Bow Wow Wow - I Want Candy

In working with the thread for "The Message", I discovered that it's quite helpful to momentarily mono-out the output. If it sounds garbled, you can probably trace it back to tape head misalignment for the analog transfer. If the high frequencies disappear, there may be a shift of a sample or two between the left and right digital channels. If you mono it out and it sounds basically the same, that's a good thing.

So imagine my surprise when I had the mono button still in, and I heard a really garbled version of "I Want Candy" from Rhino's Just Can't Get Enough Vol. 5 (1994). Bad tape head alignment, or just bad source tapes. Unfortunately, there are quite a few CDs that use the same analog transfer as Just Can't Get Enough Vol. 5, including:

• Rhino's Just Can't Get Enough New Wave Women (1994; differently EQ'd digital clone)
• Warner Special Products' 18 Modern Rock Classics (1996; differently EQ'd digital clone)
• Rhino's Millennium New Wave Party (1999)
• Rhino's 7-CD Like Omigod (2002)

Going farther back in time, there was an earlier analog transfer done for Priority's Rock Of The '80s Vol. 9 (1993). This one is free from the muddiness when you mono it out, which is nice, but has its left and right channels reversed compared to the Rhino discs. It's actually my preferred mastering for the song. Based on my experience with Priority discs, I'd guess that Rock Of The '80s Vol. 9 uses the same analog transfer as a pre-1993 Bow Wow Wow single-artist disc, but I don't know of one. The same analog transfer is used for:

• Time-Life's 2-CD Modern Rock Vol. 1 1982-1983 (1999)

Finally, a straggler to avoid because it cuts off the closing drumbeat: Sony Germany's 2-CD Rock And Wave Vol. 1 (1992). This has the same left/right arrangement as the Rhino disc.

So I recommend using the Priority disc as your source, then switching the left and right channels.

Edited by crapfromthepast

Out of curiosity, I revisited the Rhino file.

I discovered that the left and right channels are out of sync by exactly one sample.

If you fix the synch issue, the fixed file sounds terrific!

Edited by crapfromthepast