Manfred Mann - Blinded By The Light
Printed From: Top 40 Music on CD
Category: Top 40 Music On Compact Disc
Forum Name: Chat Board
Forum Description: Chat away but please observe the chat board rules
URL: https://top40musiconcd.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=5875
Printed Date: 17 June 2025 at 10:40am
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Topic: Manfred Mann - Blinded By The Light
Posted By: aaronk
Subject: Manfred Mann - Blinded By The Light
Date Posted: 29 August 2010 at 8:41pm
|
Since it hasn't been discussed on the board before, I wonder if anyone can weigh in on the strange mixing on "Blinded..." I always thought the crossfaded sections were something they did for the 45 release, but the album version has the crossfades, too.
Also, is there a decent sounding copy of this on CD? The copy I have of the single version gets muddy and swishy when folded down to mono. |
Replies:
Posted By: AndrewChouffi
Date Posted: 30 August 2010 at 8:32am
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Hi Aaron,
I was recently listening to a broadcast of Bary Scott's 'Lost 45s' and Chris Thompson (lead singer of "Blinded By The Light") was commenting on how at the time of mixing, with all that crossfading with different machines, he didn't think it had the stuff big hits were made of. It was only until he noticed how many new radio stations continued to add the record & up the rotation of it did he start to realize the band might have created something special. Andy |
Posted By: SoCalDrew
Date Posted: 30 August 2010 at 2:19pm
Nothing I've heard sounds remotely like the original WB 45. |
aaronk wrote:Posted By: KentT
Date Posted: 30 August 2010 at 4:35pm
|
SoCalDrew is right. The WB Single can't be beat for sonics. Unless you have a UK Bronze original 45 which this recording was released originally on in the UK. The best single version on CD I know of is the Time-Life Sounds Of The Seventies 1977 volume which has the single edit. ------------- I turn up the good and turn down the bad! |
Posted By: aaronk
Date Posted: 30 August 2010 at 9:08pm
| I would assume that the single is stereo. Why is the WB single so different sounding? Are the "45 versions" on CD not the right mix? |
Posted By: SoCalDrew
Date Posted: 31 August 2010 at 12:06pm
Not to my ears. Even the version on T-L's "1977" CD sounds wrong. I don't recall the harmony counterpoint at the end, for instance. |
Posted By: aaronk
Date Posted: 31 August 2010 at 9:21pm
| Perhaps the database needs to be updated, then? |
Posted By: MMathews
Date Posted: 01 September 2010 at 2:05pm
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Hmm.
As i recall, the 45 is simply an edit of the LP version, and is not a unique mix. I assume the cd versions out there just aren't mastered the same, or the tape they are left with is a poor safety copy. |
Posted By: aaronk
Date Posted: 01 September 2010 at 8:19pm
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I'm definitely curious to get a definitive answer on this one. I'm also curious
to know if there's a mono side to the promo 45, and if so, does it sound swishy and muddy like my fold down? I thought I read somewhere on the board that by the mid-'70s, unique mono mixes were not very common. |
Posted By: Yah Shure
Date Posted: 01 September 2010 at 9:42pm
http://i257.photobucket.com/albums/hh240/YahShure/ManfredMannsEarthBand-BlindedByTheLightmonoDJ.jpg - Yes, there was. Haven't played it since back in the day, though. Will do that tomorrow. |
Posted By: Yah Shure
Date Posted: 02 September 2010 at 2:49pm
UPDATE: I initially thought the mono side sounded like a fold-down, but the high-hat during the intro comes through clearer on the mono side than on the folded-down stereo side. |
Posted By: aaronk
Date Posted: 03 September 2010 at 10:04pm
| Actually, John, I believe your initial speculation was correct. Thanks for allowing me to hear your mono DJ 45. After working on it for a while, I was able to get the left and right channels of my CD version back in phase. Now my CD version can be folded down without getting swishy and muddy. Without fixing the phase issue, the high hat doesn't sound very clear as you have pointed out. Comparing my new-and-improved fold down, it sounds the same as your DJ 45, other than some minor EQ differences. |
Posted By: SoCalDrew
Date Posted: 04 September 2010 at 7:24am
| Guess the only way to resolve my possibly faulty recall of the 45 is to buy a turntable and single off of eBay! LOL |
Posted By: EdisonLite
Date Posted: 04 September 2010 at 9:14am
I've NEVER heard any version of this song (whether long or short) that DIDN'T have the counterpoint of the 2 melodies near the end of the song. (Unless - are you talking about harmonies underneath the two counterpoint melodies??) |
Posted By: Yah Shure
Date Posted: 04 September 2010 at 4:13pm
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Aaron, VERY nice job on the new-and-improved CD track! Thanks for the time spent tweaking it.
I'm sure that someone has come up with a scientific word to describe people who spend far too much time tweaking stereo tracks so that they sound great in mono. Fortunately, that person hasn't come knocking on my door yet. ;) |
Posted By: aaronk
Date Posted: 05 September 2010 at 1:03am
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Thanks, John! The tweaking of stereo versions is a newer thing for
me. It's mainly because I just started deejaying parties again in the last year, and most times I run my system in mono. If I don't check, I end up playing something that sounds horrible. A couple '90s songs that always sounded horrible when folded down are 100% Pure Love and Lovefool. They were obviously both mastered out of phase. |
Posted By: Yah Shure
Date Posted: 05 September 2010 at 2:14pm
|
Aaron, I deejayed a wedding dance for the first time two weeks ago, and because the classic rock-loving bridal couple had pre-selected all the music, I had considered mixing everything to mono beforehand. That didn't turn out to be necessary, but in prepping the music and seeing so many compressed waveforms and brickwalling on stuff I was was ripping from even early-'90s CD pressings, I decided to transfer everything from the list that I had on vinyl from the records, rather than the CDs. The last thing I wanted to deal with was sound levels that ran all over the map.
Of course, that meant a LOT more work, but at least I now have that material archived for my own use... which is mostly microbroadcast through mono AM these days. |
Posted By: aaronk
Date Posted: 05 September 2010 at 7:54pm
| Yeah, my mixer has a "stereo/mono" switch. I know what you mean about varying sound levels. My DJ software has a nice feature where it adjusts the gain internally based on how loud the song is. It's not perfect, but it helps significantly. |
Posted By: 995wlol
Date Posted: 16 May 2025 at 6:49pm
| Any recommendations for CDs with the best sounding LP version? |