Heartland

I am lead to believe that the 4 songs on this rather rare 7" are in fact the same as the so-called 'Mack Mixes'.

I can remember being very excited about these recordings when they appeared together with the two other tapes as mp3's some years ago.

I have read on these pages that it's supposed that the 'owner' of the tapes intentionally damaged the audio when they were digitised. Now I want to get undamaged versions and wonder if the original 7" would be the best source for the songs. Is the pressing good enough to go through the bother (and considerable expense)?

Has someone tried this yet perhaps? Were these mixes re-pressed onto another bootleg subsequently, and might it be worthy of investigation, and perhaps a little less rare too?

Please note: I'm not looking to upgrade my mp3's for lossless versions of the same damaged files.

I guess there is no doubt in this 7" being from these tapes.

And i as well would appreciate a good version of these tapes, mine are full of clicks. It was not possible to dl the link one of you kind people has sent me not a long time ago

The clicks were put there. Nothing coming from that share is going to be clean.

Another source is required, perhaps they first appeared on the 7" I'm asking about?

I was in the little basement shop in Leeds one day when Pete the guy who owned it was playing one of those cassettes so I stopped to listen. He had the 11/1/85 cassette and also another cassette. Each cassette had 7 tracks on it.

http://sisterswiki.org/WEA_In-House_Tapes_1985

I don't know whether that means his other cassette was the 4/2/85 cassette (and it's had one track held back) or whether he had a different so far uncirculated cassette.

When the Last Magician EP was released a few months later I asked him why those particular 4 tracks had been chosen and he said they were the best tracks, most different to the final versions.
The cassettes I saw didn't have the same covers as the ones in the photo on the wiki and made no mention of "Mack mix". It makes me wonder what "Mack mix" means.

Let's not derail the thread please.

If someone with the 'Last Magician 7" ' could weigh in, that would be great.

Dan wrote:I was in the little basement shop in Leeds one day when Pete the guy who owned it was playing one of those cassettes so I stopped to listen. He had the 11/1/85 cassette and also another cassette. Each cassette had 7 tracks on it.

http://sisterswiki.org/WEA_In-House_Tapes_1985

I don't know whether that means his other cassette was the 4/2/85 cassette (and it's had one track held back) or whether he had a different so far uncirculated cassette.

When the Last Magician EP was released a few months later I asked him why those particular 4 tracks had been chosen and he said they were the best tracks, most different to the final versions.
The cassettes I saw didn't have the same covers as the ones in the photo on the wiki and made no mention of "Mack mix". It makes me wonder what "Mack mix" means.

Thanks Dan for the nice history, interesting to know that Pete got differents tapes.
As info , the 3 Wea Tapes pic on the Wiki are from my own 20 years old pic of my own tapes.

Dan wrote:I was in the little basement shop in Leeds one day when Pete the guy who owned it was playing one of those cassettes so I stopped to listen. He had the 11/1/85 cassette and also another cassette. Each cassette had 7 tracks on it.

http://sisterswiki.org/WEA_In-House_Tapes_1985

I don't know whether that means his other cassette was the 4/2/85 cassette (and it's had one track held back) or whether he had a different so far uncirculated cassette.

When the Last Magician EP was released a few months later I asked him why those particular 4 tracks had been chosen and he said they were the best tracks, most different to the final versions.
The cassettes I saw didn't have the same covers as the ones in the photo on the wiki and made no mention of "Mack mix". It makes me wonder what "Mack mix" means.

Was that the one near the Railway Station? Used to buy bootlegs there. What was it called again? Memory ain't what it was!

spiggymr7 wrote:As info , the 3 Wea Tapes pic on the Wiki are from my own 20 years old pic of my own tapes.

What a way to derail the thread...

These tapes are great. A little repetitive, but these mixes are really interesting alternative versions of some beloved classics. How about a new share then spiggymr7?

