What is your favourite release?

[killdozzer]

Allow me to weigh in regarding my favorite release ... Toes All Curled Up

Artist ... Candy



Be careful what you wish for but hey, next Twist Off ... you, sir, have front row.
Note: Eye protection is encouraged.

Alright, enough of that.

The regular CD version Switch Blade Knife never struck me as anything but a good song that I enjoyed hearing but 'Brothers in Arms' is a standard I have used to check out speakers. Track 1 is bass heavy. Track 3 has a nice acoustic guitar at the beginning. Some speakers are better at putting that guitar right in the room than others. Track 6 has vocals that stand out well enough that comparison of the speech discrimination band from speaker to speaker is easy enough. Track 7 has a kind of explosively loud acoustic guitar strum that might well be used to appreciate the dynamic capabilities of a given system.

Then of course, track 2 ... don't get me started. I've got the SACD version with a CD layer.

You don't have a record player so we can skip past that but the much praised Miles Davis thing. I guess it's as good as everybody says and I own the album. I even listen to it from time to time but I really don't like jazz. I listen it because I know it's good and I want to give it a chance but ... meh.

PENG had a thread that you should be able to search out easily enough on this topic. TLSguy has also contributed greatly on the topic of good classical recordings. Searching out jostenmeat's thoughts would also be fruitful. You're sort of late to the party. Swerd has gleaned some info on the matter and KEW as well has chimed in a time or two with some pretty specific requirements and expectations for the playback of horns. This stuff has been addressed in great lengths back in the day.

I'm off to New Englandier parts of New England than the part of New England that I live in ... all I can say about that is 'women' but when I get back I'll see if I can find some of those threads I recall from back in the day when we all just got along.

Nemoj nista zamjerit. Ako je ista bilo, nije namjerno. <My new sig.

Welcome, welcome!! Finally, people are slowly starting to show some interest. It was well worth waiting.

Negative thing I wrote about Dire Straits Dire Straits, refers only to the Japanese edition of the SACD. It is not hard to imagine that some other SACD could sound great. Also, Ludwig's remaster, which I really appreciate, could also be used for SACD (if not already).

Thank you for the heads up on other threads. PENG told me I'm free to use his thread for this purpose and I quote his entry on Led Zeppelin.

Several times before, I've been in a situation where I was disappointed with my purchase only to learn afterwards that I simply bought a bad rendition or a wrong format. This is what I think is a little bit different about this thread. For example, a lot of Eurythmics CD's sound bad, but that's not a reason not to tell Eurythmics fans which is the least bad sounding (a lot of them have that typical CD glare that claws at your eardrums).

I like your new sig. although I don't bear any grudges with you!

Thank you for your contribution!!

 

[killdozzer]

If I had to choose one album/cd to demo speakers I'd probably go with Jellyfish's 1990 Bellybutton release.

Thank you, Ponzio. This is an entry I've been waiting for to explain another aspect/benefit of the thread the way I imagined it. I never heard of Jellyfish, but with your input I can now have the luxury of having my first impression also be the best possible or among the best ones.

So this is the biggest value this thread can have. One can skip all the bad sounding material and really hear it the way it was intended with his/hers first listening.

Do you mean a regular CD release of Bellybutton?

 

[Ponzio]

Do you mean a regular CD release of Bellybutton?

Yes, there was never a need to remaster it.

 

[killdozzer]

Find the 2013 Columbia remastered The Complete Albums Collection (1965-2011) box set. Jaw dropping good.

YES, yes!!! Finally, finally the muddiness went away. This is exactly what I've been looking for.

I never knew what was wrong with the sound on the original release, but I saw that other people noticed that too, this is from allmusic:

But where Graceland had seamlessly merged its styles into an exuberant whole, The Rhythm of the Saints was less well digested. Those drum tracks never seemed integrated effectively into what had been dubbed over them; at the same time, they tended to lock the songs into musical patterns that reined them in from the kind of excitement the South African music on Graceland generated, making the melodies harder to grasp. At the same time, Simon sang his lyrics in a less involved way, which sometimes made them seem like collections of random lines rather than the series of striking observations Graceland seemed to contain. No Paul Simon album could be lacking in craft or quality, and The Rhythm of the Saints was a typically tasteful effort. But this time around, Simon hadn't quite succeeded in bringing the wide-ranging elements together

It's a great thing someone took the time to smooth things out on this album. Otherwise, I really like this one.

Thank you Ponzio!

