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crapfromthepast
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| Posted: 14 August 2013 at 8:16pm | IP Logged
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Not really much to report for this song.
The first version on CD was a Japan-for-US pressing of Mirage. I don't really like the sound on this disc, mostly because the levels are so low. There's about 10 dB of headroom on "Hold Me"! I think this was a unique mastering, and I think the common US version was different - probably louder and probably using the same analog transfer.
The disc Superstars In Digital (1985) uses the same analog transfer as the Japan-for-US Mirage. (I'd bet that Superstars is a digital clone of the US Mirage.)
The 1988 Greatest Hits with the green cover is a digital clone of Superstars In Digital, with a level boost of about 3 dB and a dramatically different EQ. All the other discs I have that include "Hold Me" use the same analog transfer as Greatest Hits:- Swaitek's 50-CD promo The A List Disc 13 (1994; has NR on this track - avoid)
- Time-Life's Sounds Of The Eighties Vol. 1 The Rockin' Eighties (1994)
- Razor & Tie's 2-CD Everything '80s (1995)
- Time-Life's 2-CD Body Talk Vol. 10 From The Heart (1997; differently EQ'd digital clone)
- Warner Special Products' 2-CD Midnight Rock (2000; digitally identical to Greatest Hits)
- Time-Life's 2-CD Singers And Songwriters Vol. 7 1980-1982 (2000; digitally exactly 1.041 dB louder than The Rockin' Eighties)
The 1988 green-cover Greatest Hits sounds just fine, and is dirt cheap nowadays.
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There's a lot of crap on the radio, but there's only one Crap From The Past.
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Todd Ireland
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| Posted: 15 August 2013 at 7:21pm | IP Logged
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Actually, the very first album I ever owned on any format was Fleetwood Mac's Mirage, which I bought on cassette. As my music collection gradually expanded from there, I can distinctly remember being struck by how low the volume level output on Mirage seemed compared to my other cassettes. Years later, I briefly owned a U.S. CD pressing of this album, which I bought around '93/'94 expecting a big sound quality improvement over the cassette. Yet I was very disappointed to discover the CD also suffered from the same abnormally low volume levels (and thus my decision to quickly part with the disc). With that said, Ron, it sounds like my CD copy of Mirage matched your description of the Japanese pressing. And for what it's worth, I do much prefer the sound quality of "Hold Me" on Fleetwood Mac's Greatest Hits disc from 1988.
On a related side note, I'd have to say the worst case I've ever seen of a CD containing audio levels so ridiculously low they barely register a pulse on the VU meters is Christopher Cross' Another Page. On the track "Think of Laura", for instance, the right channel barely *peaks* at -12 db! When I first bought this disc more than two decades ago, I returned it twice to different stores because I was completely convinced I'd gotten defective copies. From what I can tell, this CD is still in print but I don't think it's ever been remastered to this day.
Edited by Todd Ireland on 15 August 2013 at 7:26pm
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Top 40 Music on Compact Disc : Chat Board
Topic: Fleetwood Mac - Hold Me
