2015 vinyl remaster thoughts of Presto & Roll The Bones?

[starscreamsrevenge]

Hopefully Rush will be releasing all of Sean Magee's vinyl remasters on CD every time a 40th Anniversary of an album comes up. 

 

For anyone who has them, how does Sean's remasters for Presto and Roll The Bones sound out of interest? 

 

These are the two I'm most looking forward to hearing when we get to that point - only another 6 and 8 years to go ha ha!!! :) :) 

 

 

[Rush Didact]

In a nutshell: good, but not great.

 

I did a shootout between the three vinyl versions of RTB a while back: the original West German pressing, the Brazilian pressing, and the 2015 Magee pressing.

 

The Brazilian (unsurprisingly) was the worst.  Atrociously noisy vinyl to begin with, and it was very clearly mastered directly from the CD.  It sounds like someone just hooked a CD player up to a cutting lathe and let 'er rip.  It's thin, harsh, and grating, just like the original CD master was.

 

The other two, though... it's kind of a toss-up.  It comes down to what you prefer to listen to.  The West German has a more forward sound with a more aggressive midrange (a more stereotypically "rock" sound), while the Magee is more laid back, with mids that are a little recessed.  It sounds crisp, with a somewhat cleaner overall presentation.  The Magee has unquestionably the best quality vinyl, it's dead silent.

 

None of them really make me happy, though.  My preferred version is my own re-EQ'ed version of Kevin Gray's master that he did for Audio Fidelity.  I cut about 2 dB out of the upper mids (3 - 6 kHz) and gave it a gentle boost to the low end, adding about 0.5 dB to the sub bass and bass (40 - 150 Hz) and a full decibel to the bass "cloud" (150 - 500 Hz).  The vocals sound much more natural that way, it gives Ged's voice some body and power, and it brings out a lot of subtle synth and guitar parts that get buried under the screaming midrange it has in its original form.

 

If you ask me, no one has ever mastered RTB properly.  It's actually a really good sounding album if you cut back on those harsh upper mids.

 

As for Presto, it's more or less the same deal as RTB.  The American and West German pressings sound virtually identical, with more mids than the Magee.  Again, my preferred version is my own re-EQ'ed digital copy.

[78jazz]

I should put my copy on to remind myself.

 

I don't remember too much being different.

[ytserush]

I hope all of the 2015 masters see a CD release. Even the live albums.

The best CD versions of Presto and Roll The Bones that I've heard are the Audio Fidelity releases. They aren't major improvements but there is improved clarity and slightly more punch.

[YYZ Working Man]

Please someone  re-mix  Presto less trebly, less mid range!! The  treble and the high mid ranges lack of bass ranges  almost killed this album .

Blame this on Bob Ludwig overseeing the mastering .No excuse when you are working with  a world class state of the art  SSL console and a perfectly natural acoustic room at  Le Studio at the time. 

[starscreamsrevenge]

On 6/13/2023 at 11:52 PM, Rush Didact said:

In a nutshell: good, but not great.

 

I did a shootout between the three vinyl versions of RTB a while back: the original West German pressing, the Brazilian pressing, and the 2015 Magee pressing.

 

The Brazilian (unsurprisingly) was the worst.  Atrociously noisy vinyl to begin with, and it was very clearly mastered directly from the CD.  It sounds like someone just hooked a CD player up to a cutting lathe and let 'er rip.  It's thin, harsh, and grating, just like the original CD master was.

 

The other two, though... it's kind of a toss-up.  It comes down to what you prefer to listen to.  The West German has a more forward sound with a more aggressive midrange (a more stereotypically "rock" sound), while the Magee is more laid back, with mids that are a little recessed.  It sounds crisp, with a somewhat cleaner overall presentation.  The Magee has unquestionably the best quality vinyl, it's dead silent.

 

None of them really make me happy, though.  My preferred version is my own re-EQ'ed version of Kevin Gray's master that he did for Audio Fidelity.  I cut about 2 dB out of the upper mids (3 - 6 kHz) and gave it a gentle boost to the low end, adding about 0.5 dB to the sub bass and bass (40 - 150 Hz) and a full decibel to the bass "cloud" (150 - 500 Hz).  The vocals sound much more natural that way, it gives Ged's voice some body and power, and it brings out a lot of subtle synth and guitar parts that get buried under the screaming midrange it has in its original form.

 

If you ask me, no one has ever mastered RTB properly.  It's actually a really good sounding album if you cut back on those harsh upper mids.

 

As for Presto, it's more or less the same deal as RTB.  The American and West German pressings sound virtually identical, with more mids than the Magee.  Again, my preferred version is my own re-EQ'ed digital copy.

 

Just catching up on the thread after some time away. 

 

Thanks for the info about how Magee's master sounds on vinyl. If the conversion to CD sounds as good for this as the other 40th Anniversary masters on CD, they both should be worth getting (when we get to that point!) 

[starscreamsrevenge]

On 6/18/2023 at 4:18 AM, ytserush said:

I hope all of the 2015 masters see a CD release. Even the live albums.

 

Let's hope so! 

 

I think using the "40th Anniversary" of an album's release has been deliberate. We're only 6 years now from Presto having that anniversary, so I think they're probably planning for everything up until Test For Echo.

 

Whether they get there will unfortunately depend on sales as everything does unfortunately, so if we want to see them released we've got to buy them :)