Dont know if it's different for other countries, but I bought it last wednesday here in Holland. Been looking all over town for the Virgin mixes ever since.....

What was wrong with the Virgin booklets? With exception to Steel Wheels actually being different, I thought they did a fantastic job.

Soory guys,

Disappointment once again (or not) but booklets are exactly the same as Virgin, discs look almost the same and contain no bonus material/extra songs.

And the sound?

still checking. Got a day time job and a GF who thinks it's absolutely weird that I lock myself up with three different copies of "the same" CD.....

haha ok..keep us posted! :-)

Hopefully it's the same mixes/edits that Virgin used (i.e. the real Star Star vox, the longer edit of Luxury and Slave) and they sound just as good.

But yeah, if they're the same then...what have they done for the integrity of the catalogue that Virgin hadn't done? NOTHING. Virgin made their reissues more authentic to the original releases than, well, CBS. If UMG can't improve upon the Virgins then it's a waste of money unless your Virgins are all scratched up.

Good to know. If i ever need to replace one of the virgins i will buy a universal and put it in the virgin sleeve. the mini albums from virgin was a cool thing. i remember how excited i was when those came out in 94. universal and the stones should be ashamed for not improving on those releases. Its almost as if they dont care about the fans anymore. looking forward to the beatles releases in sept. thats how it should be done. love the stones but they are marketing morons

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out of my head
love the stones but they are marketing morons

Sheesh, would y'all please just cool out??!!! Universal is NOT hyping these re-releases precisely because these are NOT "deluxe versions"!! Universal HAD TO reissue the Virgins under their own name, and that's ALL they're doing here. I for one think we should be GRATEFUL that Universal bothered to remaster them in the process, when it's obvious that many people don't care about that sort of thing at all.

All the deluxe stuff that everybody feels is their birthright to receive, as diehard Stones fans, all that may come later ... ya never know!!

Drew



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2009-05-02 16:00 by drewmaster.

Before this week I never really bothered which edition I had. I did posess EOMS and SF in the Virgin edition but that was just because, after buying the ABKCO SACD's and a SACD player I decided I should have the 5 topalbums (imho) in my office as well. So I took the old LIB, BB, GYYYO, SF and EOMS to work and completed my home collection with the Virgin editions of SF and EOMS.

Now I regret this a little. The Virgin editions are rapidly becoming scarce and they turn out to be a good thing to have. As I pointed out earlier: I'm not happy with the overdubs on Star star. So on top of buying the Universal box I find myself running to every record shop in town looking for the Virgin editions and The Stones are laughing all the way to the bank again....

Managed to find GHS, IORR, ER, TY and just ordered BAB, SG, UC and SW from Austria through Amazon. I can't put myself to investing money in a second or third edition of DW (sorry).

Anyway, from the first Universal four I can compare SF, GHS, and IORR 2009 with the '94 and '86 edtions. In order to compare I made a .wav CD from three songs of each album and each edtion so I can switch from version to version.
Yesterday I started with SF and GHS. I chose Brown Sugar, Sway, I got the Blues, 100 Years ago, Angie and Star star.

First conclusions (I hope i use the right words, English not being my native tongue):
Forget '86. '94 and '09 seem much closer together. Universal managed to squeeze out a little extra volume, which works better for me on SF than on GHS.
I am not to keen on loud productions like Californication, but Universal didn't go that far. Still I think the new remasters are more upfront and in your face. The balance between vocals and instruments seems to have shifted a little towards the instruments.
Should I walk in to a room where one of these albums was playing I don't think I would be able to say if it was Virgin or Universal edition (except of course if Stas star was on). So if you're on a tight budget and already have the Virgin editions I don't think I would replace them.
Presumably I will buy all Universal editions and decide after listening to the individual albums which one goes to my bedroom or livingroom (all the '86 going to the office).

After recieving BAB from Austria I will compare BAB abd IORR and let you know what I think. I'll choose It's only Rock'n'Roll, Time waits for no one, Luxury, Hot Stuff, Memory Motel and Melody as songs to compare.

If the Universal remasters have been mastered to be louder, this actually means that the music has been compressed so there will be less dynamic range - i.e. the difference between quiet and loud passages will be less. This is better for playing in the car but is, in my opinion, a very bad thing if listening at home. I like the contrast between light and shade.

This would fit in to the current fashion of over compressing remastered CDs and I'm surprised that the Stones would allow it.

