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So I just read on another forum that the single versions of a few tracks are clearly mastered from vinyl and not mastertapes. Are these tapes lost or did no one look for them? Are the rest of the tracks new mastertape transfers or just tweaked versions of the last remasters? My box is on the way and I'm already getting concerned. Source material should always been mentioned in this day and age of cost cutting shortcuts or tweak and re-release.

Scott

sdavies #48577 06/16/16 09:03 AM
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Originally Posted By: sdavies
So I just read on another forum that the single versions of a few tracks are clearly mastered from vinyl and not mastertapes.


On which forum does that appear?

Rob

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http://www.nwoutpost.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=39266

Originally Posted By: Rob Harris
Originally Posted By: sdavies
So I just read on another forum that the single versions of a few tracks are clearly mastered from vinyl and not mastertapes.


On which forum does that appear?

Rob

sdavies #48579 06/16/16 02:05 PM
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Originally Posted By: sdavies
So I just read on another forum that the single versions of a few tracks are clearly mastered from vinyl and not mastertapes. Are these tapes lost or did no one look for them? Are the rest of the tracks new mastertape transfers or just tweaked versions of the last remasters? My box is on the way and I'm already getting concerned. Source material should always been mentioned in this day and age of cost cutting shortcuts or tweak and re-release.


I hope that the following will help clarify matters...

**

The three Ultravox! albums (Ultravox!, Ha! Ha! Ha! and Systems Of Romance) were all remastered back in 2006 from the original master tapes. Discs One, Two and Three in The Island Years box set have been remastered using the 2006 masters.

All of the tracks contained on Disc Four - Rare Retro - that also appeared on the 2006 CDs have been remastered using the 2006 masters.

The four John Peel session tracks (Young Savage, The Man Who Dies Every Day, My Sex and Artificial Life) and the two tracks from the Old Grey Whistle Test (Slow Motion and Hiroshima Mon Amour) were mastered using audio supplied by the BBC.

The single edits of ROckWrok and Quiet Men and the twelve inch version of Quiet Men had to be taken from vinyl as unfortunately (and despite extensive searching) the master tapes could not be located in the Island archive.

All of the audio contained on The Island Years box set was approved by John Foxx.

**

The Island Years box set is currently available from Amazon cool

Rob

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Arrrgh!

So, if someone already has the (really rather good) 2006 CDs, this set really does scrape the barrel a bit!

How the hell do record labels manage to lose their master tapes?!? ARRRRGH


Are the Peel Session arrangements much different to the album versions? Given how wild the ARP Odyssey could be, one might hope so! smile However rebuying 3 albums for 4 Peel Sessions is a bit much!

And honestly, if the other tracks are just vinyl rips, that's not much better than you'd find on a torrent site! /sighs/

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Originally Posted By: Your Shadow
I received my copy yesterday. I haven't had a chance to listen yet but nice enough package. Nice little booklet enclosed too.


Agreed, it looks great, very tasteful, and the essay is well worth a read - I'm sure there is some stuff in there I wasn't aware of before. Incidentally if you are quick there is an article on Hiroshima Mon Amour in the latest Uncut magazine with contributions from John, Billy and Steve (Lillywhite).

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finally picked up a copy of this!
Yeah, Quiet Men and Rockwrock single edits are audibly taken from vinyl. Oh well. I haven't even work out what is lopped off on Rockwrock compared to the album version yet, did they just edit out a chorus repeat or something? (I didn't notice any new dubs or extra parts) - if it's only a shorted edit, they could've remade it digitally from the album version!

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the sound mix on the Old Grey Whistle Test performance is all over the place - I bet the BBC sound engineer didn't know what had hit him, hah! I was never too taken with that live arrangement of Hiroshima Mon Amour - the bass and guitar are a bit wick compared the album version with its layered Elka strings, violin and sax

feline1 #48919 02/21/17 06:14 PM
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the Peel Session versions are pretty decent! I never tire of hearing Man Who Dies Everyday.

feline1 #48920 02/25/17 07:54 AM
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I quite enjoyed reading the sleevenotes in the booklet, principally cos it had a fair few interview quotes from Billy and Chris (and the same old platitudes from John, ahem wink ) Dunno why they didn't speak to Warren or Robin (or even, heaven forbid, track down Stevie Shears).

Billy's comments on Eno seem a bit confused, though - don't know if the journalist got mixed up when editing it - he refers to John letting him stick a big piece of Steve Reich/Bartok style music on the end of "Slip Away".... surely this is supposed to "I Want to Be A Machine"? Which does indeed basically stop the song, and go into another couple of minutes of riffy jagged violin which does bear comparison with Reich's "Violin Phase".
But he then complains about Eno sticking all this obvious miniMoog over it ... and I can hear no moog on the end of "I Want to Be A Machine" but there is a bit on the end of "Slip Away", and it does sound like Eno (same timbres as some of the tracks of "Music for Films") - although it's fairly subtle in the mix, I had to listen out for it! Maybe Billy got his way and had a lot of it turned down or taken off again!
Sounds to me like two anecdotes got conflated/confused when they wrote up the booklet.

Last edited by feline1; 02/25/17 07:55 AM.
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