The Velvet Forum

leamanc wrote: But the 1985 reissues of all three original LPs state that they were remixed AND remastered in the liner notes.

As noted above, I do like the '85 mix of the 3rd album, but the first album '85 mix sounds awful to me. (And the liner notes state that the remix was done "under the supervision of Tom Wilson"!) I first heard this mix on the CD from that era, and chalked up the awful sound to crappy CD mastering techniques of the day, but the '85 vinyl I picked up last year sounds just as bad. For example, "All Tomorrow's Parties" has the vocals cranked up really high, then the instrumental passages are way quieter... and "murkier". That's the best way I can describe it.

Continuing on my side tangent on mixes of the first album...I swear allegiance to vinyl, but my all-time fave version of that album is now the mono mix in the 45th anniversary CD set. It hits you in the gut with its sheer force, yet you can make out all the instruments clearly. Wow! Before that, the 1997 MFSL CD was the best to my ears.

olandem wrote:A few details about the 1985 releases from Feb. 9, 1985 issue of Billboard.

iaredatsun wrote: leamanc. I have the 85 boxset, I cannot see anything about 'remixed AND remastered', so can't comment. Which versions of those reissues do you mean?

With regards to "under the supervision of Tom Wilson", all copies of VU&N back to the original '67 ones say that. That's the way it was made. Aside from that, Tom Wilson died in 1978 so had no hand in any reissues in the 80s!

Yes, I agree about the 2012 mono of VU&N, but I don't have an original mono LP, only rips.

leamanc wrote:Especially the third album; the 1985 Valentin Mix sounds like it was produced under much more modern circumstances than the 1969 UK Valentin Mix. Maybe I can do a vinyl rip of those two for comparison's sake -- anyone would notice the difference.

iaredatsun wrote: There's no rip of the UK 1st pressing 3rd Valentin around that I've seen (or heard) around. I certainly would like to hear it. [EDIT - I mean to say that I'd love to hear it! ]

(I'm fairly convinced that our '85 pressings will turn out to be the same, US or Europe).

leamanc wrote:

iaredatsun wrote: There's no rip of the UK 1st pressing 3rd Valentin around that I've seen (or heard) around. I certainly would like to hear it. [EDIT - I mean to say that I'd love to hear it! ]

(I'm fairly convinced that our '85 pressings will turn out to be the same, US or Europe).

Cool...not only did I get a new turntable a couple months back, I decided to get all new gear for the ripping process. The iMic that I use to connect my receiver to my MacBook Pro was from like 1999 or 2000. I bought the newest model, along with some new high-quality cables. Those came in today, and I do have the house to myself for most of Saturday and Sunday, so a-vinyl-ripping I will be!

I will re-post my earlier rip of the mono 3rd LP.
I will also rip and post the 4th album from the Sundazed box set that I promised so long ago.
And while I'm at it, I'll do the 1969 UK Valentin Mix and the 1985 USA Valentin Mix remastered by Greg Calbi.

I'm also thinking of ripping one of my 1969 USA Closet Mix LPs, so that we'll have all these for comparison's sake:
1969 Closet Mix stereo vs. 2012 Closet Mix mono
1969 Valentin Mix vs. 1985 Valentin Mix
and then Sundazed's 4th album, the long-promised and much-anticipated vinyl rip.

iaredatsun wrote: What table did you get?

leamanc wrote:iareadatsun,

Well, I got the Sundazed 4th album ripped. I'm not happy with the results -- it just doesn't sound as good as the rip I did of the mono 3rd. That one came out very smooth sounding, whereas this one has some problems. I'm not sure where I went wrong, as I followed all the steps I used before, and I was (in theory) using better equipment this time. On top of all that, I somehow cut off the little guitar intro to "Foggy Notion" that is unique to this record and the original 1985 vinyl of VU!

I fiddled with it some in Audacity until I came up with something "good enough" so that you can have a listen to it. I'm going to go back to studying the Audacity manual, retrace my steps, and try to get a better rip next time.

Here's the link...it's in Apple Lossless as last time...https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/630 ... ndazed.zip

iaredatsun wrote:Hey leamanc. I really appreciate all the effort and I'm sure others will too! I'll give this version a spin tomorrow and look forward to any updates on this or the versions of the 3rd. Just to say that yes, I still really enjoy the rip you did of the 3rd mono - sounds great and my preferred version of the closet mix. Hope the new equipment and recording method works out.