of the Beatles albums but are they all brick-walled like this as well?
I can't comment on The Beatles remasters as I don't have them. I'm looking forward to the Revolver box set so I hope it's decent.
Forces have been looting
My humanity
Curfews have been curbing
The end of liberty
We're the flowers in the dustbin...
No fuchsias for you.
Marky, are the problems with brickwalling associated with Assembly and 002, a trend in remastering? Paul Hicks seems to have an impressive CV and he remastered both projects.
I haven't played my cd's yet and I must admit my hearing is knackered. The book is a lovely item full of lyric sheet reproductions and recollections from Joe's bandmates.
Amazon are selling it for £54.43 at the moment.
Yes I believe so.
Here's the screen grab from the box set by McHarg III. The Wav is pushed up to the max.
Why in the name of god do they do this!
We have a volume control.
Not only do we have volume control, but with streaming and mp3 players most people will be listening with loudness normalisation, so they are really giving up dynamic range for no reason.
Yeah. I've said it on here before, but brickwalling kicked off so songs would punch through on the radio, then continued to compensation for the loss of detail you get from mp3s. When are these going to be played on the radio? Thoughtless dogma.
I'll add to this a bit.
When CD's first came out a lot of people weren't happy with how they sounded. Partly this was because of the early tech, the rush-jobs some labels gave them (like those cheap DVD transfers you see) and hearing music so clear / accurate made some things sound a little anaemic ('not warm enough') particularly compared to vinyl, that had probably been listened to on technically inferior 70's equipment that was muddy.
Some of the loudness stuff was because of that. It was a taste thing, an 'artistic preference' thing (not my preference). 90's punk, alternative, pop, hip hop, all that stuff did it because it was like an arms race. It made the new album 'heavier' or whatever. I think that line of thinking is why it's still happening today. It's like the digital equivalent of over-driving an amp. Again I am not sticking up for it, I fucking hate it and always have, but I don't think it's enough to say that it's just because of some nameless mastering guy doing it for more sales.
Yeah, Mark's right about this. As someone who's developed a passion for combing for old "pre-registered" CDs they DO sometimes sound quite putrid. I think, especially early on, there was also less care in going back to master tapes and so forth, so you'd get hissy safety copies of albums that have this weird, sterile quality. The fix to that isn't to just make everything so loud there's no dynamic range anymore really, but it was l happening at the same time and so got people feeling like something had to be "fixed" about the technology. The loudness wars suck, but they also make some sense in context, as said above.
Wiggle, wiggle, wiggle like a bowl of soup
Wiggle, wiggle, wiggle like a rolling hoop
Wiggle, wiggle, wiggle like a ton of lead
Wiggle - you can raise the dead
Paul Hicks used to do Beatles remasters but Giles Martin has worked with Sam Okell for many years now. Hicks did the John Lennon remixes and still produces all the Lennon reissues (with Sean and Yoko).
Paul Hicks used to do Beatles remasters but Giles Martin has worked with Sam Okell for many years now. Hicks did the John Lennon remixes and still produces all the Lennon reissues (with Sean and Yoko).
Thanks for this info Teddy.
Forces have been looting
My humanity
Curfews have been curbing
The end of liberty
We're the flowers in the dustbin...
No fuchsias for you.
Good post, think i would share the majority of those observations. I like SAM a lot and while the demos are nothing particularly special, I'm just happy to have them. Cool N Out is probably the stand out for me. Really dig the baritone sax throughout and the lines from Tony Adams are interesting, suggests to me this was someone (likely Slatto) just goofing around at the controls rather than actually seriously working on the finished product. Whatever, i really like what emerged from it anyway.
Agreed on Cool N Out. The outro is awesome. I wonder why they cut it -- so they could fit all 17 minutes of Minstrel Boy on the CD?
I get distinct Rat Patrol vibes about the Cool N Out demo, it's great, but i guess they were a bit short of short, sharp rockers on the album and that's the one that fitted the bill i reckon. The finished track does have the raw power the demo lacks. Minstrel Boy is more a Sandinista!-like than RP-like indulgence, not sure where the concept came from, but I've always been ok with it, still play it every once in a while.
