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Post by madprofessorblyth on May 25, 2018 20:46:09 GMT
I've recently been really intrigued by the two Hollies 'Original Album Series' sets, though I've been a little reluctant to get either yet. I already own all three of the 'Complete Hollies' sets (C,H, & N Years, Changin' Times, Head Out Of Dreams) so I'd basically have the exact same remasters I already have (as far as I know, the exact info of the remasters for the OAS sets are a bit hard to find), so it would mostly be for collectability.
Besides any good general info on these sets, if anyone would be able to tell me their opinion if it's still worth getting either (or both) if I already have the other sets, what the mini LPs look like (if anyone has them, or any pictures!) and if they're all 1998/1999 masters and if the first set is all in mono.
Hopefully anybody here would be able to shed some light on them for me.
Thanks!
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Post by madprofessorblyth on May 25, 2018 21:39:44 GMT
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Post by cameron on May 25, 2018 21:48:59 GMT
They're the same remasters as the Clarke, Hicks & Nash Years and Changin Times sets. The mini-LP sleeves are replicas of the originals but nothing to write home about and For Certain Because... and Hollies Sing Dylan aren't gatefolds so have modified sleeves to accommodate the tracklist. The artwork appears to be scans in some cases, the writing illegible on the back of Confessions Of A Mind. They also have a coloured border around the front covers.
My advise is to forget about the OAS and source the original EMI 1999 remasters, that at least offer stereo/mono mixes on one CD up to Butterfly, and use the same remasters as all subsequent releases. That said, they're not remasters as such, just flat copies of the master tape, so they do all sound a bit lifeless. The 2007 remasters of Hollies (1974), Romany and Another Night are by far the best sounding so far, with a selection of bonus tracks. It's a shame EMI never continued the series.
I'm *hoping* that now Ron Furmanek is back on board with the Hollies, they'll have a look at properly remastering their back catalogue and remixing some of the earlier albums, but I'm not holding my breath, just holding it for those elusive new rarities compilations!
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Post by dirtyfaz on May 26, 2018 3:20:16 GMT
Professor the mixes on those 2 LPs are different but having said that the difference may only be in the stereo field with the fields being reversed and the vocals centered. a few different mixes of mus stop are out the and somewhere along time the original mono version changed to being a fold down of the stereo mix to try and cover us the vocal error at approx 2.22. I actually like the Ron Furmanek remix version from the 93 US 30th Anniversary collection. Some folks don't like his stereo mix but it most certainly corrects the vocal error as Allan's vocals a split over the 2 channels.
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Post by madprofessorblyth on May 31, 2018 0:42:21 GMT
In the end, decided not to go after the OAS sets at all, though I managed to find a copy of the above aforementioned US 30th Anniversary Collection, and I'm absolutely blown away by these mixes. Only about half way through, going through the big hits (will digest the entirety as a whole soon enough) but already I'm impressed and in awe. Some of them I will say a re a bit heavy on the vocals over the instruments (particularly If I Needed Someone) but most of them seem to evade this issue. The mixes of "Bus Stop" and "Don't Run And Hide" were particularly eye opening (coming from someone whose main reference prior was the very handy Clarke Hicks Nash Years set). All I can say now is god bless Ron Furmanek and I hope this Archive series, or any Hollies release project at all has his ultimate involvement!
Quite the perfect collection bookends, time to continue with 'After The Fox'...!
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Post by dirtyfaz on May 31, 2018 1:15:51 GMT
MFP I like most of the mixes but they certainly polarised a lot of people. I appreciated it for what it was. Lots of 1st time stereo although the later tracks haven't been remixed. Guess they were considered good in the first place.
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Post by cameron on May 31, 2018 10:46:54 GMT
I don't think the mixes were the issue, it was the ridiculously hot mastering that just distorted most of the tracks. I re-mastered most of the tracks as best as I could to get rid of the distortion and clipping, but once audio does that, it's virtually impossible to get rid of it.
As for the mixes, Ron did what he could with what was available. He was allowed a quick run through the archives for a week or so at a time over two weeks. He pretty much grabbed the final session master tape and ran back to America to mix them at his leisure I guess. Originally, Ron Richards would bounce-down the instrumental track to one track, to free up three others. Two would be vocals and one would be for percussion and guitar overdubs. So that's all Ron Furmanek had to work with in most cases, hence the vocals spread out over the mix. If he'd be allowed the time to go through all the session tapes properly and sync-up the pre-bounce tracks, he'd have at least seven tracks to play with on most of the songs. I really hope that's what's happening now for the Archive series. Ron will work wonders, but he can only do so much depending on how it was recorded in the first place. His recent work on the Herman's Hermits 50th Anniversary set was absolutely stunning.
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Post by dirtyfaz on Jun 1, 2018 4:50:27 GMT
Cam, your ears are a lot younger than mine. I didn't find it like you described with the mastering (what is mastering? fiddling with the knobs through the sound spectrum to highlight different audio sounds?) I would have thought in 92/93 or thereabouts mastering hadn't reached to absurd levels it is mostly done these days and maybe since the early 2000s. I was under the impression that Ron was attempting to match the original 45s in most cases so maybe he did the the compression etc stuff to try and achieve it. I have had a look at the wave files and in general they may be a little louder than normal but don't appear to be clipped much if at all.
Me not being an audio engineer or even audio trained, I just listen and if I like then great.
I do remember back in the early days of CDs that the BGO CDs were harsh to listen to if played with a little volume.
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Post by dirtyfaz on Jun 1, 2018 5:09:11 GMT
Just thought this like may be good for everyone to at least get a basic handle on mastering.
Chris
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Post by cameron on Jun 1, 2018 10:49:02 GMT
Mastering is exactly what you think it is - adding compression and EQ to a track in order for it to be reproduced properly on whatever medium the music comes on. On vinyl, the sound has to be run through the RIAA curve to compress the sound to allow the wave to be small enough to fit in the groove. Your pre-amp then boosts the signal.
CD is much simpler as you can press it to the disc as it comes. This was the problem in the early days of CDs like the '30th Anniversary Collection', as CDs may have sounded incredible on monitor speakers in a studio, but not at home on your average system, which I suspect is what has happened here. There's far too much mid-range on this set, it destroys the vocals on a lot of tracks.
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