Astroboy2112 Posted May 16, 2013 Share Posted May 16, 2013 (edited) The moment i been waiting for for the past 11 years is finally here!!! Vapor Trails in pristine sounding quality.Yes the album still sounds LOUD but you can finally hear Neil's high hat/cymbal work, Alex's layered guitar work instead of the wall o' sound, and Geddy's thumbing bass! Just finished listening to the whole thing and heard so many notes I never heard before. All the distortion and crackling that made Vapor Trail, Earthshine, Secret Touch, etc absolutely unlistanable is gone! I repeat the crackling is gone and everything sounds crystal clear. This IMO makes this album a top 5 album. The material is simply fantastic! The album can finally be rediscoved and recognized for what it is - a modern Rush masterpiece. Now im sure that some ppl will still complain that the album is too heavy, high on the trebble, too jammy, etc but I think all of that is part of it's charm. Rush was a loud and obnoxious band in the early 70's ( just hear those old boots, specially the 5th Order of Angels stuff, etc) so I never really got why so many ppl complain that Rush's new material is too heavy when clearly their beginnings are rooted in some very hard rock. Buy the thing, it's awesome. Ok, off to hear Earthshine again! P.S. Presto finally sounds great too! P.S.S. Talking about the new Atlantic era compilation. Edited May 16, 2013 by Astroboy2112 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phantom Posted May 16, 2013 Share Posted May 16, 2013 As long as it's a noticeable improvement from the album release, with some breathing room, it'll make for a very interesting listen. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pags Posted May 16, 2013 Share Posted May 16, 2013 I am intrigued. Are these the iTunes releases I'm seeing a buzz about? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
circumstantial tree Posted May 16, 2013 Share Posted May 16, 2013 I'm fine with the original CD. A little grit don't hurt none. 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kingdirk Posted May 16, 2013 Share Posted May 16, 2013 Unfortunately (and somewhat ironically), the Canadian iTunes store only has the Mercury years collection. I don't believe that the Atlantic albums have been remastered in our store just yet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Astroboy2112 Posted May 16, 2013 Author Share Posted May 16, 2013 (edited) Yup, from my understanding both the HDtracks version and "mastered for itunes" ver are done by the same guy, Andy Van Dette, can someone confirm this? I just got the itunes version, all the albums sound so much better, which begs the question, why doesnt Rush work with people who would make their records sound this good from the get go? Even Snakes and Arrows sounds much better and that's from 2007! Edited May 16, 2013 by Astroboy2112 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steevo Posted May 16, 2013 Share Posted May 16, 2013 I'm fine with the original CD. A little grit don't hurt none. Dunno what all the fuss is about really. It's a fine album as well. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Snaked Posted May 16, 2013 Share Posted May 16, 2013 $50 for the whole collection or $16.77 for just Vapor Trails. I'll wait till somebody puts it up as a torrent so I can preview the whole thing and then decide. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Analog_Bro Posted May 16, 2013 Share Posted May 16, 2013 I just A/B'd the itunes samples with the original CD and based on what I hear the volume on the iTunes version is not as loud plus I just listened to OLV and Earthshine and where on the original CD there was crackling on the iTunes version there was none so that is promising I couldn't hear any big differences beyond the lack of crackling and slightly lowered volume though Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LedRush Posted May 16, 2013 Share Posted May 16, 2013 These remasters will be released on physical discs soon, according to RIAB. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Astroboy2112 Posted May 16, 2013 Author Share Posted May 16, 2013 Crackling is gone, which was the big issue for me but you can also hear a lot of notes u couldnt hear before- from all 3. Alex''s guitar layers / Neil's hi hat& cymbals, Geddy's bass all sound so much more clear and defined. I didn't like Rich chiky's remixes on the Retrospective 3 release as the crackling was still there and he toned down Alex's guitar and boosted drum& bass which gave the songs a different character than the original hard and heavy ones. This really does sound like VT was intended to sound from the get go, a really hard rocking guitar driven record with no f***ing distortion and crackling Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lerxster Posted May 16, 2013 Share Posted May 16, 2013 Crackling is gone, which was the big issue for me but you can also hear a lot of notes u couldnt hear before- from all 3. Alex''s guitar layers / Neil's hi hat& cymbals, Geddy's bass all sound so much more clear and defined. I didn't like Rich chiky's remixes on the Retrospective 3 release as the crackling was still there and he toned down Alex's guitar and boosted drum& bass which gave the songs a different character than the original hard and heavy ones. This really does sound like VT was intended to sound from the get go, a really hard rocking guitar driven record with no f***ing distortion and cracklingReally, better than the R3 remixes? Are you trying to get me excited? Can't wait to hear more feedback on this. Maybe this is why Chycki's VT remix work was shelved- so it wouldn't compete with the iTunes VT remaster. