Vinyl Back in Black Review

While I don't have the Supertramp LP you mention, I do have quite a few of the "Back in Black" series and find them excelllent in sound quality and production.

I agree that a reissue can only be as good as the master used to create it, so it is kinda a crap shoot from album to album. I guess I've just been lucky.

Elizabeth,

I agree it is a crap shoot on reissues. I think it is harder to find good reissues from the major labels. They either don't have the time or just don't feel it is worth thier time because of the format. Even if it could make them money, the volume is not worth high quality control. Most of the good quality reissues are coming from small labels like AP, MM, CR and a few others. Classic had issues with thier 200g in the past but I picked up some of thier newer Claity releases and they sound good. Also the cost of these releases from the magor labels are less than of the small company's but there are no reviews out there I can find. SO

The question I am asking is, people who have these Back to Black releases and other magor label releases is to give thier experiance with the recording which ones are worth getting or not getting and why.

Mofimadness,
What recordings did you get?

Hevac1,

I have the following Back to Black reissues:

Allman Brothers-Live at Fillmore East
Elton John-Goodbye Yellow Brick Road
Steely Dan-Gaucho
Van Morrison-Tupelo Honey
Cat Stevens-Mona Bone Jakon, Teaser and the Firecat, Tea for the Tillerman

All of these are very good but the (2) standouts are Tupelo Honey and Gaucho.

Sadly, I've been unimpressed with both the Disreli Gears and the Layla and Other Love Songs. Compressed, brittle, noisy. Great music,though.

The reproduction onto vinyl has some inherent problems associated with the manufacturing process. This is in part due to:

1) The "stamper" and what generational copy it has been made from the original master tape: in the old days, production was handled over many countries and you will see marked differences in quality in English, German, Japanese and American copies of albums based on the source tapes/stampers sent out. Today's production is centered in one plant and the source is more uniform--good or bad.
2) The type of vinyl used--there was 13 grades of pellets used in the golden age--we are now down to four.
3) The time on the press (45 seconds per LP) and the humidity of the room
4) The general volume around the release and its production run--today's runs are 10,000 to 30,000 versus millions during the golden age

In the golden years, it was always assumed that Quality and Assurance would be handled by the return policy of the retailer--i.e., that Q & A would not be conducted at the plant.

Problems I am seeing with the current reissues are as follows:

1) poor file management of the artist's master tapes resulting in new reissues being based on inferior second or third generation copies--this is something I hear constantly from recording artists that tapes are misfiled or have disappeared (think of the amount of consolidation of labels that has taken place over the years)
2) poor remastering where new technologies such as dynamic compression are added to the original source or tonalities are completely changed (listen to the mid-range vocals of Robert Plant is the Classic Records reissue of the Houses of the Holy versus an original copy)

Generally speaking, I find it is better to buy a "stack" of used vinyl and try to find the hidden gems that have great master tape quality and quiet playing surfaces. You can usually find that 1 in 20 to 30 albums will really stand out to your ears. Expect the same ratio to apply to current production as well.