The warmth of the sun with the hard "S's"

[joshferrell]

how could capitol get away with releasing those horrible versions of "Warmth of the sun" back in the 80's on cassette and early cd releases where the song had a very annoying loud "S" everytime they said a word with an "S" in it? also why didn't they fix that to make it sound better?

[runnersdialzero]

I'd like to hear Phil Cohen's opinion on these excessive "S" sounds on 30 year old cassettes.

[DonnyL]

how could capitol get away with releasing those horrible versions of "Warmth of the sun" back in the 80's on cassette and early cd releases where the song had a very annoying loud "S" everytime they said a word with an "S" in it? also why didn't they fix that to make it sound better?

because that's how the recordings sounded on the master ... the LPs would have been run through a high-frequency limiter/de-esser because you can't cut these sounds to vinyl (they just translate as distortion). since tape and CD do not have these restrictions, this was not necessary. if the "S" sounds were considered unacceptable, they would have to send the whole mix through a processor, which affects the sound quality. probably not an issue on cassette, but CDs were being touted as 'crystal clear' at the time ... so better to leave it untouched and retain the transparency I suppose.

[SufferingFools]

I don't really understand.... If vinyl can't handle the high frequencies, how come it did OK with the dog-whistle sound on Sgt. Pepper?

[B-Rex]

sibilance, sibilance, sibilance

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De-essing

Vinyl can reproduce very high frequencies on the order of about 50,000 hz.  Donny is talking about the sibilant sounds creating distortion when put down on vinyl so they are compressed.  I don't profess to know all that much about the process but the link provides some info.

[Rocker]

The a$s is before the pee.... 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=xrIstkuso98#t=56s


Sorry, nothing else to add....

[DonnyL]

I don't really understand.... If vinyl can't handle the high frequencies, how come it did OK with the dog-whistle sound on Sgt. Pepper?

vinyl can handle a large frequency range, but what we're dealing with here is a loud, short burst of a specific problematic frequency.

[SufferingFools]

Thanks.