I'll try to get to it tonight. Still evaluating new gear so lots of listening ahead. I have no idea as to why things went the way they did. It would seem that Cat/Yusef was very much involved so no idea how things could have gone so haywire. I know damn little of the recording industry or how it works. You and others here know a great deal about it so I read on and enjoy all the chat. I'm happy to have stirred this up and have learned a great deal. Thanks to all. |
OK, so I gave the dbx copy a listen last night. It is undoubtedly one of the worst recordings that I have ever heard in my life. It may be the worst. For starters, there is a loud hiss that you can hear even over soft passages of music. It is present for the entire recording and stops to dead silence between tracks so you know it is recorded hiss. If it is tape hiss, it is the worst and loudest I have ever heard. I thought I had a tube going bad or something until it got past the first song and went dead quiet. Furthermore, it sounds very thin and tinny as though it was recorded in a large trash can or something. Has an almost echo quality, that sounds terrible. His voice is nearly unrecognizable, instruments as well sound terrible. There is a level of detail that shows at times but it all sounds terribly unnatural. The only reason to own a copy of this that I can think of would be to illustrate to people just how badly it can go. It is a terrible injustice to Cat Stevens and I'm shocked that it ever made it to the stores. It is the only copy I've ever seen but I would certainly never look for another one either. It will stay in my collection but only as a pure novelty item. My wife heard it with me and agreed from the very beginning, that this was something truly awful You would have to hear this for yourself to believe it. My son showed up about halfway through it and he was shocked to hear that it was vinyl. He knows the album well, just not this copy. On the bright side, it is a perfect example, not a single tic or pop on all of side one. None of us had a desire to hear side two. Unbelievable. So..........went to the Island copy immediately after. The strength and clarity of his voice was back. The bass was back, the clarity of the guitar was back. The drums sounded more real. I tried to pay particular attention to the drums and cymbols since our drummer friend @bdp24 told us that they missed the mark. I have to admit cymbols were very faint if you heard them at all. Something I had never noticed before, simply not knowing what to look for. I still feel that this recording is better than the others, 1000% better than the dbx copy. I will check the other A&M copies next. As I said before, they used to be my reference point and I never found them to be lacking in anything. I'll post my findings. New gear, new details still being discovered. |
After you brought this to my attention, I did a bit of reading on dbx albums. It seems that many enjoy them with the proper gear and it may be preferred over Dolby. I'm not likely to take that step.but never say never. When I had Dolby on a cassette deck, I never used it as it seemed to me to take away from what I started with. There was a time when I taped every album when it was new, put it away and listened to the tapes to preserve the LP's. Haven't done that in many years. I am much more careful with the records these days. Well cared for, they can last a lifetime. In the case of this record, I assumed it was just something that was done in the recording process, not thinking I would need "proper gear" to listen to it. They (dbx pressings) are few and far between so I guess it never became a "big thing" or at least not the norm. Thanks for setting me straight though. |
