Technotronic - Get Up!

Technotronic - Get Up! (Before the Night is Over)

There were two promo CDs with the same catalog number (DPRO-05327) and same track selection, mastered 2½ weeks apart:

• 1st version with L0105E date code (meaning 5 Jan 1990)
• 2nd version with L0124G date code (meaning 24 Jan 1990) and stickered "Re-mastered Improved Quality"

There was also the retail CD with catalog number K2-19704 and the same tracks:

• the commercial CD, with an L0124G date code.

I've got rips of the retail CD and one of the promos, but I'm not sure which one. The only difference between them is in the first track, which is the 7" Edit. On the promo I have, noise reduction was applied to that one track, and its fade begins sooner (at 3:15) and gently goes to silence, whereas the retail fade begins at 3:19 and the song ends before the fade reaches silence.

Anybody know or recall which one of these, if it's either of them, is the "improved quality" version?

Edited by mjb50

Weird. Maybe someone complained about the long silence? On-air CD players were finicky back in 1990.

The 3:30 version is relatively uncommon on CD. I don't have the CD single, but I can provide mastering info for the handful of discs that I do have:

To my ears, it sounds best on Hitmakers Vol. 31 (January 19, 1990), where it runs out to the end of the word "over". There's no evidence of noise reduction on the fade (the EQ remains the same to the end of the fade). I suspect that this is a digital clone of the CD single.

The same analog transfer (not a digital clone) is used on TM Century track no. 00005034. Same fade points and length as Hitmakers, but it sounds like TM Century added a small amount of noise reduction (the high end disappears at the tail of the fade).

I have a file from the 1993 Technotronic collection The Greatest Hits (not released in the US), which is a differently EQ'd digital clone of Hitmakers, but starts its fade a little sooner and fades more gradually, also ending after the word "over". No evidence of NR here either.

It sounds like the UK got a different analog transfer than the US. The three UK discs I have with the song all end a few beats before the US discs:

Ronny's Pop Show 15 (1990) has its left and right channels swapped, but no evidence of added noise reduction.

Now That's What I Call Music 1990 (1993) has added noise reduction.

Now The Millennium Series 1990 (1999) also has noise reduction.

Edited by crapfromthepast

crapfromthepast wrote: Weird. Maybe someone complained about the long silence? On-air CD players were finicky back in 1990.

I guess if you consider 0.309 seconds of silence to be "long." Both discs have the audio starting relatively tight. One starts at 0:00.309 and the other at 0:00.209.