All that said, I haven't heard the new remasters myself so I'll have to reserve final judgement until then. However, I'm not going to by any of the universal releases unless something bad happens to my current collection (i.e. stolen or scratched). I'll wait to see what's planned for EOMS before deciding on that one.

"All the deluxe stuff that everybody feels is their birthright to receive, as diehard Stones fans, all that may come later ..."

You're right. They'll have us buy the UMG classic "remastered" (ahem) versions and THEN in 18-to-24 months they'll sell us the Deluxe/2-cd versions with bonus. 101 record label "strategy" Worked for years but in those times of torrent sites might not work so well
Buyer beware...

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dcba
"All the deluxe stuff that everybody feels is their birthright to receive, as diehard Stones fans, all that may come later ..."

You're right. They'll have us buy the UMG classic "remastered" (ahem) versions and THEN in 18-to-24 months they'll sell us the Deluxe/2-cd versions with bonus.

They would probably follow the example of the Who, first releasing single-CD Expanded editions, with a handful of bonus tracks, THEN, several YEARS later, releasing Deluxe 2-CD editions, with the same extras that were on the Expanded editions, plus a few additional goodies that weren't good enough to make it onto the Expanded editions.

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tatters

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dcba
"All the deluxe stuff that everybody feels is their birthright to receive, as diehard Stones fans, all that may come later ..."

You're right. They'll have us buy the UMG classic "remastered" (ahem) versions and THEN in 18-to-24 months they'll sell us the Deluxe/2-cd versions with bonus.

They would probably follow the example of the Who, first releasing single-CD Expanded editions, with a handful of bonus tracks, THEN, several YEARS later, releasing Deluxe 2-CD editions, with the same extras that were on the Expanded editions, plus a few additional goodies that weren't good enough to make it onto the Expanded editions.

Best hold on to your single CD of The Who Sell Out because they've dropped Melancholia - which is odd. It's meant to be an expanded version of Odds & Sods, which may be out next year.

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Nikolai

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tatters

Quote
dcba
"All the deluxe stuff that everybody feels is their birthright to receive, as diehard Stones fans, all that may come later ..."

You're right. They'll have us buy the UMG classic "remastered" (ahem) versions and THEN in 18-to-24 months they'll sell us the Deluxe/2-cd versions with bonus.

They would probably follow the example of the Who, first releasing single-CD Expanded editions, with a handful of bonus tracks, THEN, several YEARS later, releasing Deluxe 2-CD editions, with the same extras that were on the Expanded editions, plus a few additional goodies that weren't good enough to make it onto the Expanded editions.

Best hold on to your single CD of The Who Sell Out because they've dropped Melancholia - which is odd. It's meant to be an expanded version of Odds & Sods, which may be out next year.

You mean Melancholia, which is on the expanded edition of The Who Sell Out, is not on the Deluxe edition of The Who Sell Out?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2009-05-03 16:36 by tatters.

So it is official - it's the original edit masters as far as Star Star, Luxury and Slave, the same ones that CBS/Sony put out, meaning that Star Star is the bullshit censored version and Luxury and Slave are the fit-for-45-minute LP edits. Yeah that's retaining the original content of the albums. Great.

Sorry. That just sucks. Could someone who did get the albums with those 3 songs PLEASE let us know in a separate thread specifically titled? Time of songs between the Virgins and UMIs and of course the Star Star one (censored).

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tatters

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Nikolai

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tatters

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dcba
"All the deluxe stuff that everybody feels is their birthright to receive, as diehard Stones fans, all that may come later ..."

You're right. They'll have us buy the UMG classic "remastered" (ahem) versions and THEN in 18-to-24 months they'll sell us the Deluxe/2-cd versions with bonus.

They would probably follow the example of the Who, first releasing single-CD Expanded editions, with a handful of bonus tracks, THEN, several YEARS later, releasing Deluxe 2-CD editions, with the same extras that were on the Expanded editions, plus a few additional goodies that weren't good enough to make it onto the Expanded editions.

Best hold on to your single CD of The Who Sell Out because they've dropped Melancholia - which is odd. It's meant to be an expanded version of Odds & Sods, which may be out next year.

You mean Melancholia, which is on the expanded edition of The Who Sell Out, is not on the Deluxe edition of The Who Sell Out?

Affirmatron. Neither is Glow Girl (but that is on the current Odds & Sods CD). The only way you can get Melancholia now is to buy/download the box set.

