Reissue/original comparison site/Youtube?

MondeyanoMondeyano Reykjavik 863 Posts
edited April 2021 in Strut Central
I keep getting burned (or did, before I had to take an extended break from buying records) by shoddy reissues of long time wants that are out of my budget.

Keep thinking that a YouTube channel/internet website homepage that just did A/B comparisons (short segments of the key tracks) of the originals vs. reissues would be so helpful and great. As it would be for review purposes, I'd think it couldn't be taken down with copyright infringement claims.

Does such a thing exist on the dark/regular web?

  Comments


  • para11axpara11ax No-style-havin' mf'er 398 Posts
    Discogs is alright in terms of people commenting on the press/sound quality of reissues. That said, it lacks the immediacy of YouTube for sure. 

  • kicks79kicks79 1,333 Posts
    Just check discogs. The comments on a release page about reissues always comment on the quality of the pressings, defects ect.
    I got burned on a fela reissue which was missing the whole right channel. if i had just read the comments!


  • dj_cityboydj_cityboy 1,459 Posts
    para11ax said:
    Discogs is alright in terms of people commenting on the press/sound quality of reissues. That said, it lacks the immediacy of YouTube for sure. 

    i feel this 100%, i got burned on that OutKast - southernplayalistc reissue the quality of it is mad booty and barely even playable, another burn was the Run DMC - You be Illin' 7' that was housed in that bullshit fucking PVC sleeve - that fucked up all the vinyl that Sleeve was used on, and my last burn was all the pressing and quality issues with the Digable Planets (LITA) reissue of "Reachin" which was repressed a 2nd time to fix issues.

    *the one thing in common with a lot of the issues was that it was all documented on Discogs - Discogs is dope in that the community/users share that info so people are in the know, regrettably that doesnt help fix issues, but it can help you avoid issues a LOT of the time before i buy something on Discogs or in a record store i check the notes on Discogs to see if there are any known issues with pressings.

    *i think a youtube channel would/could work but you may only get away with posting short snippets of "OG vs REISSUE" and there are so many variables to peoples set up would you actually get a good representations of A vs B, would you hear the slightest bit of static in the left channel of the 4th track on side B versus the OG pressing - i dunno? the youtube channel would have to integrate with Discogs as well just to try and keep all the data centralized to make it easy to find also...shit man maybe Discogs needs a "compare" button to point these things out...maybe there is one a i dont know about it, lol


  • MondeyanoMondeyano Reykjavik 863 Posts
    My main method up until this point was always check Discogs, and if there was no comment on sound, hold on buying until there was a verdict. I even thought you could maybe A/B record store clips with OG rips on YouTube but there are several issues there, different recording equipment, different bit rates etc.

    I don't think the execution would have to be all that difficult, it wouldn't have to be all that scientific to have merit. I'm thinking it would mostly help with identifying garbage pressings where everything is compressed to hell or sounds mono/flat. Saying that, maybe I just need to move to a place where I can go to an actual record store and have a listen! No unsealing of new stock at the local shops. Perhaps being a tad greedy here.

  • It makes a lot of sense but also sounds like a hell of a lot of effort. To do it right you'd have to physically possess each pressing to run it through the same setup for comparison.

    If half-assed reissues had the same deranged fanbase as ultra audiophile hot stamp horseshit it would definitely already exist.
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