Revolver, 2022 Remix

[TinMan]

I’ve heard of it. Sadly, I never obtained a copy when it was released. Early 80s were my record-buying heyday, and I knew all the shops that sold high-quality imports.

Most of my Beatles albums from that era were British imports, with a few German mixed in. You had to go to specialty shops to buy them, and they were highly sought after since they were the original British track lists on Parlophone for the pre-Pepper albums, not the Capitol versions sold on the malls.

Japanese pressings in general were considered the gold standard and just too expensive for a college kid like me. I did spoil myself by purchasing the British or German imports, which were still considered superior to the American pressings. I still have those records, and somehow managed to keep them in pristine position even sitting in a closet unplayed during the CD era.

[Chung Tran]

That period of time was especially rich in Rock/Soul music history, those few years, roughly 1965-68. But maddening trying to secure the music output!

Every major act, Beatles, Stones, the Who, Beach Boys released mostly mono singles (dedicated Mono mix) and Stereo albums, sometimes Mono albums along with the stereo. They also released singles that didn't appear on the album that was released near simultaneous. Then as you said, the US album might differ from the British release.

Stereo was new, the labels wanted to utilize it, but those first few years were clumsy. Engineers were inexperienced with multi-tracks, and it showed (I'm looking straight at you, Motown). Ironically, as with early compact discs, the well-versed Audiophile knows to seek out the Mono albums of that time. The early compact discs are deemed better now, because later tools like the Limiter that was introduced in 1994, serve to butcher and distort digital sound.

[TinMan]

I wish there was as much effort put into remixing/remastering some of the other great acts of that era as has been put into the Beatles. Has there been a major effort put into revisiting the Stones catalog? I bought the 50th anniversary edition of Let It Bleed. It was ok, but not revelatory.

[Chung Tran]

Originally Posted by TinMan

I wish there was as much effort put into remixing/remastering some of the other great acts of that era as has been put into the Beatles. Has there been a major effort put into revisiting the Stones catalog? I bought the 50th anniversary edition of Let It Bleed. It was ok, but not revelatory.

Timely question. The Stones catalouge on CD was horrible for many years. Allen Klein owned the masters pre-sticky fingers, and he refused to deal. He also owned the masters for Chubby Checker, the Animals, Herman's Hermits, and a few others. All had shoddy CD catalouges until 2002, when they all got reissue campaigns with the Masters. Klein finally made a deal. Checker and the Hermits benefited greatly, the Animals and Stones were much improved.

But modern mastering still plauged the Stones cd's, too much digital compression. Improved, but still not so good.

The answer for me came recently, when I found a Mobile Fidelity Hot Rocks CD. They had apparently used masters (some alternate stereo) for a brief time in 1984, not unlike the Abbey Road brief rollout. To my ears, the sound is much better, very smooth, crankable. The post-sticky fingers CD's have been mastered 4-5 times, the first run was mediocre, the remasters around 1994 were a lot better. The next run, and since is a digital sonic mess. It's strange how the Engineers undo and make worse, sonics that were perfectly good.

By the way, Dynamic Range values averaged around 13-15, 35 years ago. Today they average around FOUR. Anything under about 10 makes my ears bleed (figuratively).

[TinMan]

MoFi does a really good job. They’ve been under fire recently for using digital sources for at least some of their vinyl output, but I think that’s just audiophile snobbery. Any MoFi release I’ve bought (I don’t have too many) I’ve really enjoyed.

[Chung Tran]

Originally Posted by TinMan

MoFi does a really good job. They’ve been under fire recently for using digital sources for at least some of their vinyl output, but I think that’s just audiophile snobbery. Any MoFi release I’ve bought (I don’t have too many) I’ve really enjoyed.

Same. I recently got the Edgar Winter Group ''they only come out at night'' MOFI CD. I wasn't sure how that kind of recording might go over. But they did a great job. Another great one is Bread, ''Baby Ima want you''. and they did great with Little Richard. They stripped most of the echo effects, and the sound is much better I think.

[TinMan]

I recently streamed Bread’s first album, just to see if there was more to them than their hits. I decided to stick with the greatest hits album I’ve owned for years.

You have my interest piqued on the LR pressing. It’s really hard to find copies of some of his early records, outside of compilations. I did manage to find a recent vinyl pressing of his first album (which is almost like a compilation). I don’t recall the echo being real pronounced (unlike anything Sam Philips at Sun ever produced), but I may need to scrounge a bit on EBay and see if I can find a MoFi pressing.