Brown Sugar on CD. London vs. ABKCO vs. CBS vs. Virgin vs. UME vs. Japanese 'flat transfer'
Today, May 25, is Geek Pride Day. Fans of The Rolling Stones are not geeks to any extend. We are well respected. Just a bit enthusiastically obsessed, slightly eccentric people, over-focused on the favorite band. So, technically, this is not our holiday.
Thus, here will be presented some extremely boring technical analysis of one track: The Rolling Stones – Brown Sugar. This one, as well as Wild Horses, is a ‘transitional’ track between DECCA/ABKCO and Rolling Stones Records. It was digitalized, mastered and re-mastered numerous times by both companies. I shall not tell you which mastering sounds the best. Just numbers and curves. For this comparison the following versions and CDs were chosen:
1. Hot Rocks 2 (West Germany, 1985), apparently flat transfer made on MFSL equipment (see [
www.iorr.org] and [
www.lukpac.org] )
2. Hot Rocks 2 (Japan, 1987), Japanese product prepared using dupe tape of transfer 1
3. Hot Rocks 1964-1971 (West Germany for USA, 1986), transfer from unknown source, mastered by Andrew Loog Oldham for ABKCO 1986 edition (see. Musician April 1987 # 102 Rolling Stones on CD: You Can Get What You Need. By Scott Isler)
4. Singles Collection (1989 mastering), another ABKCO mastering from unknown source. This one is also on all Hot Rocks 1964-1971 since 1990.
5. Sticky Fingers (Japan for Europe, 1986). Mastered by Greg Calbi for 1986 re-issue of the RSR catalog on CBS. This mastering is used for all CBS CDs, no matter country of origin. (see. Musician April 1987 # 102 Rolling Stones on CD: You Can Get What You Need. By Scott Isler)
6. Sticky Fingers (Collector’s Edition, 1994), re-issue of the RSR catalog on Virgin. Mastered by Bob Ludwig. This mastering is used for all Virgin CDs, no matter country of origin.
7. Hot Rocks 1964-1971, 2002 SACD – Hybrid re-issue of DECCA/ABKCO catalog. Redbook CD-DA layer was used here. Mastered by Bob Ludwig. This mastering is used for all post 2002 ABKCO editions, no matter country of origin.
8. Sticky Fingers, 2009 remaster. Re-issue of RSR catalog on Polydor/Universal. Mastered by Stephen Marcussen. This mastering is used for all Polydor/Universal CDs.
9. Sticky Fingers. Japan only 2013 SHM-CD Platinum, HR cutting from the DSD master which was flat transferred from UK original analogue master tapes in 2011 (as it is claimed by manufacturer).
Sure, there are more
ABKCO: endless re-issues of Hot Rocks 1964-1971 from different parts of the world. Singles 1968-1971 box.
CBS: On CD (radio sampler), Made In The Shade, Rewind 1971-1984.
Virgin: Jump Back, 40 Licks, Made In The Shade
Polydor/Universal: Singles 1971-2006, Grrr!, Honk.
Usually one will find there slightly ‘tweaked’ versions of the nine mentioned above. Thus, these are left from consideration at this point.
Individual tracks were ripped using Exact Audio Copy (EAC) software (in secure mode, w/o normalization) from original CDs. The rips were analyzed using foobar2000 (Dynamic Range Meter plugin) and the following numbers were obtained.
Rips were dropped to Sound Forge and the waveforms are presented here
Hot Rocks 2 (West Germany, 1985) London 820 142-2
Hot Rocks 2 (Japan, 1987) London/Polydor K.K. P33L 25012
Hot Rocks 1964-1971 (West Germany for USA, 1986) ABKCO 66672
Singles Collection (1989 mastering) ABKCO 844 481-2
Sticky Fingers (Japan for Europe, 1986) CBS 450 195 2
Sticky Fingers (Collector’s Edition, 1994) Virgin 7243-8-39504-2-3
Hot Rocks 1964-1971 (SACD – Hybrid 2002) EU edition, redbook layer ABKCO 882 305 2
Sticky Fingers (remaster 2009) Deluxe Edition, 2015 Polydor 376 483-6
Sticky Fingers (DSD transfer, 2011) HD cutting SHM-CD Platinum, Japan 2013 Polydor UICY-40011
It is clearly seen that Virgin and Plydor/Universal versions are on the loud side. Some suffer from ‘brickwall’ mastering and clipping. Frequency analysis to come in the next post.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2021-05-25 18:05 by ironbelly.