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quality of demos from bootlegs
17 replies
iepurakis said on April 4, 2003 08:20:
Hi,
Browsing the internet you can find a lot of rare stuff, but unfortunately the quality is almost every time rather low.
There are people saying “remastered”, but this word does not mean opening a wave in Wavelab or Cool Edit. That is not remastering. That is a joke.
So... my question is... anyone has those demos in CD-quality? I mean for example “Spending My Time”, or any similar unreleased item ?
It is just a curiosity for me... because if the original source of those songs was a tape, or a low-quality audio master... then this is it! We should say thanks and... maybe waiting for a miracle from our dearest band... :)
Cheers and thanks in advance for your opinions.
AntiMario said on April 4, 2003 08:33:
Dear, iepurakis.
If you want to wait for a gift from above - go ahead. If you can get an original demo tape - your luck, but half the business, cos here you’re faced with... how the heck to rip it out and make EVEN hearbale. Don’t you consider that a kinda work. How can we call it here, huh?
I mean - want it - listen to that f... tape noise. Love your ears - kick the hands and brain with some intelligent job to track.
AntiMario.
iepurakis said on April 4, 2003 08:54:
Friends :)
Didn’t say working on those demos is not an interesting job. I didn’t say that... I just said there are many saying “excellent quality” and the truth is they hear horrible. Hm… I think even a tape could give a better rip, but you have to pay attention to a lot of factors. So, I just said, if the source is bad… then you can use any piece of software, cause you cannot give back the sound.
Want to know why I said that? Let’s take for example the “Dance Passion” which exists only on LP. So with a lot of scratches and everything. There are a lot of bootlegs with this album, aren’t they? But… if you hear it, you will never have the feeling that it is a good record… I know because two years ago I just spend about two weeks operating on all those 7 remixes… I just wanted to compile a good CD with them. The result? It sounds good… much better that many versions I found over the web. But it will always be just a bootleg… nothing more.
Also... you know those many remixes “fan-made”, in fact just destroying some marvelous songs. I would eliminate them right this way from every location, if I could… that I cannot consider a work, but silly jokes.
If someone who does not know Roxette hear first a “rumbling-humbling-tumbling-over-the-trees-up-the-stairs-down-to-heaven mix”, I don’t think they would love the band… they’d just throw it away quickly.
So, what I plead is a “clean” Roxette image on the websites.
tevensso (moderator) said on April 4, 2003 09:05:
That part I totally agree with. The so called “fan remixes” are 99.8% terrible and dreadful. There is a German CD boot of DP that is not bad at all. That’s the one with the original sleeve and the vinyl call #. So yes, if a mix is for instance called “I saw you last night and wanted you so bad” - dump it, and dump it fast! Ha ha!
AntiMario said on April 4, 2003 10:04:
to iepurakis:
You’re right, dude. Fan mixes - stay where you are (in dustbins I mean)!
Some DP files (mainly MP3s) you find all over are maybe shitty 128 Joint-Stereo (haaaate it) thingies made with poor codec or even ripped thru intermediate WAV files as recording (!) in a WAV program. Doh! Cleaning vinyls from pops is my prof. skill, ha-ha! If you need some hints - let me know. I can try with one DP song. Truly, Germans ripped them perfectly (especially with hi notches). Thomas guessed they used compressor tool and that’s true. Now it’s even available in software.
Their DP version has almost NO cracks/pops/noise/whatsoever except for the beginning. And those are easy cleanable
Now special thingy for you: the Rox vinyl rips you get in internet ARE shitty by default. Remember that. Unless they have ©TE in tag. :)
If I state remastered in my list, it really is. Need a sample?
Ketil said on April 4, 2003 21:29:
I can confirm that both Thomas and AntiMario has done some great sound improvment on both demos and vinyl-rips. I have done some efforts on the unleash-demos myself which I think came out rahter well. At least a lot better than the ones that where available on different bootlegs. But to make CD-quality of a shitty tape copy is imposible though it can be improved a lot.
coyboyusa said on April 4, 2003 22:20:
finally somoen who realized the bs that fan remastering is..i barely notice any realy quality enhancement like you said,,,, i am sure one day 20 years from now when one of per or maries kids go to college a box set will come out with all those fantastic demos on a cd in better quality :)
Alfonsette said on April 6, 2003 21:21:
The mix of “Try” from the fan Poppyhead is very very good!!!
AntiMario said on April 11, 2003 04:40:
Give me mail-addresses and you’ll get some snippets of “barely-noticable” and “really edited” thing of the same track.
tevensso (moderator) said on April 11, 2003 09:45:
Try these Gyllene Tider samples and judge for yourselves:
http://www.evensson.com/fan_remastering.html
Ferdan said on April 11, 2003 10:12:
fan remastering can be very good...
but it has its limits, and some don’t know where to stop, and they kill the dynamic range of the recording or in the fight against noise, they kill the hi hats and stuff.
Tev, how did you do that?!??? i mean the hi-hat sound, it was incredibly restored.... really good.
AntiMario said on April 11, 2003 12:19:
Ha-ha-ha!
I’m genius, you know guys :)
But some fans cannot still believe in power of Cool Edit.
Ferdan said on April 11, 2003 13:50:
what filters did you use for the hi hats?
They even sound like if they were from a different source!
great job!
iepurakis said on April 12, 2003 13:25:
Antimario: I did a good browse over my entire collection... Not even 1 piece of ©TE... that means it is rare... and you might be selfish to keep them only for you :)
AntiMario said on April 12, 2003 18:29:
I’m not too selfish, there were a LOT when there was Napster. Maybe you were not around?
tevensso (moderator) said on April 4, 2003 08:24:
I don’t consider Cool Edit-ing a joke. If you know what you’re doing it can perform miracles. And no, the “Unleashed” tracks aren’t available in CD quality as they have been stolen from T&A on a cassette, rumor says.