 

[killdozzer]

Allow me to weigh in regarding my favorite release ... Toes All Curled Up

Artist ... Candy

Be careful what you wish for but hey, next Twist Off ... you, sir, have front row.

Note: Eye protection is encouraged.

Much to my shame )) I have to ask... I've been looking for an artist called Candy all night, but allmusic lists hundreds, I don't know which one you're thinking of.

The regular CD version Switch Blade Knife never struck me as anything but a good song that I enjoyed hearing but 'Brothers in Arms' is a standard I have used to check out speakers.

This is the thing, I'm not trying to list standards. I know there are many lists listing beautifully produced albums people use to test, fine tune or demo their equipment. This list should help people find their way among dozens of releases and recommend the most successful one. It's not just about Brothers in Arms being an excellent album, it's about which release of Brothers in Arms is the best one. That's why my list says the one remastered by Bob Ludwig, since out of dozens I've heard, I never heard a better sounding release of that particular album (and all their studio albums for that matter).

You don't have a record player so we can skip past that but the much praised Miles Davis thing. I guess it's as good as everybody says and I own the album. I even listen to it from time to time but I really don't like jazz. I listen it because I know it's good and I want to give it a chance but ... meh.

And that's why I would still like you to tell me which Davis album you're thinking of and whether it's considered to be superior on vinyl than other media. It doesn't matter if I never heard it, it can be you entry.

You're sort of late to the party. Swerd has gleaned some info on the matter and KEW as well has chimed in a time or two with some pretty specific requirements and expectations for the playback of horns. This stuff has been addressed in great lengths back in the day.

No, not really late to the party and the stuff I'm trying to cover wasn't addressed that much. We all know Michael Jackson's Thriller sounds damn good, but which edition does most justice to the album? Furthermore, no one ever gave much attention to regular albums. For example, Tina Turner rarely gets mentioned in the terms of a standard for showcasing your system or fine tuning it, but I'd still like to know what are the successful releases of her music. I'm comparing few releases of her Private Dancer, so far original vinyl pressing dominates the early releases, but I suspect that 2008 CD remaster and especially the 2015 anniversary edition will give vinyl some heavy competition.

 

[killdozzer]

This was a tough one.

Not that it has some sort of in-resolvable orchestrations, this is pop-rock after all, but because it wasn't that obvious. I own a vinyl edition and I found this 30th anniversary edition in a second hand shop (I haven't found the 2008 remastered CD).

Here's the thing; new edition sounds better, but there's also great pleasure in how the original vinyl edition sounds. There's certain overall softness, probably due to analogue technology, but it's pleasing and it is actually a bit less fatiguing.

I'd say that the 30th anniversary edition is the best one I've heard so far, stressing, however, that the vinyl edition will provide a different kind of pleasure.

30th A.E. also offers a lot of extra material so the choice is obvious.

 

[Alex2507]

Much to my shame )) I have to ask... I've been looking for an artist called Candy all night, but allmusic lists hundreds, I don't know which one you're thinking of.

It's a joke. Candy is a stereotypical name for a prostitute. A good example is in the original Highlander movie.

This is the thing, I'm not trying to list standards. I know there are many lists listing beautifully produced albums people use to test, fine tune or demo their equipment. This list should help people find their way among dozens of releases and recommend the most successful one. It's not just about Brothers in Arms being an excellent album, it's about which release of Brothers in Arms is the best one. That's why my list says the one remastered by Bob Ludwig, since out of dozens I've heard, I never heard a better sounding release of that particular album (and all their studio albums for that matter).

Okay, I understand now. The SACD with the CD layer is a 20th Anniversary Edition. I'm not sure if the cd layer is remastered too. I seem to remember Adam saying the SACD stereo version had a lower playback volume than the CD version. It was a while ago and I forget the details.

And that's why I would still like you to tell me which Davis album you're thinking of and whether it's considered to be superior on vinyl than other media. It doesn't matter if I never heard it, it can be you entry.

Miles Davis: Kind of Blue on vinyl is considered to be a superior version as discussed in that AH article that I think was already linked in this thread. I'm too lazy to go back and check at the moment.

No, not really late to the party and the stuff I'm trying to cover wasn't addressed that much. We all know Michael Jackson's Thriller sounds damn good, but which edition does most justice to the album? Furthermore, no one ever gave much attention to regular albums. For example, Tina Turner rarely gets mentioned in the terms of a standard for showcasing your system or fine tuning it, but I'd still like to know what are the successful releases of her music. I'm comparing few releases of her Private Dancer, so far original vinyl pressing dominates the early releases, but I suspect that 2008 CD remaster and especially the 2015 anniversary edition will give vinyl some heavy competition.

