I found the sound quality of the Some Girls reissue unlistenable. It is mixed sooo high. The companion disc is fine. Is it just me.

Everything is mastered too high these days. I loved the sound of the original vinyl.

Get the 2013 Japanese SHM-CD. Original sound with no remastering tricks.

Your ears are good. The dymanic range is likely the culprit and why the SHM-CD is good and the vinyl is great. Check out the analysis of the different formats and releases here.

[dr.loudness-war.info]

peace

That said... if you want the most audiophile edition on CD, you should probably get the very first CD release on CBS/Columbia.

For one thing, SOME GIRLS is too tinny - too high end. Too clean. But the sound of the album in the medium - the original vinyl release is good. The original CD issue is fine, as Kowalksi said, and I find the Virgin reissue to be pretty good (somehow a tad bit warmer). I got the 2011 or whenever it was one and holy crap... it's just horrible. I put the Virgin back on the computer and have never played the UMe record again.

Having a high end tinny and ear breaking album sound even louder is not good.

The original album, and the Japanese vinyl sound way better. Four to the floor bass mix that really suited the album. So much better than the recent release. I also agree that the bonus disc sounds better. I love No Spare Parts, such a great modern classic.

There are 4 different masterings of Some Girls on CD :

- the first CD release from around 1986/1987 (either CK-40449 or CDCBS-450197-2) which sounds really fine and is the most audiophile version of all (no limited peaks, full dynamic range, very fine EQ)

- the 1994 Bob Ludwig remaster released by Virgin (either 7243-8-39505-2-2 or CDV-2734) which sounds quite good but has a heavy "peaks limiting" applied on it in order to get a fuller sound. Maybe it's also because of the EQ choices, but I think it makes it sound rather dull.

- the 2009 Stephen Marcussen remaster released by Universal Music (UMe) (either B0012837-02 or 0602527015668). This one could have sounded good but is ruined by the mastering choices : way too loud with almost no dynamic range left. Just sounds lifeless and very harsh in my ears...
This is the one available on the 2011 deluxe edition too.

- the 2013 Japan-only SHM-CD reissue by Universal Japan (either UICY-75887 or UICY-40012) made from the 2011 flat transfers from original master tapes. Really natural sounding but to me it lacks a good mastering. It sounds almost the same as the first CD edition from the 80's (which says a lot about how the CD medium went down the road with all the remastering hype...). However it features the peak limiting from the original master which makes it a bit heavier on mid-range than the first CD edition. This is probably the best choice to get the original vinyl sound on CD though.

My cassette still sound ok to me

It all sounds like a bitches brew.

I read that in the old days when they brought the original analog studio master tape to the record cutting machine, to make a vinyl pressing master master, they almost always had to shave off some of the low end. The reason for this is that the bass waveforms are wide and eat up vinyl real estate. The two basic options were low volume and full low end, or shave off the low end for higher volume. So the record cutting process had to "steal from the low end." So it wasn't what the producers were hearing on their studio monitor speakers. This would piss the artists off.

Almost always they weighted in favor of lower-bass-higher-volume. The reason for this is because the record surface noise quickly becomes a real problem at low volume.

Therefore.... IMO, the "real" CD release would be from the original untouched master tapes - zero processing. This implies that there is a "truer sound to discover for the first time" for many original vinyl albums on CD or digital.

Perhaps some of the original CDs were actually done like this? However, to make the "CD sound like the record" they may have still shaved off the low end.

The whole thing is confusing.

In a semi-related vain, on the official RS YT channel their are a few clips from the Marquee club gig in 1971, it looks like first-generation video. The quality is "amazing" compared to a typical third or fourth-generation video. All of the old Marquee clips floating around always looked third or fourth generation.

Somebody is rummaging through the vaults!

It's like you never knew video could look soo gooood! Yeah! Woo! It was probably recored in the professional video format at the time. I think 1971 predates Beta SP though so I don't know what format.

OMG I see the sound expert Kowalski is on here so he will get to the bottom of this. lol

Incidentally, when I was a kid I read an article about Killer Kowalski so I know why you chose your name. He was a serious audiophile.

one of those forest/trees things, this.

@MileHigh - Sorry for sharing some informations that go over your ears. By the way ever heard of Richard Sarafian ? You should check him out, he made some quite good movies in the 70's...

Kowalski good info I have the early CD. I will treasure it. Thanks for a great read and synopsis.

The vinyl still sounds great. I have the Virgin and Universal cds, and the former sounds way better, like kowalski says.

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71Tele
Everything is mastered too high these days. I loved the sound of the original vinyl.

+1

Outstanding sounding from original vinyl 1978...

2 1 2 0

I've got EOMS on a CBS cd,does that have a decent reputation sound wise ?

Just interested.