I think I was first to share the KG, WEa and UTK disks. At thatpoint they were .wav

The mack mix is a typo of mag mix I recall - same tunes

I think I was first to share the KG, WEa and UTK disks. At thatpoint they were .wav

The mack mix is a typo of mag mix I recall - same tunes

I think I was first to share the KG, WEa and UTK disks. At thatpoint they were .wav

The mack mix is a typo of mag mix I recall - same tunes

I think I was first to share the KG, WEa and UTK disks. At thatpoint they were .wav

The mack mix is a typo of mag mix I recall - same tunes

paint it black wrote:I think I was first to share the KG, WEa and UTK disks. At thatpoint they were .wav

The mack mix is a typo of mag mix I recall - same tunes

Aha, and "mag" being an abbreviation of "magician", making "Mack mix" a bootleggers title added retrospectively?

abridged wrote:Was that the one near the Railway Station? Used to buy bootlegs there. What was it called again? Memory ain't what it was!

The shop was called Bad, a clothes shop. Hussey bought the crushed velvet coat there that he wore for one of his TOTP appearances. Pete's shop was downstairs. I recall some people referring to the shop as "Black Planet Records" but that name wasn't displayed anywhere prominently (apart from maybe a tiny postcard-sized scrap of paper taped to the door just below the open/closed sign.)

paint it black wrote:I think I was first to share the KG, WEa and UTK disks. At thatpoint they were .wav

The mack mix is a typo of mag mix I recall - same tunes

I assume that they have the murky sound and pops?

Yes they have clicks. I don't know whether it was done deliberately so a few people would still have something rare or if it's simply a poor transfer on bad equipment.

Your best bet for the first 4 tracks would be a needledrop of the Last Magician EP but that comes with it's own problems... vinyl clicks & surface noise, plus it's not a very good pressing anyway.

Dan wrote:Yes they have clicks. I don't know whether it was done deliberately so a few people would still have something rare or if it's simply a poor transfer on bad equipment.

Your best bet for the first 4 tracks would be a needledrop of the Last Magician EP but that comes with it's own problems... vinyl clicks & surface noise, plus it's not a very good pressing anyway.

Thanks for coming back to the original question Dan - I was about to despair. I've had many, many tapes and have never heard such artifacts. The MD of Copymasters must be crying at the thought that his product turned out sounding so sh1te.

Are you certain that the 7" needle-drop, once run thru Declicker and Denoise won't sound better than what is currently shared? That software is pretty good at surface noise and vinyl pops, so I can't help thinking the results could be a marked improvent.

I can send you the software if you have the record and some time to try it out.

Yes a needledrop would almost certainly sound better.
I have the vinyl and the software, but no turntable.

lol

I hadn't anticipated that...

Have those tracks been reissued elsewhere over the years,
maybe they exist on a bootleg cd already?

It was on Dark Circle Room (it's a dead link now).
http://darkcircleroom4.blogspot.co.uk/2 ... an-of.html

Thanks for the link Dan.

Perhaps circle will repost.

I have the 4 tracks off the Last Magician burnt on a CDR. That is I digitized them years ago using a WAV8/24 GadgetLabs DAC. The 7" belongs to a friend who lives across the Atlantic Ocean, so I don't have access to it any more.
Can't remember what turntable I used, but not something great for sure - must have been a cheap Sony or Kenwood.
I can put them up somewhere for you - as wav files - so you can see if you can do something to improve on the quality.
Now the problem is: I don't have an internet connection at home and at work it can be quite complicated. So you'll have to be patient... Probably very patient...

Edit: I know I said I would try and upload wav files, but I just managed to upload an mp3 (256k) off the first track for you to see if it sounds good enough.
https://www.sendspace.com/file/2larce

lsind wrote:So you'll have to be patient... Probably very patient...

Let's give circle some time to read this thread, and we'll see what happens.

lsind wrote:Edit: I know I said I would try and upload wav files, but I just managed to upload an mp3 (256k) off the first track for you to see if it sounds good enough.

Just had a quick look at this. Your mp3 is fast, so a value of -4 brought it inline with my F&L&A 1992 CD. It's not uncommon to see this number when dealing with older turntables, so I expected as much.

Now I also have only an mp3 of the WEA tapes, but your version does sound brighter. I haven't applied any cleaning software yet, and would venture that your old CD-r is better. Nice one!

Dan wrote:It was on Dark Circle Room (it's a dead link now).
http://darkcircleroom4.blogspot.co.uk/2 ... an-of.html

Alive Alive Oh... http://goo.gl/pMeeIT

Thanks BigPhil, I'll snatch this later in the day/tonight. Is this circle's upload?