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Todd Ireland
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| Posted: 24 February 2025 at 7:49am | IP Logged
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Does anyone have Seals & Crofts' "Get Closer" on any CD that doesn't sound like it has a bunch of noise reduction applied to it? I have this song on the following titles, including from some normally very reputable labels:
VA - Sessions Presents Secret Love (Sessions OPCD-4505)
VA - Super Hits Of The 70's Volume 20 (Rhino 71200)
VA - Easy Seventies (JCI 3307)
VA - Ultimate Seventies – 1976 (Time-Life R634-04)
VA - Seventies Feelings (Sound Exchange/Warner Special Products OPCD-4565)
VA - Singers And Songwriters 1976-1977 (Time-Life R812-04 and 25915-D)
As a result of the tape hiss having largely been removed (just listen to the song's intro and you can tell), the sound quality of "Get Closer" just seems to lack the "airiness" and "sparkle" that it should have, in my opinion. Could this noise reduction have been applied to the original master tape? Or do perhaps one of the releases from Razor & Tie, Wounded Bird, or Reader's Digest Music contain a different mastering with the tape hiss still intact?
Edited by Todd Ireland on 24 February 2025 at 7:50am
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crapfromthepast
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| Posted: 24 February 2025 at 2:24pm | IP Logged
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I think it's a mixing choice. All the CDs I have with the song all lack any type of hiss on the intro.
I gave a detailed listen to the Rhino, Sessions, and Time-Life discs. The high end didn't disappear on the fade on any of them. (In other words, the EQ remained the same all the way down the very long fade. You can hear the hi-hat right until the music ends.) That tells me that there wasn't any noise reduction added during the mastering phase.
I don't have any CD copies that sound different on the intro. I suspect that it's just mixed that way.
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Todd Ireland
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| Posted: 25 February 2025 at 12:01am | IP Logged
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I went on YouTube and found a user upload of "Get Closer" from what appears to be either a very clean-sounding 1976 parent vinyl LP copy of the same title or perhaps even a CD release:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6aSvzT7nuF4
As I listen to the song here, it seems to have the brighter, more airy sound quality that I would expect this recording to have. However, it's also interesting to notice how the hiss seems to suddenly diminish significantly at the :03 mark of the intro, as if someone suddenly pushed a button to switch on Dolby NR. (Remember those? :-) Still, "Get Closer" on this upload seems to "sparkle" overall more than on any CD copy I have. (Maybe even perhaps a tad overly bright. Of course, it's also possible that the YouTube user could have tinkered with the EQ and therefore this may not be a direct transfer from the original source.)
Incredibly, according to the Discogs website, the 1976 Get Closer parent album has only been issued on CD one time ever, and that was the 2007 U.S. release on Rhino's budget subsidiary label, Flashback (catalog #R2-290684). Perhaps someone in the message board community might have a copy who can comment on the sound quality? If not, I might take a chance on trying to snag a copy online for under $15 and will report back with my findings.
Edited by Todd Ireland on 25 February 2025 at 12:31am
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AutumnAarilyn
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| Posted: 25 February 2025 at 12:27am | IP Logged
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It's also here on the original album series:
https://www.discogs.com/release/8188170-Seals-Crofts-
Original-Album-Series
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Todd Ireland
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| Posted: 25 February 2025 at 12:34am | IP Logged
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Ah, I didn't think to check the Seals & Crofts compilation releases on Discogs. Good catch, AutumnAarilyn.
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Todd Ireland
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| Posted: 02 March 2025 at 11:30pm | IP Logged
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FYI, I found what appears to be an uploaded rip of "Get Closer" from the 1976 parent CD of the same title on YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rBUHdy8g8S4&list=PL5rzl4Wi2U 7ukUI3VlLxuVKbdTa2eky4d&index=3
To my ears, it sounds like the same mastering that's on all my other CDs, so Ron may be correct that noise reduction was possibly used as part of the song's original mixing process. It's not that "Get Closer" sounds "bad", mind you... It's just that the noise reduction makes the the track's higher frequencies sound somewhat subdued and muddied (in my opinion, anyway), but that could be by design. I suppose I can always fiddle with the EQ myself to try to better optimize the overall sound.
By the way, the only other instance I can recall of a Top 40 hit possibly containing heavy noise-reduction as part of the original mixing process is Neil Diamond's "Walk on Water". I have that song on two CDs, and both contain normal level of tape hiss throughout the song, *except* during the bongo passage from 1:10 to 1:19. Those 10 seconds strangely lack any trace of hiss, and it's especially apparent when listening through headphones.
Edited by Todd Ireland on 02 March 2025 at 11:34pm
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Topic: "Get Closer" - Seals & Crofts
