I've nothing against reissues, but I've noticed a serious lack of bass on those Scorpio re-pressings. This ONLY happens with Scorpio. At home, those records sound okay, it gets by, but one night in a club I dropped "Get Away" by the Brothers Unlimited from that Capitol album, and sure enough it sounded like the bottom dropped out.
I can't mess w/playing those Scorpios out AT ALL... really weak, shallow pressings all around in my experience...
I've nothing against reissues, but I've noticed a serious lack of bass on those Scorpio re-pressings. This ONLY happens with Scorpio. At home, those records sound okay, it gets by, but one night in a club I dropped "Get Away" by the Brothers Unlimited from that Capitol album, and sure enough it sounded like the bottom dropped out.
I can't mess w/playing those Scorpios out AT ALL... really weak, shallow pressings all around in my experience...
Playing "out" is the key word, since I hadn't really noticed the shrillness on a home system (which is magnified in a club).
...and Monty---I checked out your site again lately (two thumbs up) and was wondering; Lee Stark (dark short hair boy in the 'bustin outta doors' video?) episode of hoady carcmichael's music shop was your son? cute having him on the show if that's true----and you engineered the Mandrill composite truth lp? damn
yeah, that's my son (older now than i was then)
Mandrill recorded most of "Just Outside of Town" in NY, then came to LA where i recorded one tune and mixed the lp.
thanks
nice...it would be even nicer to have access to those masters now.
As to the LPs...a lot of reissues, especially the the shady ones (Scorpio, Tuff city, etc)...more often than not sounds like ass.
Beat me to it! Very rarely have I found a "reissue" LP with acceptable sound quality.
SG
I was recently preparing a mix with my reissue copy of JBs 'food for thought' which seemed to sound a little weak. I pulled out the OG to see if it sounded better,m and it was imediately obvious to me that it did.
As to the LPs...a lot of reissues, especially the the shady ones (Scorpio, Tuff city, etc)...more often than not sounds like ass.
Beat me to it! Very rarely have I found a MODERN[/b] "reissue" LP FROM THE 2000's[/b] with acceptable sound quality.
the reason i doctored that above sentence is because i really dont recall vinyl reissues always being this shitty. i have wax on rhino and charly from the '80s that sound exactly as good as their supposed to, when you play them out - with all the highs, lows and middles in the right places. ONLY in the last three-four years have I encountered vinyl repressings sounding all funny. is scorpio trying to take advantage of some gullible hip-hop DJ lookin for a sample? cause rhino, charly, edsel, solid smoke, ace - none of them 80s reissue labels put their shit out there like that. never. hell, ive heard old pickwick and crown "budget" albums that had fuller sound than these repressings i see all over the place.
at my last soul nite i spun the capitols' "cool jerk" from a compilation on that group that the solid smoke label put out. the fi was indeed hi and just as booming as a 45.
But that still doesn't mean they should have to sound as shitty as they do
DoubleTroo...
The question that puzzles me is why would anyone go through the trouble of bootlegging an LP (artwork, labels, pressing, etc...) with intentionally horrible sound?
The question that puzzles me is why would anyone go through the trouble of bootlegging an LP (artwork, labels, pressing, etc...) with intentionally horrible sound?
That's the $250,000 question.
I think the issue is more about fulfilling demand by having the product out there, without care or interest in improving the sound quality. I would almost say that that isn't even a primary factor.
A perfect example of this was Blowout Comb. I've had the CD for years, could never find an OG copy on vinyl. Then it was "bootlegged". It wasn't promoted that way, but upon getting a copy it was obvious: no record company logos or addresses of any kind. That was not a big deal, but playing it and hearing all of that hiss: it sounded as if it was mastered from a cassette with Dolby turned off.
A helpful tip for bootleggers: most likely you are borrowing from vinyl sources. If so, DO NOT add noise reduction. Trying to make a recording sound clean by de-clicking is one thing. But as I said before, when you use noise-reduction from a vinyl source, you're not only taking away surface noise, you're removing elements of the music itself. I want to hear a full cymbal crash, I want to hear the FWACK of the drums, and if I'm going to pay any kind of music for a comp that borrows from vinyl sources, do it right.