The Black Hawk Down version of Minstrel Boy is best. That long version does little for me.
I just realised that this 002 collection doesn't even have that, damn that's a serious omission. I get it's on 001 but it really belongs on 002.
Good post, think i would share the majority of those observations. I like SAM a lot and while the demos are nothing particularly special, I'm just happy to have them. Cool N Out is probably the stand out for me. Really dig the baritone sax throughout and the lines from Tony Adams are interesting, suggests to me this was someone (likely Slatto) just goofing around at the controls rather than actually seriously working on the finished product. Whatever, i really like what emerged from it anyway.
Agreed on Cool N Out. The outro is awesome. I wonder why they cut it -- so they could fit all 17 minutes of Minstrel Boy on the CD?
I get distinct Rat Patrol vibes about the Cool N Out demo, it's great, but i guess they were a bit short of short, sharp rockers on the album and that's the one that fitted the bill i reckon. The finished track does have the raw power the demo lacks. Minstrel Boy is more a Sandinista!-like than RP-like indulgence, not sure where the concept came from, but I've always been ok with it, still play it every once in a while.
The Black Hawk Down version of Minstrel Boy is best. That long version does little for me.
I just realised that this 002 collection doesn't even have that, damn that's a serious omission. I get it's on 001 but it really belongs on 002.
The other things missing which annoy me are the live 'Bhindi Bhagee' from the 'Global' reissue, '(White Man) In Hammersmith Palais' at the 100 Club from a Mojo cd, the live b-sides from the 'Streetcore' singles, 'Trash City' from an American magazine cd and a proper issue of 'Ishen' which was available on their web site decades ago. These, together with the Acton gig would make a couple of extra cds for the box.
The other things missing which annoy me are the live 'Bhindi Bhagee' from the 'Global' reissue, '(White Man) In Hammersmith Palais' at the 100 Club from a Mojo cd, the live b-sides from the 'Streetcore' singles, 'Trash City' from an American magazine cd and a proper issue of 'Ishen' which was available on their web site decades ago. These, together with the Acton gig would make a couple of extra cds for the box.
Cheers Dave for that list. I'd never heard about that 'Trash City' on a magazine CD, which got me checking discogs. Yes, they've left out a lot of scattered rarities which it would be nice to have in one place
The other things missing which annoy me are the live 'Bhindi Bhagee' from the 'Global' reissue, '(White Man) In Hammersmith Palais' at the 100 Club from a Mojo cd, the live b-sides from the 'Streetcore' singles, 'Trash City' from an American magazine cd and a proper issue of 'Ishen' which was available on their web site decades ago. These, together with the Acton gig would make a couple of extra cds for the box.
Cheers Dave for that list. I'd never heard about that 'Trash City' on a magazine CD, which got me checking discogs. Yes, they've left out a lot of scattered rarities which it would be nice to have in one place
I'm working on a Deluxe box set of London Calling but when I'm doing maybe I'll put together an extra disc for 002 containing all the stuff Dave listed. I don't have it all but I'm sure with help here we can source it all.
Forces have been looting
My humanity
Curfews have been curbing
The end of liberty
We're the flowers in the dustbin...
No fuchsias for you.
The other things missing which annoy me are the live 'Bhindi Bhagee' from the 'Global' reissue, '(White Man) In Hammersmith Palais' at the 100 Club from a Mojo cd, the live b-sides from the 'Streetcore' singles, 'Trash City' from an American magazine cd and a proper issue of 'Ishen' which was available on their web site decades ago. These, together with the Acton gig would make a couple of extra cds for the box.
Not to mention the live material from the Let's Rock Again doc, which, if I recall, may have been where that live version of Ishen was sourced from?
I'm working on a Deluxe box set of London Calling but when I'm doing maybe I'll put together an extra disc for 002 containing all the stuff Dave listed. I don't have it all but I'm sure with help here we can source it all.