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Brown Moses
I've got EOMS on a CBS cd,does that have a decent reputation sound wise ?

Just interested.

I think almost any version has a better rep than the newer remasters. Having said that, I prefer my Virgin 1994 copy to the original CBS CD.

test...

__________________________

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Brown Moses
I've got EOMS on a CBS cd,does that have a decent reputation sound wise ?

Just interested.

To my memory that was terrible like some othere early CD's. But haven't listened to it for many years.

I largely agree with kowalski. Get the so called Turquoise Blue DSD flat transfer, . While not quite great as their transfers of Goat, IORR and Fingers (Some Girls is of course not as rich in sounds as those are), this series is the one that are either on par with my old japanese vinyls or better. A warm rich sound. And no, I don´t particularly enjoy the 2009 version either.

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Brown Moses
I've got EOMS on a CBS cd,does that have a decent reputation sound wise ?

Just interested.

I believe, CBS Sticky Fingers and EOMS got 'mixed' reputation. People say SF is short on bass, while EOMS does not sound good anyway (in audiophile sense) . And to make things worth - there is HUGE mastering bug in Sweet Virginia at the beginning of the coda (at 2.01 or something like that)



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2015-04-27 21:29 by ironbelly.

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Brown Moses
I've got EOMS on a CBS cd,does that have a decent reputation sound wise ?

Just interested.

It sounds quite good to me. Very natural and very enjoyable. It's true Sweet Virginia has a sound problem at around 2 minutes in the song (when Jagger starts singing "Come on, come on down...", sound level goes suddenly a little lower) but it's not such a big deal... Actually it sounds very close to the Japan SHM-CD from 2013, the SHM-CD sounding slightly better on the acoustic tracks though.

Other great sounding CBS CD's are Goats Head Soup and Emotional Rescue. But IMO all of them are worth the little money they're now selling for.

So, being someone who went full speed ahead .mp3 in the early 2000s, and ripped my original master Some Girls CD, will I enjoy the brilliant mastering even ripped to .mp3?

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jazzbass
So, being someone who went full speed ahead .mp3 in the early 2000s, and ripped my original master Some Girls CD, will I enjoy the brilliant mastering even ripped to .mp3?

As long as you use high bit rate mp3 you will probably be OK. 320kbits/sec or higher is my recommendation. Never as good as lossless but hard to tell with lots of rock and roll. Brilliant mastering will always help.

peace

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treaclefingers

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Brown Moses
I've got EOMS on a CBS cd,does that have a decent reputation sound wise ?

Just interested.

I think almost any version has a better rep than the newer remasters. Having said that, I prefer my Virgin 1994 copy to the original CBS CD.

I'm with ya. I'd take the CBS over the UMe remasters anyday but I prefer the Virgins.

One side note on Some Girls... In my opinion, a lot of the complaints about the thin/shrill sound mix, would go away if the snare was mixed differently, and if the bass was pushed up in the mix a bit. The snare is very 3-5kHz heavy and because of that is cracks more than 'slams'. I have always thought how cool it would be to hear the drum sound of Voodoo Lounge with everything else mixed exactly the same on Some Girls.

Isn't that weird how VL has such a softer sound to it where as SG is so damn brittle?

The mix of SG must've been done like it is on purpose. For Jagger to "compete" with the punks. Because ER, done at the same studio mostly, sounds completely different (ie a thousand times better). And by then the punk thing had settled down.

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Naturalust

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jazzbass
So, being someone who went full speed ahead .mp3 in the early 2000s, and ripped my original master Some Girls CD, will I enjoy the brilliant mastering even ripped to .mp3?

As long as you use high bit rate mp3 you will probably be OK. 320kbits/sec or higher is my recommendation. Never as good as lossless but hard to tell with lots of rock and roll. Brilliant mastering will always help.

peace

Agreed, I once ripped 320kbit mp3's from the CBS Remasters Package 1971-1986 and have never had to deal with any of the compression troubles.

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ironbelly

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Brown Moses
I've got EOMS on a CBS cd,does that have a decent reputation sound wise ?

Just interested.

I believe, CBS Sticky Fingers and EOMS got 'mixed' reputation. People say SF is short on bass, while EOMS does not sound good anyway (in audiophile sense) . And to make things worth - there is HUGE mastering bug in Sweet Virginia at the beginning of the coda (at 2.01 or something like that)

To me, the CBS re-master of "All Down the Line" sounds flat compared to the Virgin re-master.

In general,(aside from the 2013 SHM-SACD's , bonus discs , and Japanese Vinyl),I listen to the Virgin CD's for the '70's material and to the CBS CD's for the '80's material (including "Emotional Rescue" as an '80's album) ... with a couple of exceptions each way. CBS for "Goat's Head Soup" and "Some Girls". Virgin for "Tattoo You" and "Dirty Work".