I read in EQ magazine that the recent Incredible Bongo Band comp/reissue was mastered from vinyl because the masters no longer existed. It sounds fairly good, that is until you hear the megamix on the CD from Grandmaster Flash. I don't know what was the source material for what Flash was mixing, or the media that he used for it (vinyl, CD turntables, or a Microwave-like program), but his source material sounds a lot better than the rest of the CD. When I heard it, I wondered why the rest of the CD couldn't sound as good as Flash's mix. There's a sense of brightness in Flash's mix that isn't heard anywhere else. I love a nice and crude drum sound, but the differences were dramatic.
The question that puzzles me is why would anyone go through the trouble of bootlegging an LP (artwork, labels, pressing, etc...) with intentionally horrible sound?
That's the $250,000 question.
I think the issue is more about fulfilling demand by having the product out there, without care or interest in improving the sound quality. I would almost say that that isn't even a primary factor.
They sell a whole, whole lot of them so I don't think the quality is considered a problem...
Comments
I can't mess w/playing those Scorpios out AT ALL... really weak, shallow pressings all around in my experience...
Playing "out" is the key word, since I hadn't really noticed the shrillness on a home system (which is magnified in a club).
nice...it would be even nicer to have access to those masters now.
I was recently preparing a mix with my reissue copy of JBs 'food for thought' which seemed to sound a little weak. I pulled out the OG to see if it sounded better,m and it was imediately obvious to me that it did.
the reason i doctored that above sentence is because i really dont recall vinyl reissues always being this shitty. i have wax on rhino and charly from the '80s that sound exactly as good as their supposed to, when you play them out - with all the highs, lows and middles in the right places. ONLY in the last three-four years have I encountered vinyl repressings sounding all funny. is scorpio trying to take advantage of some gullible hip-hop DJ lookin for a sample? cause rhino, charly, edsel, solid smoke, ace - none of them 80s reissue labels put their shit out there like that. never. hell, ive heard old pickwick and crown "budget" albums that had fuller sound than these repressings i see all over the place.
at my last soul nite i spun the capitols' "cool jerk" from a compilation on that group that the solid smoke label put out. the fi was indeed hi and just as booming as a 45.
But that still doesn't mean they should have to sound as shitty as they do
DoubleTroo...
The question that puzzles me is why would anyone go through the trouble of bootlegging an LP (artwork, labels, pressing, etc...) with intentionally horrible sound?
SG
That's the $250,000 question.
I think the issue is more about fulfilling demand by having the product out there, without care or interest in improving the sound quality. I would almost say that that isn't even a primary factor.
A perfect example of this was Blowout Comb. I've had the CD for years, could never find an OG copy on vinyl. Then it was "bootlegged". It wasn't promoted that way, but upon getting a copy it was obvious: no record company logos or addresses of any kind. That was not a big deal, but playing it and hearing all of that hiss: it sounded as if it was mastered from a cassette with Dolby turned off.
A helpful tip for bootleggers: most likely you are borrowing from vinyl sources. If so, DO NOT add noise reduction. Trying to make a recording sound clean by de-clicking is one thing. But as I said before, when you use noise-reduction from a vinyl source, you're not only taking away surface noise, you're removing elements of the music itself. I want to hear a full cymbal crash, I want to hear the FWACK of the drums, and if I'm going to pay any kind of music for a comp that borrows from vinyl sources, do it right.
I read in EQ magazine that the recent Incredible Bongo Band comp/reissue was mastered from vinyl because the masters no longer existed. It sounds fairly good, that is until you hear the megamix on the CD from Grandmaster Flash. I don't know what was the source material for what Flash was mixing, or the media that he used for it (vinyl, CD turntables, or a Microwave-like program), but his source material sounds a lot better than the rest of the CD. When I heard it, I wondered why the rest of the CD couldn't sound as good as Flash's mix. There's a sense of brightness in Flash's mix that isn't heard anywhere else. I love a nice and crude drum sound, but the differences were dramatic.
They sell a whole, whole lot of them so I don't think the quality is considered a problem...
Most likely because any complaining about sound quality is ignored.