Best vinyl versions of BB albums

[wgolly]

would this british one  be an  original pressing from the 60's?  I guess those are a little easier to come by.  I have the CATP one as well as some early 80's cap stuff, just trying to find which versions are best since there are so many...


thanks

[wgolly]

didn't capitol delete tracks on later issues in the 80's and early 90's?  Even  going so far as to rename albums.....the covers are cool but the motives behind them are inda scummy.....

btw, there's a reissued SOT Smile out now on vinyl.  About 1/2 the stuff isn't from the box...

[donald]

I have original releases of all of the albums on capital amd warner.  Each is interesting in its own way and fun to listen to hear what people heard when the album was new.

Im partial to Surfin USA and Concert on capital, and on the later warner stuff, I really like Holland on vinyl.   Mount Vernon and Fairway seems especially nice on the little EP.

And about that duophonic, it is sometimes good, and sometimes bad, but usually interesting after years of steady listening to the twofers and such that are so sonically "perfect".

Vinyl is fun to collect and to listen to if you have time.   Seems I do most of my listening at the office, in the car, or out in my garage, working on the old chevy.   

Maybe vinyl sounds better sometimes because you are forced to put it on, change it frequently, clean the record, and generally be in a more atentive state while listening.

My hearing isn't so acute these days that I can really tell the difference between different formats.  However I still get a kick out of the idea of music being extracted from the groove mechanically.

[MBE]

didn't capitol delete tracks on later issues in the 80's and early 90's?  Even  going so far as to rename albums.....the covers are cool but the motives behind them are inda scummy.....

btw, there's a reissued SOT Smile out now on vinyl.  About 1/2 the stuff isn't from the box...

From 1970 to 1994 when they did vinyl reissues, most of the vinyl LP's had tracls deleted Summer Days was issued on CD like this. Pet Sounds, Wild Honey, Smiley Smile, Xmas, and Friends were left alone and are like the originals, 20/20 and Party and a 1972? issue of Surfin Safari  had all the original cuts, but the covers were somewhat changed. The 1994 ones are very rare now, but they are the only way to get Pet Sounds on vinyl with all three bonus cuts, and Stack O Tracks on vinyl in non duophonic sound. For me  I like an LP to have the original cover and cuts. I don't really care when it was pressed, but I want the orignal presentation. That's partially the reason I buy LP's over CD's in the first place.

The SOT smile came out about 3-4 years ago. It's pretty good sonically, but has a slightly noisey pressing.

[Shane]

I think the CATP/Pet Sounds album on Warner from 1972 is a great pressing.  Also, it was pressed from the original West Coast tape, which was later damaged (losing the original mono version of Wouldn't It Be Nice, and the last 20 seconds or so of Caroline No).  The damaged tape was then lost in the early 1990's.

[buddhahat]

Can anyone tell me how the Surf's Up reissue (I think the most recent one "From the vaults" printed on the front or something similar) compares to the original vinyl?

Many thanks!

[gxios]

Wild Honey Stereo is not traditional duophonic.  It's the cheap "high end on one side, low end on the other side" phony stereo.  Regarding "Friends"- nothing beats my 1968 original, and I've got all the different releases.  The 1990 2-fer cd has the stereo channels narrowed, as does the vinyl that was issued from that series, so avoid that one.  The 1983 Capital recut lp is nice, but the 1968 has more dynamic range.

[anazgnos]

The best Wild Honey is the simply vinyl reissue

Simply Vinyl pressings are generally good, but they master from commercial CDs.

Can anyone tell me how the Surf's Up reissue (I think the most recent one "From the vaults" printed on the front or something similar) compares to the original vinyl?

OK pressing, but again, mastered from CD-resolution masters.  I believe that's true of all the "From the Vault" repressings.  They're not gonna sound awful, but if you can find a clean original pressing it will be better. 

Wild Honey Stereo is not traditional duophonic.  It's the cheap "high end on one side, low end on the other side" phony stereo.

Nice thing about this mix is that it can be summed back to mono and will sound basically identical to the actual mono mix.  I've got a stereo Wild Honey pressing and I just flip the "mono" switch on my amp to sum the channels, and it sounds pretty great and well balanced.  I've still got my eye out for a nice mono LP but I'm not too bothered about having this one.

[hypehat]

Pardon the ignorance, but....

When they say 'master from CDs', do they mean a company like Simply Vinyl uses an actual CD off the shelves to get their master from? Or am I being dense and they are using the same digital masters as the CDs do? I have had some confusion with a Spiritualized reissue on Plain Recordings on this issue, is all.

[anazgnos]

Pardon the ignorance, but....

When they say 'master from CDs', do they mean a company like Simply Vinyl uses an actual CD off the shelves to get their master from? Or am I being dense and they are using the same digital masters as the CDs do? I have had some confusion with a Spiritualized reissue on Plain Recordings on this issue, is all.

In the case of Simply Vinyl, yeah, from what I've heard, you are basically hearing an off-the-shelf CD plugged into a cutting lathe.  There are a lot of grey-market vinyl reissue companies in the UK & Europe that are doing stuff like this, but Simply Vinyl seem to be one of the more above-board ones, so they presumably are actually licensing the rights to the stuff they're reprinting, but they don't go as far as actually obtaining masters to cut from.  In the case of the Capitol reissues my understanding is that they are cutting from the same master files as used to make the CD.  It's possible they could be cut from higher digital resolutions but everything I've seen suggests they are just at CD resolution.  Conversely I think it's been settle that the Smile Sessions vinyl was cut from a really nice high-resolution digital source since everybody seems to agree it sounds way better than the CD.

This isn't the worst thing in the world, especially when it involves bringing stuff back into print that is totally impossible to find otherwise, but if original copies still circulate, it's pretty pointless. 

[Jason]

Best place to hear the 1967-69 albums are the Warner reissues from 1974. Pet Sounds is best on the 1972 CATP bundle.

[buddhahat]

The best Wild Honey is the simply vinyl reissue

Simply Vinyl pressings are generally good, but they master from commercial CDs.

Can anyone tell me how the Surf's Up reissue (I think the most recent one "From the vaults" printed on the front or something similar) compares to the original vinyl?

OK pressing, but again, mastered from CD-resolution masters.  I believe that's true of all the "From the Vault" repressings.  They're not gonna sound awful, but if you can find a clean original pressing it will be better. 

Wild Honey Stereo is not traditional duophonic.  It's the cheap "high end on one side, low end on the other side" phony stereo.

Nice thing about this mix is that it can be summed back to mono and will sound basically identical to the actual mono mix.  I've got a stereo Wild Honey pressing and I just flip the "mono" switch on my amp to sum the channels, and it sounds pretty great and well balanced.  I've still got my eye out for a nice mono LP but I'm not too bothered about having this one.

Thanks for the info, anazgnos. I bought the WH reissue recently but had no idea these were just taken straight from the cds! Guess I start searching for the originals, where possible.

[SMiLE Brian]

Best place to hear the 1967-69 albums are the Warner reissues from 1974. Pet Sounds is best on the 1972 CATP bundle.

Just bought the 1972 CATP set, and the Warner Pet Sounds is amazing!