Mixed thoughts on 3 of the 2001 remasters/card sleeves

HR version

Okay, I listened again.. this time specifically to hear whether something seems to be missing from the 3rd.. and now I hear what you guys are saying. It still seems to have a bit more 'punch' but I agree there's something more to the HW version.

Oh well! And I agree there's something wrong with Innuendo. To me, a couple tracks sound only marginally better but the sound is uneven between tracks.. I mean, some sound okay, some not so great. And ICLWY is definitely worse. It really struck me as sounding bad when it came on.

At least the packaging is cool :-P

Edit: Had to delete this in order to put up another file.

To me the third sounds the best.

Not too bad. But JSSmith seems to have thinned this one too. Hmm... I compared DSMN when that was posted and there was a definite improvement there. But I wonder... I mean, the analog recordings benefit from this kind of remastering. But I'm not sure the digitally recorded albums are going to be as "happy" with this processing.

I know that digital type recordings started with The Works onwards, even though it was still dealing with tape. How strange.

Peace,
Adam.

I seem to agree with you DF, I think the Toshiba track sounds the best, but I think I might a possible explanation. I've noticed that perhaps Toshiba might be messing with some of the equalizer settings whenever they transfer the song to CD to make things stand out and give it a fuller sound. Maybe the Hollywood versions have the same quality but have a "flat" equalizer sound. I bet that if you messed with the equalizer settings on your stereo/winamp that you could get the hollywood version to sound very similar to the toshiba release.

I noticed that with the Freddie Box set that it seemed to be similar to the toshiba releases in that it sounded better on my stereo if i had the equalizer flat. The Freddie box seems to have increased bass and whatnot.

I could be completely wrong here (and it won't be the last time) but at least it's another idea for discussion.

Exactly. This is what I don't get. JSS dealt with the Freddie 2000 remasterings. And yet with similar kinds of recordings he's taken a very different approach. The Bad Guy stuff does sound a lot better than the initial release. But from what I'm hearing, the 2001 remasters, Works onwards, are not as well adjusted.

Btw AdamUnger, Hi-Fi's NEVER have a flatEQ sound. The speakers are set to highlight certain areas of the sound range. And the EQ on the front of your hi-fi is also another factor.

The changes made to the sound will undoubtedly include the EQ changes you mentioned. But the punchiness is from compression. And I don't mean like MP3 compression! :)

Peace,
Adam.

Very interesting, I didn't realize this. Has JSS done any other releases (other than the DVDs)?

He did the karaoke mixes, which leave a lot to be desired... but to be fair, they were a rush job and actually done in like 1996 before they had better equipment. I assume he's done other solo stuff for the guys too.

Maybe David Richards should have been present at least for the later stuff. I feel sorry for the guy. He's now got the contents of the former Mountain Studios in his living room and I get the impression he's been somehow discarded.

http://www.mountainstudios.com/David%20Richards.html

I take that back. It seems he was involved in the 46664 project and worked on it right there in his living room. hehe

Poor guy. That bloody casino! At least the main part of the mixing studio area is going to stay from what I've heard. Such a shame that they scrapped the recording room where Fred and the lads made the music. *Sighs*

Adam.

Can anyone make some hi-res pix of some of the sleeves? I'm still thinking about buying them.... but it's an awful lot of money (esp. since I'm trying to slow down my Queen collecting - first have to complete my Beatles/PGabriel/Genesis/etc cd-collection)....

Go on PIM treat urself

It is a lot of money but they really are worth ther money

Listening to SHA at the mo...superb

I wish I could scan these, but for the last year or so I've been without a permanent scanner. I borrow one occasionally but I've only got 3 of the card sleeves so far so it's not worth the trouble yet.

I would really like to see the inner sleeves scanned to see what they look like enlarged on the monitor. They are clear enough to read lyrics but extremely tiny text :-P

Even with the apparent inconsistencies in audio quality, I'm going to continue buying them slowly.. 2 or 3 a month is all I can afford though.

Incidently, for 3 of them to the U.S. from HMV it came to $92.10, shipped by FedEx rather quickly. They woulda been here next day (or 2 days after ordering) if not for a weather delay and a weekend getting in the way.

"Go on PIM treat urself"

Problem is that I've done that way too much in the past :-) If I buy one cardsleeve, I want the rest too - so it's about $30 x 16 = $350 plus probably some taxes & stuff... And for stuff which I already have on cd/lp/mc/dvd-a that's a lot of money ;-)

I'll probably end up buying them all though ;) :D

Here's a new comparison for "Princes of the Universe", since this subject has come up once again..

Capitol 1986/Hollywood 1991/Toshiba-EMI 2001