MABB v6.6.6

so, i bought this thing when it first came out and left it sealed all the while until today, as i finally gave in and bought a turntable. the sticker on the shrinkwrapping claims it to be an edition of 1000, and it is transparent blue. i'm new to the whole vinyl thing, so i'm looking for a bit of guidance here.



i'm just looking for some opinions from others who've heard this as well. was this pressing really bad, or what? all of the other records i bought sound great (including a tom waits album that's nearly 40 years old), but the altars one is really tinny and scratchy and just generally not good at all. the leads especially sound completely buried in the mix, like someone hid them out behind the shed and covered them with a wet towel or something. did i just do a poor job of storing it properly, or did i wait ten years to find out i got duped on this purchase, or what? if it's the latter, is there an edition that you'd recommend that sounds better than this one?



fwiw, i've had the atheist collection boxset similarly sealed and stored for almost as long, and it sounds perfect.

We need Tom up in this thread. :vahmpysignal:

i have about 30 records now and in my limited experience some vinyl are pressed from the cd masters so they usually dont sound as good (compressed, undynamic)



most vinyl presses are from an uncompressed version of the album and usually sound completely different, i have a couple which are specific mixes for the vinyl and they are on another level.



i might be wrong but thats how i think it works!

From my understanding of it, you're spot on.

Yes, Earache chooses to differentiate itself by lowering the quality of subsequent reissues rather than improve it. This is particularly evident re: their ridiculous vinyl campaigns. Accordingly, out of a total of nine editions (5 of which were rolled out just last year), the original pressing on black wax - the one w/the black promo sticker on the cover - remians the only copy of Altars worth listening to. (Same goes for Blessed.) On the other hand the 02 edition on blue wax remains fairly valuable on the collector's market, and sounds way better than the 06 - 11 pressings.

heh, i can't say i'm all that shocked to hear it, definitely good to know though. do you know offhand if that holds true for the formulas pressing they did last year as well? i was kinda tempted with that, but i'm not about to waste $30+shipping if it's going to sound even worse than what i've already got



do you know what it is they're doing to these reissues that degrades the quality so much? is it as toozey suggested, where they're just using the CD master instead of mastering it properly for the appropriate format?



i'll have to see if i can find the original pressings for those two.



anyone wanna trade their originals for my blue copy?

Can't really lend any expertise to the issue of degraded sound, but I've heard the toozey suggestion more than once in reference to why Earache reissues generally offer nothing (or worse than nothing) in the way of enhanced sound. That goes for CD reissues as well. It's fairly obvious "remastered" and "remixed" are, in Earache terminology, synonymous w/"new liner notes" and "increased volume." In comparing the original pressing w/the 02 blue pressing, all I can offer is the admittedly abstract opinion that the original just sounds warmer, like vinyl should.



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As for the Formulas vinyl, I can't offer much there, either, as I haven't listened to mine. I lucked out and got all four presses/colors and left them sealed as a set. The only advice I would offer is this: Earache, in my opinion, is all about exploiting the vinyl market, not catering to it. In other words, it's great to collect but not so great to listen to. It's very superficial: the "limited run of 2000" strategy, w/the descending number of this color and that, is, I suspect, just a really good way of selling 2000 physical copies of 20-25 yr. old material I guarentee any fan has already bought at least twice.



Don't pay more than $50 for Blessed and maybe $70 for Altars. Those prices apply to first pressings in super-good condition. I saw an un-sealed 02 Altars on blue wax sell for $60 just recently on ebay. I will also caution you that vinyl is addictive as fuck.

[quote name="biospazz"] it's great to collect but not so great to listen to.[/quote]

That makes it 100% fucking useless to me.

Someone asked about this release on the Earache blog recently:

Answer: Well first of all thank you for purchasing the vinyl back in 2002 on blue wax- but you were mistaken to think you could " hear the album in its original form". Maybe this blog is too truthful for its own good, but the reality is buying a vinyl is not a ticket for time travel back to the 1980s.



We've sold many thousands but you're the first person to complain to us about the quality - sorry to hear it's not to your liking, but it was never advertised as the definitive audiophile edition or from original analogue tapes. What you have is a USA pressing made by Earache's office/licensee stateside and was part of a series of approx 10 early Earache albums re-issued in 2002, and the motivation was simply to make them available again on wax, with nice big artwork, nothing more.

<!-- m -->http://askearache.blogspot.com/<!-- m -->

Someone asked about this release on the Earache blog recently:

Answer: Well first of all thank you for purchasing the vinyl back in 2002 on blue wax- but you were mistaken to think you could " hear the album in its original form". Maybe this blog is too truthful for its own good, but the reality is buying a vinyl is not a ticket for time travel back to the 1980s.



We've sold many thousands but you're the first person to complain to us about the quality - sorry to hear it's not to your liking, but it was never advertised as the definitive audiophile edition or from original analogue tapes. What you have is a USA pressing made by Earache's office/licensee stateside and was part of a series of approx 10 early Earache albums re-issued in 2002, and the motivation was simply to make them available again on wax, with nice big artwork, nothing more.

<!-- m -->http://askearache.blogspot.com/<!-- m -->

Translation: What did you expect from us in a reissue: quality? Hahahaha dumbasses thanks for the money trolol

haha, that was my submission! i'm pretty sure i sent that off at the same time i'd made this thread, after a bout of heavy drinking i'm kind of surprised they replied.



i have to say, i'm thoroughly entertained that the answer just turned into an ad for a bunch of shit i don't care about and didn't ask about. pretty telling as to the real purpose of the blog.



also explains the recent explosion of spam/scam/junk mail i've been getting on that account the last few days, why the shit would they publish peoples' email addresses in plain text like that

I immediately wondered whether that message on the Earache blog was yours when I began reading it The wording must be pretty similar between the OP and the blog post.

in case anyone missed it, earache started releasing the MA catalog as part of their full dynamic range series. my copy of altars came in today and it sounds superb compared to the 2002 issue, the difference is night and day. can't compare it to the original so i'm not sure how it stacks up in that respect, but if you don't have a copy of altars on vinyl already this one is definitely worth a buy for $18.
 
hilariously enough, if you're willing to take dig at his word, my bitchfest (and probably numerous other complaints) that made the earache blog back then is at least partly responsible for inspiring the FDR series :::::
 
http://www.metal-fi.com/interview-digby-dig-pearson-of-earache-records/

stormy's raging against the tiny machine did a good 

Stormy