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skipstone
So it is official - it's the original edit masters as far as Star Star, Luxury and Slave, the same ones that CBS/Sony put out, meaning that Star Star is the bullshit censored version and Luxury and Slave are the fit-for-45-minute LP edits. Yeah that's retaining the original content of the albums. Great.

Sorry. That just sucks. Could someone who did get the albums with those 3 songs PLEASE let us know in a separate thread specifically titled? Time of songs between the Virgins and UMIs and of course the Star Star one (censored).

Oh f***ing wonderful. Universal actually give us LESS than we had before. Thanks, but no thanks. Universal can shove their remasters up their jacksies.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2009-05-03 23:13 by Gazza.

how can those recent stones products just suck so hard? I simply don't get it. Where's the value?

Let me see: we have Shine A Light with fake 1st row audience, and the wrong speed on the EU DVD's, the Rarities album with no rarities and wrong info in the booklet, Live Licks with strange edits on Rocks Off,Biggest Bang DVD box where the guitar tech plays the overdubs for Keith, it can't get any worse now can it?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2009-05-03 23:27 by barbabang.

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barbabang
Let me see: we have Shine A Light with fake 1st row audience, and the wrong speed on the EU DVD's, the Rarities album with no rarities and wrong info in the booklet, Live Licks with strange edits on Rocks Off,Biggest Bang DVD box where the guitar tech plays the overdubs for Keith, it can't get any worse now can it?

Tim Ries on lead vocals on the next album and tour?

A $100 fan club membership next time that promises you an exclusive DVD that has never existed? Oh wait, they tried that....



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2009-05-03 23:30 by Gazza.

And maybe the mastering engineer from Metallica's latest? :-)

Let me take a Bob Dylan line and tweak it just for this:

When you think that everything already sucks
You find out it can suck a little more

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Gazza

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skipstone
So it is official - it's the original edit masters as far as Star Star, Luxury and Slave, the same ones that CBS/Sony put out, meaning that Star Star is the bullshit censored version and Luxury and Slave are the fit-for-45-minute LP edits. Yeah that's retaining the original content of the albums. Great.

Sorry. That just sucks. Could someone who did get the albums with those 3 songs PLEASE let us know in a separate thread specifically titled? Time of songs between the Virgins and UMIs and of course the Star Star one (censored).

Oh f***ing wonderful. Universal actually give us LESS than we had before. Thanks, but no thanks. Universal can shove their remasters up their jacksies.

My thoughts exactemundo.

For me being both a Stones and Beatles fanatic, the good news is that I now have 200-300$ to save for The Beatles Remastered Box sets saved up

Er, you're saying that you were going to spend that money on these useless reissues but now you're going to hold onto it and, I guess add to it, get The Beatles reissues instead.

Based on all that I've read about The Beatles reissues what you're doing makes the most sense.

Has anyone noticed that, although it's still a little while until September, that there are plenty of Beatles albums in stores still? What are they gonna do with all of the shitcanned CDs? Cause there are millions of 'em...

74,705 views and 1,166 posts....is this a commercial??????

My intention is never to buy a remastered record again... I got 3 vesions of Their Satanic M...LP, CD and SACD........i still love my LP the most.

Bit I must admit that I will give "Out of Our Heads (UK)" an other try, love the record but find the sound miserable

__________________________

Star Star ‘86 (4:25)
Star Star ‘94 (4:25)
Star Star ‘09 (4:23)


Luxury ‘86 (4:31)
Luxury ‘94 (5:01)
Luxury ‘09 (5:01)

Slave ‘86 (4:58)
Slave ‘94 (6:32)
Slave ’09 (due next month)

Oh right, woops. Slave doesn't come out for a while. Ha ha. So that means they used the same masters Virgin did. It's just that Star Star is the shitty version.

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Nikolai

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tatters


Best hold on to your single CD of The Who Sell Out because they've dropped Melancholia - which is odd. It's meant to be an expanded version of Odds & Sods, which may be out next year.

You mean Melancholia, which is on the expanded edition of The Who Sell Out, is not on the Deluxe edition of The Who Sell Out?

The Deluxe edition of The Who Sell Out is fantastic, but has dropped both Melancholia and Glow Girl. Why you ask? Because the album was released in Dec. 1967 and those songs were recorded in 1968, so they took liberties by including them on the expanded edition in the 90s.