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Astroboy2112 Posted May 16, 2013 Author Share Posted May 16, 2013 I know a lot of ppl complain about all the recent Rush re-releases and how they are unecessary and whatnot but I for one am very happy that all these stuff is coming out. I bought the sectors a while back and all of those sound terrific too, I liked how they corrected some of the mistakes on the 80's albums in particular, for example you can finally hear Alex guitar which was buried on Signals! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pags Posted May 16, 2013 Share Posted May 16, 2013 Crackling is gone, which was the big issue for me but you can also hear a lot of notes u couldnt hear before- from all 3. Alex''s guitar layers / Neil's hi hat& cymbals, Geddy's bass all sound so much more clear and defined. I didn't like Rich chiky's remixes on the Retrospective 3 release as the crackling was still there and he toned down Alex's guitar and boosted drum& bass which gave the songs a different character than the original hard and heavy ones. This really does sound like VT was intended to sound from the get go, a really hard rocking guitar driven record with no f***ing distortion and cracklingReally, better than the R3 remixes? Are you trying to get me excited? Can't wait to hear more feedback on this. Maybe this is why Chycki's VT remix work was shelved- so it wouldn't compete with the iTunes VT remaster.It could be that, or because they realized those remixes suck. (my opinion) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pags Posted May 16, 2013 Share Posted May 16, 2013 $50 for the whole collection or $16.77 for just Vapor Trails.I'll wait till somebody puts it up as a torrent so I can preview the whole thing and then decide.Send me a message if you find that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Astroboy2112 Posted May 16, 2013 Author Share Posted May 16, 2013 I downloaded Vapor Trail ( the song) first cuz that's the song i wanted the most without all the f***ing crackling and distortion. There are good versions of Earthshine and Secret Touch live but there was no listenable version of Vapor Trail. So once i saw that they fixed the crackling and the separation between instruments was better i decided to get the whole thing. All the cds in the Atlantic era benefited from this remaster. Even S&A - Neil's drums on TWTWB sound killer! Neil's percussion really shines and his hi hat/ cymbal work has never sounded clearer. Off to listen to Available Light! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrvander Posted May 16, 2013 Share Posted May 16, 2013 I for one, will pass on this. I don't think mastering for a specific, lossy format is the point of mastering (and I have zero investment in the apple ecosystem). However, I do see these are now available at HDtracks as well so that begs the question - were all these tracks remastered for iTunes then simply offered at the higher bitrate on HDTracks? That's still a no-no in my book. The original product is still compromised since they mastered things to avoid the compression artifacts of AAC. To me, not a true remaster. http://www.npr.org/blogs/therecord/2012/02/24/147379760/what-mastered-for-itunes-really-means Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrvander Posted May 16, 2013 Share Posted May 16, 2013 Now I'll play devil's adovcate with my own post here. I guess mastering for CD is the same thing, you're mastering for a 16-bit format to avoid artifacts (which failed with VT). I guess it remains to be seen if the HDTracks versions really do sound better despite being mastered for AAC compression. They very well may, since the AAC compression never actually happened with the tracks from HDTracks. So what will happen with the physical media when it's released? Will they be AAC encoded files on physical media for digitial devices or will it be a true 16-bit CD and how will the specific mastering for lossy AAC sound on a 16-bit CD? Curious. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rushgoober Posted May 16, 2013 Share Posted May 16, 2013 http://static.someecards.com/someecards/usercards/1330255207279_8204336.png 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
H. P. L. Posted May 16, 2013 Share Posted May 16, 2013 :eyeroll: :eyeroll: :eyeroll: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Motorshooter Posted May 16, 2013 Share Posted May 16, 2013 These remasters will be released on physical discs soon, according to RIAB. Happy, happy, joy-joy on that great news! I love that album!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lerxster Posted May 16, 2013 Share Posted May 16, 2013 http://static.someecards.com/someecards/usercards/1330255207279_8204336.pngVapor Trailz Rulez, Rusester! Cock-a-doodle-doo it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Khan Posted May 16, 2013 Share Posted May 16, 2013 http://static.someecards.com/someecards/usercards/1330255207279_8204336.png I still wonder why they screwed the pooch on the sound in the first place.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrvander Posted May 16, 2013 Share Posted May 16, 2013 I still wonder why they screwed the pooch on the sound in the first place.. it was out of the band's/producer's hands. They delivered it to the distribution chain. The mastering process screwed the pooch as you say. Although, there seems to be some evidence the band also introduced digital distortion duing recording/mixing as well. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vapor_Trails Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bathory Posted May 16, 2013 Share Posted May 16, 2013 no. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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