bierfeldt
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New releases of old vinyl
Sloansong
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I love it when we get lucky and get that fantastic mastering, transfer, right thing that sometimes happens lol!

Nellomilanese
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Happened to me too a few times! i'd pick up a 70's used vinyl, or a new release thinking this can't be good but what the heck i'll try...I'd put it on and my jaw would drop :O
Case in point: Joao Gilberto live at Montreaux (vinyl)..holly bat crap!

geoffkait
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Just picked up the 2 CD set of Black Sabbath's Reunion at one of the local shoes and got a super deal. I have seen the DVD of their reunion and it's GOOD. So, while I'm waiting around for the current batch if CDs to finish the freeze thaw cycle in the freezer, twiddling my thumbs, I decided to look up Reunion on the Unofficial Dynamic Range Database. While there are many Black Sabbath CDs and vinyl releases with high dynamic range among the 3 pages devoted to Black Sabbath on the database Reunion, alas, is not one of them. Which is rather surprising since the stupid thing came out in 1998. This is probably the Poster Child of early Overly Compressed CDs. Geez, that's almost 20 years ago!

How bad is it? You decide....

Black Sabbath Reunion CD2 i 1998 08 07 09 lossless Unknown
Black Sabbath Reunion CD1 i 1998 08 08 09 lossless Unknown

Geoff Kait
Machina Dramatica

bierfeldt
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I have that CD and even saw them on the tour that followed in 1999. It is an uncommon disc for me to listen to as I don't think that it was a particularly good performance or recording. Dirty Women was one of the few great tracks on it. I will hav to give it a listen to see how mediocre it really is.

bierfeldt
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What an awful recording. I bought this the day it came out and I have not listened to it in a long time. It sounds flat and compressed. It was never the best performance. War Pigs is awful. Ozzy's sounds terrible. The timing was off inBeyond the Wall of Sleep. NIB sounds okay. Very little separation in the drums on Fairies Wear Boots. Okay version of Electric Funeral but again it feels like the timing is off. Ozzy's also sounds a bit off. Sweet Leaf sounds compressed but it makes less difference since it isn't a particularly dynamic song. If anything, this was mixed to emphasize the bass way too much.

Ozzy's just butchers Spiral Architect but at least the guitar sounds open. Into the Void gets mediocre separation on the notes of the guitar and again too much bass. At least Ozzy's sings it well. Again, Ozzy's butchers Snowblind. But the guitar is only barely audible above the mass of bass noise. Sabbath Bloody sabbath sounds flat and all of a sudden they de-emphasized the bass. Lord of This World is one of my absolute favorite Sabbath songs and actually is performed moderately well. Probably the second best track on the record. Still sounds a bit compressed but better than most.

Really as I listen to this whole CD, I realize the DVD sounds a lot better. What a crappy CD. Now I realize why I rarely listen to this disc and the only track to make it to a portable device was Dirty Women. Sorry you bought it, even used. Live Evil was a much better live recording but Dio was also a better singer. Frankly, so was Cross Purposes Live though few are fans of the Tony Martin era the way I am.

geoffkait
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Thanks a lot for posting that. It's good to see some strong correlation between the data on the Dynamic Range Database and the actual sound. Unfortunately for your humble scribe a lot of my favs are in the same boat as Reunion. Things like Dylan's Modern Times, the Stones' Bridges to Baylon and A Bigger Bang, almost all Radiohead CDs, the Zeppelin Mothership, to name a few. Color me pissed.

It's nice to see that dynamic range is not some abstract audio parameter that you can control with the VOLUME KNOB.

Geoff Kait
Machina Dynamica

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