Heartland

It’s a thing of beauty.
Just neat to have my headphones on and be playing with my various CDs while sitting on the sofa.
Rock and roll!
Great to have Good Things and Jolene officially released.

Cd turned up this morning and i felt a rush of excitement like a kid ( or sad old git ) , time to crank up the volume and have a few beers while listening

And bought it today:)

I was informed it was dropped in my postbox today. And I’m in the South of France on holiday at this moment. Won‘t be coming back till Sunday in a week . I can‘t wait!

Horrendous, brick walled "mastering" on the CD. The lossless downloads from Qobuz sound much better and likely closer to the sound of the original tapes.


(CD top / Qobuz download below)

robertzombie wrote: ↑29 Aug 2021, 14:17 Horrendous, brick walled "mastering" on the CD. The lossless downloads from Qobuz sound much better and likely closer to the sound of the original tapes.


(CD top / Qobuz download below)

What's your take on the qobuz 84 session vs the FM capture of the same session from Dime a while back?

Pista wrote: ↑29 Aug 2021, 14:40

robertzombie wrote: ↑29 Aug 2021, 14:17 Horrendous, brick walled "mastering" on the CD. The lossless downloads from Qobuz sound much better and likely closer to the sound of the original tapes.


(CD top / Qobuz download below)

What's your take on the qobuz 84 session vs the FM capture of the same session from Dime a while back?

I'd need to hear it

Mine is shipped and on the way...got various boots and downloads, will wait whether I need the PhD to break down the sound waves. Purely glad it's been "officially" released, let's see...

Mine arrived today. I bought a CD even though I don't own a CD player anymore. Bet I'm not alone.

The CD sounds much the same as the vinyl to me. Not an outstanding job by the engineers, but adequate I suppose. At least having the CD now gives my vinyl copy a rest.

My ears couldn't spot the difference between an mp3 and an anything else, so it sounds fking awesome to me. Those first two sessions in particular remind me why I fell in love with the band's music in the first place.

It's almost as good as Brother Whizzkid's compilation of unreleased new songs (updated with the latest batch of mini-classics).

Oh I’ll readily admit to being a hifi nerd, but I think anyone could tell the difference between a good sounding recording, and one that sounds like there’s a blanket over the speakers.

For what it’s worth I do think the ’82 and ’83 sessions sound really great, and I’m obviously excited we’ve got an official release after all this time.

However… I don’t know how the digital version of the 1984 session was released and no-one noticed the problems (apart from a few people here), then they went ahead and used the same transfer for the official physical release. It’s not like they’re ever going to go back and do it again now are they?!

Just really wish someone would care about this stuff as much as we do, that all.

I finally received a CD copy in the post today and am listening to it right now on nice headphones. My impressions are not out of alignment with others expressed here for the most part. The 82 and 83 sessions sound great to my ears, and I do appreciate having Floorshow not warp-hiccup a few seconds in like many of my other copies. Overall I find that the Doctor as well as Craig’s bass are nicely pushed up front more, are generally much clearer, and since this is an aspect I adore about this period I’m not against the emphasis. The vocals are for the most part clearer-sounding than I can recall hearing on other releases, with an exception or two perhaps which might be present on all releases of this material. Either way, Good Things is a revelation and I’m picking out bits of the guitars I’ve not noticed before.

However, I feel like in some cases the guitars are maybe a bit more buried than the bass/drum/vocals. That’s not always a bad choice, but in a couple places I wanted them brought back up a bit I guess.

As for the 84 session on this, I actually love how much clearer the Doctor’s snare & percussion hits come thru for the first time (again, for *my ears* at least) on Walk Away. The clipped start on NTTC is disappointing, and Poison Door also still sounds a little funny for that first instant to me. I’m consoled a little by the Doctor’s contributions on Emma sounding better to me than the other releases I have of the BBC version (though the vocals there are a little…muddy).

And yes, agreed, they should have included the Whistle Test recordings to round it out. But for what we have, I’m really, really happy to have it.

Got mine earlier in the week and have been enjoying it since.

The physical packaging is what they used to call "vinyl replica sleeves" back in the day, and slap a premium price on to match. In 2021, for a budget release, and the way profit margins are nowadays, I can hardly complain.

Like most of us I've had all of these songs in various formats and qualities down the years, so nothing here is completely new to me.

The 82 and 83 sessions are a fantastic companion piece to SGWBM, and give an alternative insight into how the band sounded back then. The 83 session is something of a peak for that lineup of the band, with the version of Heartland on it being particularly tasty. Listening to it again on an actual official physical release, I got the same tingle of excitement as first time I'd heard this stuff.

