The Vinyl Thread

[DaveInDenver]

I forgot, yeah Tim was out there this year. I only have Replacements CDs and old, originals, not even Rhino remasters. Yeah, indeed, those usually sound much better so I'm painting with a broad stroke. With terrible ears to boot.

In this case the record was originally intended for vinyl so the CDs from that era sound really bad, so it's the opposite phenomenon at work. Not that 1990s CD don't benefit but when a recording was known to be for CD they engineered it better while those 1980s records that maybe sounded decent on wax ended up awful on their first CDs. The original Tim CD I have was done in 1987 with the generic WCI Record Group given mastering credit.

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www.discogs.com

The RSD Tim is two slabs, one of which is an Ed Stasium mix and the other a remaster of the original mix, but I wonder if it's the same pressing as the 2009 Rhino reissue. Not sure who mixed it originally, although Tom Erdelyi is credited as the producer (you probably know him better as Tommy Ramone) and the original engineer was Steve Fjelstad. So it was probably both of them involved.

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www.discogs.com

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www.discogs.com

The original 1985 LP was mastered by Jack Skinner, who did a crap load of records. I have several and I bet you do, too.

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www.discogs.com

 

[Hulk]

New remastering on the original mix. But the Ed Stasium mix is the real treat. Tim finally sounds as good as Let It Be and Pleased To Meet Me.

Bob Mehr has been heavily involved in this. He posted this last week:

 

[Crash]

New remastering on the original mix. But the Ed Stasium mix is the real treat. Tim finally sounds as good as Let It Be and Pleased To Meet Me.

Bob Mehr has been heavily involved in this. He posted this last week:

I have five OG Replacements lps that I picked up from Ige when she left Colorado. They are all first calls when I need to get rockin’.

 

[Hulk]

Vinyl Me Please is kaput.

Vinyl Me, Please Customers Face Uncertainty as Company Enters Liquidation

The Denver-based record club has assigned its assets to a third party, which will handle refund claims

pitchfork.com

 

[DaveInDenver]

I was a VMP member for a few years early on. I ended up cancelling. Weren't you too, Matt?

The mastering and pressing was all over the place. Sometimes it was fine, sometimes lots of audio chain or surface noise, sometime so warped as to be unplayable on anything other than a spring-weighted Crosby. Their records are why I bought that cleaning machine.

The included art and packaging for the featured record of the month was kind of cool. The premise with a different genre each month was interesting. Got some like Jamie XX, Four Tet, Fugees, Blessed Feathers that I probably wouldn't have listened to otherwise but still end up in rotation.

Brings to mind Columbia and BMG, record clubs usually fall somewhere on the scam spectrum.

 

[Hulk]

I was a VMP member for a few years early on. I ended up cancelling. Weren't you too, Matt?

Yep. I lasted a couple of years. I purged some of them that I never listened to.

The mastering and pressing was all over the place. Sometimes it was fine, sometimes lots of audio chain or surface noise, sometime so warped as to be unplayable on anything other than a spring-weighted Crosby. Their records are why I bought that cleaning machine.

The pressings were done by the different record labels. My cousin's husband Jason runs Stones Throw Records and they did the J Dilla "Donuts" album for VMP. He told me that after they got the records pressed, they noticed an unwanted sound throughout the whole thing that was unwanted. So they had to repress the whole run for VMP. That was on them. I suspect other labels cared less about quality.

I bought a whole series of Brazilian music from VMP that is pretty cool.