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Are my ears deceiving me ?

madmike

I feel much better now, I really do...
Just sorting out some new additions to the vinyl collection and checked out a copy of Steve Hackett's 1975 Acolyte on Charisma CAS 1111. Sound was quite clearly bass heavy to my ears. My other version, the Dutch 1975 issue on 6369 970 sounds brighter in the top end with less prominent bass. Both are from 1975 !
How can this be ?
 
Just sorting out some new additions to the vinyl collection and checked out a copy of Steve Hackett's 1975 Acolyte on Charisma CAS 1111. Sound was quite clearly bass heavy to my ears. My other version, the Dutch 1975 issue on 6369 970 sounds brighter in the top end with less prominent bass. Both are from 1975 !
How can this be ?

It's all in the mastering. It's not uncommon to have two near-identical copies of a record from the '70s, which play with different sound character. The deadwax provides the answer.
 
It's all in the mastering. It's not uncommon to have two near-identical copies of a record from the '70s, which play with different sound character. The deadwax provides the answer.

Just so. Nowadays 'mastering' has been turned into a major area of expertise (with its corresponding virtues and sins) and is seen as adding a final polish (or more) to a studio's final output.

Back in the day, it was a lottery that you had to submit your carefully created tapes to, that you desperately hoped would not ruin the mix you had decided on by cutting the bass or monoing the low mid so the thing would fit on a 7 inch or get squeezed into an LP. The mastering people had used to be the enemy (to a degree). You tried to find someone that would not trash the cut (if you got a choice, that is, which was rare).

All and everything always changes (except change).

:cool:
 
It's not uncommon for Dutch (NL) or German (D) pressings to sound light(er) than US or UK ones.

Indeed. I have a German pressing of Blondie's Parallel Lines that sounds like it was recorded through several blankets; no 'oomph' at all.
 
Well I will keep both just to prove the point, thanks for the helpful comments...
 


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