I'm imagining TLSguy reading about quality of recordings being talked about in reference to Michael Jackson and Tina Turner and wondering what went wrong with the world.

Long ago a member here had mentioned the Pink Floyd tune Money being really good on a concert DVD which I was able to rent from the Netflix DVD service. Later another member, Walter, gave me the vinyl 4 album set ... along with a turntable. Anyway, I looked that album up and saw that somebody out there was selling it for $500 on Amazon or eBay. So at some point I was on the phone with the owner of a used record store and asked him what was up with that album. He said the usual stuff about the condition of the record and cover but with that particular recording the UK pressing was highly valued. Upon closer inspection I realized that Walter had in fact given me that very version. The shop owner also pointed out that asking prices and selling prices could be wildly different but my copy is f^%&ing near priceless due to sentimental value. There's plenty of music that I enjoy but this thing has like a picture book and the individual album covers have art on them. The sun has not yet risen and I live in a condo but I pulled that album out and am playing it now at a volume barely above a whisper. Another friend of mine has that same recording on CD which I have borrowed. I haven't nor do I plan to ever try to run a comparison. I wouldn't listen to the CD like this at Oh-dark-thirty but here I am spinning and grinning, typing out a long ass post because the experience as a whole gives me the warm fuzzies.

So, for whatever reason, the UK pressing of Pulse is the best version of that recording. Later on today my neighbors may get to enjoy a track or two as well. It's not that I'm not a prick. I'm just not that big a prick. I will let them sleep.

EDIT: Pulse is the name of the album/concert dvd.

 

[killdozzer]

It's a joke. Candy is a stereotypical name for a prostitute. A good example is in the original Highlander movie.






Okay, I understand now. The SACD with the CD layer is a 20th Anniversary Edition. I'm not sure if the cd layer is remastered too. I seem to remember Adam saying the SACD stereo version had a lower playback volume than the CD version. It was a while ago and I forget the details.





Miles Davis: Kind of Blue on vinyl is considered to be a superior version as discussed in that AH article that I think was already linked in this thread. I'm too lazy to go back and check at the moment.





I'm imagining TLSguy reading about quality of recordings being talked about in reference to Michael Jackson and Tina Turner and wondering what went wrong with the world.

Long ago a member here had mentioned the Pink Floyd tune Money being really good on a concert DVD which I was able to rent from the Netflix DVD service. Later another member, Walter, gave me the vinyl 4 album set ... along with a turntable. Anyway, I looked that album up and saw that somebody out there was selling it for $500 on Amazon or eBay. So at some point I was on the phone with the owner of a used record store and asked him what was up with that album. He said the usual stuff about the condition of the record and cover but with that particular recording the UK pressing was highly valued. Upon closer inspection I realized that Walter had in fact given me that very version. The shop owner also pointed out that asking prices and selling prices could be wildly different but my copy is f^%&ing near priceless due to sentimental value. There's plenty of music that I enjoy but this thing has like a picture book and the individual album covers have art on them. The sun has not yet risen and I live in a condo but I pulled that album out and am playing it now at a volume barely above a whisper. Another friend of mine has that same recording on CD which I have borrowed. I haven't nor do I plan to ever try to run a comparison. I wouldn't listen to the CD like this at Oh-dark-thirty but here I am spinning and grinning, typing out a long ass post because the experience as a whole gives me the warm fuzzies.

So, for whatever reason, the UK pressing of Pulse is the best version of that recording. Later on today my neighbors may get to enjoy a track or two as well. It's not that I'm not a prick. I'm just not that big a prick. I will let them sleep.

EDIT: Pulse is the name of the album/concert dvd.

You've got a novel in you and I'd be glad and amused to read it if you ever choose to write it. But damn you, DAMN you Alex!! For making me type all versions of word "candy" and "artist" in my search bars I thought is this, is it that, perhaps it's the OST from the movie The Artist with Dujardin, perhaps the band is Candy and the Artist is the album... No, no, no, is it the other way around, is The Artist the name of the band...

OK! I get it now. So you have a nice "release" with Candy. You dirty bastard. What about Candy by Iggy Pop? Is that a prostitute?

