Mastering Error on MIC Disc 3 ?

[feelsflow]

If you thought MIC was a tough buy, that's nothing.  I'm trying to fit the new John Martyn Box into my budget. It retails for over $4oo, and best deal I've found so far is $350.  And you are right, for now The Suits got the juice on collectors.  Soon even the collectors will give up.  Not yet for me though, I'll have that box by Christmas...

And thanks guys for helping to keep this bubbling toward the top.

[feelsflow]

I apologize in advance for sounding like a crank. I fault Capitol / Universal in the small picture and the degradation of quality manufactured goods in the big picture. Specifically for music, many/all (not many left) of the majors release archives as cash grabs. The product is treated with beefed up volume, compression/limiting, NoNoise, etc. and mass produced by low-bid manufacturers that have little quality control. The result is clipped songs, mastering errors, glitches and whatever other issues that degrade the consumption experience (at least for me). The companies do not care because: fans will still buy products, sound quality is a lax issue (thanks to mp3, portable devices, and the decline of interest in home audio systems). The company will get paid and the retail outlets will be left holding the bag for damaged goods (easy for a giant like Amazon, not so for indie outlets).

I avoided MIC specifically because EMI gave me a chincy booklet that was poorly assembled with my Beatles Mono box (not a pirate copy) and TSS was delivered with glitches on three discs thanks to the case the discs are housed in. My point: anyone pissed about this box should take it up with the company who is releasing it. They need to hear how shabby their products are.

Hi,  Wait, what?  The Beatles mono Box was perfect.  I bought two, and it's already worth big bucks (I'm keeping one sealed).  I have a Sgt. Pepper yellow vinyl issue from Holland (the mid-70's IIRC), they put in the insert, but not the swirly inner bag.  The mono box did.  They all had inner bags, of the period.  They are "as released" in the UK -You got the first issue from Japan, right?  My only complaint was no Let It Be, cause then we would have got that booklet.  No, that is perfect, Capitol/EMI has always played favorites with the Beatles.

Sorry about your TSS box.  My CDs were fine, and went right into MLPS plastic inner bags, like the ones they used on the mono box.  In most cases they will fit back in the slots.  I have them on anything that comes in a MLPS cover.  Yes, they are sh*ts for not giving them to us in the first place, but protect the investment man.  I get mine from a place called Dusty Grooves.

[The Shift]

If you thought MIC was a tough buy, that's nothing.  I'm trying to fit the new John Martyn Box into my budget. It retails for over $4oo, and best deal I've found so far is $350.  And you are right, for now The Suits got the juice on collectors.  Soon even the collectors will give up.  Not yet for me though, I'll have that box by Christmas.  Baby's got deep pockets.

And thanks guys for helping to keep this bubbling toward the top.  Mark, can you get us an update?

I got the JM box for about £120/£130 thanks to an email triggered by joining the artist's mailing list.

It's a beautiful piece of work, the music (of course) is outstanding but the packaging does it justice. Wish I'd ordered a fistful as an investment but I rarely view music in that way.

[feelsflow]

Hi John,  Yeah, I do remember you posting somewhere that he was a favorite of yours.  Good on 'Ya.  I'm on his list, guess they did not offer that in America.  But I'll get it.  All the listings here are from UK dealers.  You were a lucky fan to be in the UK, were he did most of his tours.  I only got to see him twice, both times in the early 90's when he was living in Chicago.  Both of my shows at The Great American Music Hall.  He was easy to meet too, as he hung at the bar between sets.  His sets focused on mostly the 70's material, I guess because he toured here less.  Funny story... I discovered him, not from his flawless early albums, but because the band America put Head and Heart on their 2nd long-player, I think it was.  Says to myself, right I'll have some more of that.  Most of his early records were very hard to find here, even though I was living in San Francisco...ah, memories pre-internet.  After it was just CD releases, it took me two years to find On The Cobbles.  Now there are only two I don't have:  And and And...Live.  I did have a sharp eye back when, seeing that plain blank cover  that just said Live at Leeds, not signed but it's one of those first ten thousand.  I should have taken it to one of the concerts, I did get him to sign things, but was worried it would get damaged.  Those were bars he was playing after all.  You keep up the work with your writing and walking.  All the Best, Will

[The Heartical Don]

I have expressly postponed buying the MiC set until that defective disk will have been replaced.

But it's a hard wait.

How will I know that, when I will have MiC in my hands, in the store, it is the new version of the box with a corrected # 3 disk?

