Little River Band - Lonesome Loser

LP version (runs 3:54)

The earliest mastering I have of "Lonesome Loser" is on Capitol's 12-track "swimmer" Greatest Hits (copyright 1982), where it runs 3:54. This disc is highly praised on the Steve Hoffman board, and it does have an excellent dynamic range, excellent EQ, and a nice, hissy fadeout with no hint of noise reduction. The same analog transfer is used for:

• JCI's Eighteen Rock Classics (1994)
• Disky's (Europe) The Beat Goes On Vol. 10 (1997)
• Simitar's Number Ones Rock It Up (1998)
• EMI Australia's 5-CD Seventies Complete Vol. (1999; left/right channels swapped and absolute polarity inverted)

One downside of the 1982 GH disc is that it was originally assembled in the analog tape days, so that it's at least one tape generation away from the lowest-generation source tapes.

There's a different analog transfer on Cema's All-Time Greatest Hits 10 Best Series (1990), which runs 3:53. I think this sounds even better than the 1982 GH - it has the same dynamic range, basically the same excellent EQ, and less hiss on the fadeout. I think this was assembled from lower-generation source tapes than the 1982 GH. The same analog transfer is used for:

• Cema's Rock-N-Roll Greatest Hits Vol. 5 (1995)
• Madacy's Rock On 1979 (1996; digitally exactly 1.4 dB louder)
• Time-Life's AM Gold Vol. 26 1979 (1997; digitally identical)
• Time-Life's 2-CD Singers And Songwriters Vol. 10 The Late '70s (2000; digitally exactly 1.589 dB quieter)
• Time-Life's 2-CD Classic Soft Rock Vol. 3 Into The Night (2006; differently EQ'd digital clone)

Capitol remastered the swimmer Greatest Hits album in 2000 and inflated it to 18 tracks. The track selection is just about perfect, but the sound is aggressive and loud. One bonus for this disc: original pressings included previously unreleased mixes of "Take It Easy On Me", "The Night Owls" and "Man On Your Mind". I remember reading that LRB's contract explicitly prohibited unreleased material on a greatest hits collection, so the disc was recalled and rereleased with the hit versions. I'm not sure how many masterings there are of this CD. My CD has matrix number 724 352191123RE1 and includes the unreleased mixes, so there's likely a non-RE1 (also with the unreleased mixes?) and an RE2 (with the hit mixes?)

I don't have Rhino's 2-CD Reminiscing set, but based on other Rhino 2-CD single-artist collections, I'd guess that it's outstanding. It's also very expensive, so until you stumble across one of these for cheap (and I've never seen one myself), the 10 Best Series disc is the way to go.

45 edit (runs 3:32-ish)

The 45 edit was actually released on CD, on Silver Eagle/MCA's 3-CD Shades Of Love (1989), where it runs 3:30. Sound is good, but it seems to be a higher-generation tape source than the LP version discs.

Here are instructions for creating the 45 edit, using the LP version on Cema's All-Time Greatest Hits 10 Best Series (1990) as the source:

Segment 1
Ends on the downbeat (actually, where a downbeat would fall; there's just a cymbal hit there) immediately before the female singer starts
Extends from 0:00.0 to 0:23.9 of both the LP version and the 45 edit

Remove the 16 beats from 0:23.9 to 0:33.1 of the LP version.

Segment 2
Begins on downbeat, ends on snare
Extends from 0:33.1 to 3:19.0 of the LP version
Extends from 0:23.9 to 3:09.9 of the 45 edit

Remove the 16 beats from 3:19.0 to 3:27.7 of the LP version.

Segment 3
Begins on snare
Extends from 3:27.7 to 3:56.4 (end) of the LP version
Extends from 3:09.9 to 3:38.6 (end) of the 45 edit

The true 45 fade has the same start point as the LP fade, and the same fade shape, but a slightly shortened tail. If you don't hasten the fade, your recreation will run about three seconds (about six beats) longer than the true 45. I think the tail on the fade of Shades Of Love runs about five or six beats shorter than the true 45. This one's not worth fretting over; just let your recreation have the same fade as the LP version.

Edited by crapfromthepast