As far as @TLS Guy goes, I respect the man. But, Quincy Jones did some things right, the sound of Michael Jackson being one of them. I imagine Knopfler being the guest on Private Dancer made damn sure the album sounds respectable.

But the main point is; we have a lot of threads listing the wonders of great production. When @TLS Guy mentioned Kalevi Aho, I made sure to get it and those drums are crazy at the beginning, I admit. But, I've noticed that even if it's Lana Del Rey or Billy Idol, thing can sound good and decent and damn awful.

I'd really like to know who gave some effort and remastered, let's say, Donovan Leitch. His "Sand and Foam" is crazy good and peculiar, but it is tough to find a good sounding version. That's all. The info I got from Ponzio is very valuable for me.

 

[Alex2507]

What about Candy by Iggy Pop? Is that a prostitute?

I'm not familiar with Iggy's music.

Sorry about sending you on a wild goose chase ... lol. Okay, I'm really not. It was sort of intentional. I'm not sure how your English is as good as it is and I'm not asking. I get you might value your privacy and anonymity but I thought nuanced slang might escape you. You might want to scrub your search engine though. "Toes All Curled Up" in a search is how you get viruses.

 

[killdozzer]

I'm not familiar with Iggy's music.

Sorry about sending you on a wild goose chase ... lol. Okay, I'm really not. It was sort of intentional. I'm not sure how your English is as good as it is and I'm not asking. I get you might value your privacy and anonymity but I thought nuanced slang might escape you. You might want to scrub your search engine though. "Toes All Curled Up" in a search is how you get viruses.

I do value privacy and it became somewhat of a dying breed, the value can only grow. However, foreign language skills hardly fall into private domain. I was exposed to English since I was four, I always wanted to get even better at it so I pressed hard. No miracle headset.

I feel the dreadful lack of certain dimensions of language that can only be acquired through experience (perhaps through reading prose as well), and I'm not happy about it.

You're right about me typing "toes all curled up" in search bars. Luckily, I don't use Google.

 

[Alex2507]

I do value privacy and it became somewhat of a dying breed, the value can only grow. However, foreign language skills hardly fall into private domain. I was exposed to English since I was four, I always wanted to get even better at it so I pressed hard. No miracle headset.

I feel the dreadful lack of certain dimensions of language that can only be acquired through experience (perhaps through reading prose as well), and I'm not happy about it.

You're right about me typing "toes all curled up" in search bars. Luckily, I don't use Google.

Recently I got to work with a guy from Sarajevo and with a guy from Texas. So I got to say stuff like 'you gotta be able to piss in the tall grass if you wanna hang with the big dogs' to confound the zemljak but my primary means of communicating with him was my native tongue which of course confounded everybody else.

Then again I worked with an unattractive apprentice who had a pretty wife. A laborer referred to him as a 'beard'. I had to ask what that meant. I mean the unattractive apprentice had a good beard but there was something I was missing so I asked. A 'beard' is the male companion a lesbian uses to hide her sexual orientation ... meaning there was no way a girl that pretty could possibly be interested in him.

As big as The States is, the English changes a lot from one end to the other. And then of course there is always Canada where they call couches Chesterfields. I guess back home is even worse for shifting dialects.

 

[killdozzer]

Moving on in BIG style!! I'd expect nothing less than for all of you to already know about this release. But, if there's one person here that missed this, I'd be more than happy.

It is the 100th birthday edition of Lady In Satin by Billie Holiday. I'm absolutely thrilled. It is to my knowledge the best release of this album all together.

Few info:
1958 Originally released 1958. All rights reserved by Columbia Records, a division of Sony Music Entertainment

Lady In Satin is Billie Holiday’s penultimate masterpiece. The 1958 gem is one of her finest achievements and a full display of her immortal vocal abilities. Joined by the Ray Ellis Orchestra, Holiday dazzles on tunes including “For Heaven's Sake,” “You Don't Know What Love Is” and “I'm A Fool To Want You.” The album is one of Holiday’s personal favorites and an emotional listen from start to finish. It is one of jazz’s bestselling albums and was inducted into the GRAMMY® Hall of Fame. Absolutely essential.

This Centennial Edition features a set of extensive liner notes, plus two bonus discs covering the complete Lady In Satin sesseions. The recordings were transferred from the original three-track tapes to a hi-res Pro Tools file by Vic Anesini, and remixed and remastered in 24-bit audio by Maria Triana at Battery Studios, NYC.