[2 and a half]

It's all gone very quiet on this - maybe Capitol/EMI are just hoping it'll go away

[Disney Boy (1985)]

It's a two second pause - big deal. Am I the only one who doesn't give a sh*t??

[The Heartical Don]

It's a two second pause - big deal. Am I the only one who doesn't give a sh*t??

What exactly is wrong with the fade out of Surf's Up? Is that a major issue?

[2 and a half]

It's a two second pause - big deal. Am I the only one who doesn't give a sh*t??

It's also missing material - the end of Surf's Up. Yes only a tiny bit but if I'd suggested paying a tiny bit less than the asking price I don't think they'd have sent me the box.

It's the principle. Things offered for sale should be right - and an expensive high-end product all the more so

[Sheriff John Stone]

There's a lot of reasons it is inexcusable - the technology of today, the lack of quality control from the record company, the hard-earned money people paid for the set, some people view the finished product (the record/tape/CD) as a piece of tangible art; Brian Wilson used to, and.....it's The Beach Boys, who, AGAIN, are not getting the respect afforded those "other" major artists we like to compare them to. That boxed set should've been recalled immediately and corrected.

I get this mental picture of Robert De Niro (Jimmy Conway) in Goodfellas talking with Ray Liotta and Paul Sorvino, saying, "I can't have it...I can't have it..." Hey, Capitol Records, I can't have it....I can't have it....

[Disney Boy (1985)]

There's a lot of reasons it is inexcusable - the technology of today, the lack of quality control from the record company, the hard-earned money people paid for the set, some people view the finished product (the record/tape/CD) as a piece of tangible art; Brian Wilson used to, and.....it's The Beach Boys, who, AGAIN, are not getting the respect afforded those "other" major artists we like to compare them to. That boxed set should've been recalled immediately and corrected.

I get this mental picture of Robert De Niro (Jimmy Conway) in Goodfellas talking with Ray Liotta and Paul Sorvino, saying, "I can't have it...I can't have it..." Hey, Capitol Records, I can't have it....I can't have it....

Ok, yeah I appreciate all that, I really do. However, I've bought MIC for a few friends and relatives for Xmas and I can't imagine 2 seconds of silence on CD 3 is going to make that much of a difference to their appreciation or otherwise of the set. However....

The WHY-DID-THEY-DO-THAT?? f**k-up that is You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling; the decision to include Brian' Back over Mike's vastly superior solo work of the time; the decision to exclude All I Wanna Do and Where I Belong; the stupid attempts at pitch correction; the even stupider vocal echo-echo-echo added to certain tracks; including the God-awful single version of Isn't It Time in place of the album version....

Those, I think, are all far more important to the overall artistic worth of the package than a minor mastering error and they all annoy me far more than the slight pause.

So yeah, for all that money we've spent the error shouldn't be there, but there's things about MIC I think are far more worth starting a thread over than this...

If every track started two seconds into the song than yeah, that'd piss me off, but as it is, meh... Not fussed.

[♩♬🐸 Billy C ♯♫♩🐇]

100% agree DB

[rab2591]

There's a lot of reasons it is inexcusable - the technology of today, the lack of quality control from the record company, the hard-earned money people paid for the set, some people view the finished product (the record/tape/CD) as a piece of tangible art; Brian Wilson used to, and.....it's The Beach Boys, who, AGAIN, are not getting the respect afforded those "other" major artists we like to compare them to. That boxed set should've been recalled immediately and corrected.

I get this mental picture of Robert De Niro (Jimmy Conway) in Goodfellas talking with Ray Liotta and Paul Sorvino, saying, "I can't have it...I can't have it..." Hey, Capitol Records, I can't have it....I can't have it....

Ok, yeah I appreciate all that, I really do. However, I've bought MIC for a few friends and relatives for Xmas and I can't imagine 2 seconds of silence on CD 3 is going to make that much of a difference to their appreciation or otherwise of the set. However....

The WHY-DID-THEY-DO-THAT?? f**k-up that is You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling; the decision to include Brian' Back over Mike's vastly superior solo work of the time; the decision to exclude All I Wanna Do and Where I Belong; the stupid attempts at pitch correction; the even stupider vocal echo-echo-echo added to certain tracks; including the God-awful single version of Isn't It Time in place of the album version....

Those, I think, are all far more important to the overall artistic worth of the package than a minor mastering error and they all annoy me far more than the slight pause.