The 84 session is what it is. Given the treatment of the other 2 sessions, I'd find it hard to believe that when it came to 84, someone just said "fuck it, it's not-give-a-bollocks-time, lads". For whatever reason, they must have been the best versions that were available, but the tonal balance is still off and the other issues with it are annoying. I still do think that the versions of Walk Away and Poison Door - with a little EQ to help the worst - are better than the official single versions, though.

my two penn'orth for what its worth, the bass is well-tampered with, speshially on the 82 sessions & 83 sessions improving the 606 & 909 kicdrums exponentially.but somehow the mid-range suffers for it.

BUT if i had to choose then they are overall slightly better than the best i had before (although i'm certin that our own AUDIO-PROF MR. COWLIN would have done a FAR better job than they have.)

however the SHEER UNADULTERATED THRILL of buying recieving and opening the package was better than drugs. as i was on drugs as well it was fuckking AWESOME...

Mine has arrived yesterday and I got it today ... after paying some 1,54€ in costums fees and some 6€ in DHL handling fees ... I guess that's it for me as to ordering stuff from the UK. Not to mention the sad thin making of that slip cover ...

Nonesuch wrote: ↑24 Aug 2021, 15:25

What do you think? And anyway, what about the Poison Door intro, that's weirder!!

i see what you mean...FUCKK KNOWS .

Had me some Royal Mail yesterday and got the disc. Wheeee!

Cursory listen...the 84 session is definitely better than any bootleg I have (specifically the Radioland disc) but the intro to NTTC is awful...on Radioland it fades in nicely, here's it's just chop!

I need to listen to the whole thing on some headphones. The first session sounds "wimpier" than bootleg tracks I have, but maybe it was the bootlegs that were fudged with.

ANYWAY, NICE to have a Sisters disc in my hands. I like the sleeve art, but can they figure out how to make CD sleeves that don't require to pull the damn disc out so hard (and smudging it?)

Electrochrome wrote: ↑03 Sep 2021, 21:52 I like the sleeve art, but can they figure out how to make CD sleeves that don't require to pull the damn disc out so hard (and smudging it?)

thats pissed me off every time ive played it. now i have a CD-r copy of it so the orig can sit and be perfect for ever.

So I had a rummage and found that the 'as broadcast' 84 session introduced by JP, NTTC isn't clipped but is not as clear in quality as his verbiage and the March Violets tracks (who were also in session).

I completely forgot that Janice Long presented the 84 session in 2003 (the first time since 1984) and NTTC is clipped. And again, the interludes are way clearer than the songs.

She did the session for our very own Quffy.

I was also correct in that wayne and JansenClone surfaced the 160kb satellite broadcasts, which JC tweaked slightly when mastering.

eastmidswhizzkid wrote: ↑03 Sep 2021, 16:02 although i'm certin that our own AUDIO-PROF MR. COWLIN would have done a FAR better job than they have.)

I would have just taken the perfectly fine Quboz downloads and put them on disc. Warners actually paid someone to mess this up!

robertzombie wrote: ↑08 Sep 2021, 18:24

eastmidswhizzkid wrote: ↑03 Sep 2021, 16:02 although i'm certin that our own AUDIO-PROF MR. COWLIN would have done a FAR better job than they have.)

I would have just taken the perfectly fine Quboz downloads and put them on disc. Warners actually paid someone to mess this up!

so for your money they are the best versions?

I think compared to the Qobuz downloads, the CD mastering has boosted the low/mid frequencies (as mentioned by eastmidswhizzkid), so the first two sessions don't sound as 'tinny'. The CD is definitely LOUDER (robertzombie is right about the aggressive mastering).

For what it's worth I actually think the 1984 session sounds a little bit clearer on the CD version. (But still nowhere near as good as the original FM recording).

And yes, I've spent too long A-B-ing the versions on my studio monitors.

eastmidswhizzkid wrote: ↑09 Sep 2021, 10:41

robertzombie wrote: ↑08 Sep 2021, 18:24

eastmidswhizzkid wrote: ↑03 Sep 2021, 16:02 although i'm certin that our own AUDIO-PROF MR. COWLIN would have done a FAR better job than they have.)

I would have just taken the perfectly fine Quboz downloads and put them on disc. Warners actually paid someone to mess this up!

so for your money they are the best versions?

They're closer to the original source because they don't have modern limiting applied. For me, that makes them the best