Musicians:
Mel Davis - trumpet
Ray Ellis - conductor, arranger
Ray Ellis Orchestra
Barry Galbraith - guitar
Urbie Green - trombone
Milt Hinton - bass
J.J. Johnson - trombone
Osie Johnson - drums
Phil Kraus - Percussion
Tommy Mitchell - trombone
George Ockner - violin
Dave Sawyer - cello
Mal Waldron - piano
Miriam Workman - soprano

Also, I learn this is from untouched tapes:


I didn't find the name of the person who remastered this for CD. I don't know whether this is direct transfer from tapes to CD (I doubt it).

So this is "No Hiss, All Bliss" (trademark). I'm in heaven.

 

[killdozzer]

Billie Holiday - Lady In Satin: The Centennial Edition - Columbia / Legacy Recordings

Dead Can Dance - Spiritchase - SACD, 4AD

Dire Straits - remastered by Bob Ludwig

Django Reinhardt - The Classic Early Recordings in Chronological Order by Ted Kendall

Doors, The - vinyl, Analogue Productions

Ella And Louis Again - SACD, Analogue Productions

Ennio Morricone - Giu' La Testa (35th anniversary edition), CD

Frank Sinatra - Capitol Records era

Jellyfish - Bellybutton, standard CD edition

Jethro Tull - whatever is remastered by Steven Wilson

Led Zeppelin - albums 1,2,3, and 4 (Vinyl version)

- quote by permission from the "High Quality Sound Albums" by PENG

Paul Simon - The Rhythm of The Saints - Legacy Recordings, 2013 remastered box set

Tina Turner - Private Dancer - 30th Anniversary Edition CD

 

[Mikado463]

good list 'dozer' !

my favorite 'release' is blowing the hell out of clay birds on a sporting clay course ..........

 

[Mikado463]

Speaking of Capital Records, the remains of one of their old pressing plants is alongside our railroad in Scranton, Pa. You can still see the lettering on the side of the brick wall, I'll have to grab pic and post it up. As the story goes all the Beatles albums were pressed there ?

 

[Ponzio]

For Beatles fans the 2009 remastered 16 cd box set, The Beatles (The Original Studio Recordings), is a must have. Nothing before or after has come close in sound quality. It came out both in mono & stereo.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Beatles_(The_Original_Studio_Recordings)

 

[killdozzer]

For Beatles fans the 2009 remastered 16 cd box set, The Beatles (The Original Studio Recordings), is a must have. Nothing before or after has come close in sound quality. It came out both in mono & stereo.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Beatles_(The_Original_Studio_Recordings)

Another great entry from Ponzio! I'll sniff around for this.

my favorite 'release' is blowing the hell out of clay birds on a sporting clay course ..........

You're the second person teasing about this "release" thing. You make me question myself. When an album gets released it's a release of an album, right? Am I spelling it wrong or sumthin'?

As for the list, thanks. It's only a start, but hopefully it'll grow into a decent list of recommendations. It often happens to me that I remember some album from long ago and want to listen to it only to get disappointed with the sound. That's where the idea came from. I have a vinyl of Lady In Satin, few days ago when I finally got the Centennial Edition, I couldn't believe. It was like hearing it for the first time. I did one close listening with headphones and a few over the speakers.

I guess this thread would be most useful to people who never heard some of the recommended editions (arrrgh, you see what you made me do, now I'm avoiding the word "release"). Hearing it for the first time AND properly!!! To avoid spoiling your joy with some dim, crackling, poor excuse.

Feel free to throw a few titles here.

@Pogre You were mentioning Pink Floyd, which is actually tough choice. They all sound good. A lot of their albums are just made right. But I didn't forget your input. I'm investigating these "Black Triangle" editions by Toshiba. I want to see if they're mere collectables and curiosities or if they really sound better than the rest. But it's not that easy to find those. It's even harder if it's some of their more liked albums; Meddle, DSOTM, WYWH etc.

 

[Mikado463]

dozer, just bustin' your stones a wee bit !

as for the 'release' thing, maybe you were speaking of the mold release agent as it relates to the stamping of the Lp ?

 

[killdozzer]

dozer, just bustin' your stones a wee bit !

as for the 'release' thing, maybe you were speaking of the mold release agent as it relates to the stamping of the Lp ?

Aaa, bust away... As long as I'm not making a tit of myself like the guy singing Kentucky to the "Can't Touch This" tune by Hammer.

You've heard of Ken Lee? Don't tell me you haven't!

 

[Mikado463]

Bruce's brother, right .........