So yeah, for all that money we've spent the error shouldn't be there, but there's things about MIC I think are far more worth starting a thread over than this...

If every track started two seconds into the song than yeah, that'd piss me off, but as it is, meh... Not fussed.

I admit, I've gotten used to it - I went into iTunes and changed the start time of all the songs (following the recommendation from some people here). Frankly, I don't really care about the problem anymore. But that doesn't mean I shouldn't care. It's a pretty glaring problem once you take everything into account (the price of the boxset, the hard work Boyd, Linett, etc put into the set).

31 tracks have this problem...that's quite the snafu, imo.

[leggo of my ego]

So we shouldn't hold our breath waiting for Capitol to make amends for their little boo boo....

[The Heartical Don]

It's a two second pause - big deal. Am I the only one who doesn't give a sh*t??

It's also missing material - the end of Surf's Up. Yes only a tiny bit but if I'd suggested paying a tiny bit less than the asking price I don't think they'd have sent me the box.

It's the principle. Things offered for sale should be right - and an expensive high-end product all the more so

I haven't heard/seen the errors... but on the whole I agree with this post. MiC is meant to be something definitive, a summation of a brilliant career. Even if one of the million available BBs compilations contained comparable errors, there would be reason for the trusting buyer to be dissatisfied.

That goes doubly (um, many more times, given the necessary investment) for MiC.

I will wait, in the hope that the problem will be eliminated.

[Ram4]

I went into iTunes and changed the start time of all the songs (following the recommendation from some people here).

I didn't hear that advice - brilliant!  Thanks, I'm doing that now.  Bye bye 2 second gap.

[Bicyclerider]

Only problem with that is you're still missing a few seconds off the end of SUrf's Up.  You could just substitute Surf's Up from the latest remaster - but is the mastering the same?  I would think so but haven't compared the two.

[drbeachboy]

Only problem with that is you're still missing a few seconds off the end of SUrf's Up.  You could just substitute Surf's Up from the latest remaster - but is the mastering the same?  I would think so but haven't compared the two.

Probably more like a 1/4 second, if actually any, due to the 2 second gap issue.

[Disney Boy (1985)]

Only problem with that is you're still missing a few seconds off the end of SUrf's Up.  You could just substitute Surf's Up from the latest remaster - but is the mastering the same?  I would think so but haven't compared the two.

Probably more like a 1/4 second, if actually any, due to the 2 second gap issue.

I generally don't listen to my music so blaringly loud that I can hear the final second of a song's fade, so again it's not really an issue for me...

[The Heartical Don]

Any news on this?

I am waiting with my purchase, but nobody can wait forever...

[The Shift]

Hi Don,

I've just emailed the customer services lady who I'd been communicating ages ago.  I'll post here if I get a response this coming week.  She's been very helpful so far…

Hope we're not being given the bum's rush over this.

[feelsflow]

Don, John and to those of us that do care,   I worked on it some this past week.  Amazon US came up with a new twist.  Then insisted to move through, I had to accept replacement.  So I did; got it Friday.  Had the bad disc - so Don, hold on a bit longer.  Amazon has offered to remove/freeze orders, once they hear back from me. -Seems extreme, but Capitol/EMI/Universal will jump quick if they do.  Very quick, if they take it off around the world.

BUT, today I see another option open-up.  Amazon is aware that Mark L. is commenting.  Go to Amazon US reviews for MIC.  First page, review by rdf1206 (Sept. 18, 2013), go to comments:  Mark is #3, "We told EMI and they are repressing the disc.  ...I expect them to announce how to get the replacement soon." (19 Sept.)   

Mark then wrote in again on October 17, saying he HAD several corrected discs in hand!  That was over a month ago, so why hasn't he posted here at SS.net?  I'll forgive him. MIC is one of the most amazing sets I've ever heard.  As others have said, it's minor, but still not right.

I got some GOOD news today.  Alan F. Smith posted  on 22 November, that he was able to get a replacement by calling Universal at 310-865-5000 through customer service. He has it in hand!!  Tomorrow I will call, too busy with football today.  Tried some other numbers last week, but got nowhere.

So maybe we are near the end of this road...

[leggo of my ego]

linky llink to reviews

http://www.amazon.com/Made-California-Beach-Boys/product-reviews/B008XZKSRY/ref=sr_1_1_cm_cr_acr_img?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=1

[feelsflow]

Thanks leggo,  I've really got to learn some of that tech-y stuff.

[buddhahat]

Thanks for the info feelsflow.