Roots Archives Forum

I agree with Magnola. I just finally caught up with the DUB RARITIES box set (2005), and even that's got a decent sound [to my ear]. Certainly an improvement on some of the same tracks I'd already collected from other sources.

Which leads me to another, related question - new thread: "Questions for the tech-heads..."

yes definitely some great stuff released by Trojan. No question about that but my frame of reference is the box sets of which I have many - they have been a real eye (ear) opener for me and led me to explore many an artist I previously knew nothing about. On some of them the sound quality ranges from awful to very good, so I suspect no real effort was made in those cases to EQ to make the tracks sound similar to each other. That's a good thing as far as I'm concerned. Why try to make tracks from different artists, producers, studios, labels sound samey?
So they got that part right - but in a lot of cases did a poor job of capturing the sound from the master, vinyl or whatever.
When they do it right they are great.
As I've said before, for consistency and sensitivity to the real sound of the originals the best resissues to my ears came from Blood and Fire. I suspect they spent a whole heap more time and money on their remastering than Trojan in general have done.
Maybe that's part of the reason they are no longer in business.

Mangola wrote:or the I-ROY "presenting I-ROY" double disc are well done - great sound - big reissues!

See I didn't get on with that I-roy release, I much prefer Virgin's crisis time collection.

I would have said that presenting IRoy suffered from a poor mastering

Funny isn't it how we all relate to different sounds?

Mangola wrote:There are some with an excellent sound. The Lee Perry "I am the Upsetter" CD-Boxset or the I-ROY "presenting I-ROY" double disc are well done - great sound - big reissues!

[cover=7647,5075]

And this Trojan *offering* sounds absolutely incredible.

Trojan had a great run with Sanctuary...
the label that I have to call out on mastering is VP.
In the past 2-3 years all of their reissues are terrible!

i have to agree with your comment on vp: they cant master a decent bass tone to save their lives, seems like.

those VP channel one releases are chock full of great tracks but the problem is, they really dont capture the sound of channel one very well. where de bass deh?

one love
jah bill

jb welda wrote:i have to agree with your comment on vp: they cant master a decent bass tone to save their lives, seems like.

those VP channel one releases are chock full of great tracks but the problem is, they really dont capture the sound of channel one very well. where de bass deh?

one love
jah bill

@Jah Bill

I had the same exeprience.....great track listing but when you play it......

The biggest VP disappointment IMO was the Dennis Brown Joe Gibbs 12" collection....the compression makes it almost impossible to listen to. Truly a missed opportunity, having all those glorious full-length mixes together.

On the other hand, their re-issue of the "The Heptones Meets The Now Generation" sounds pretty good (I had a pretty scratchy press on LP), especially with the extra tracks. So it can be done.

davek wrote:So it can be done.

I genuinely do not understand why it isn't always done as the discs I make from my vinyl sound absolutely incredible with a bottom end you would not believe. Anyone who has heard any of these will verify this.

Literally straight out of the back of the amp into the line-in of my computer using Wave Corrector software.

If I can do this at home why can't the pros do it? It just doesn't make sense to me.

The only issue I can see is a poor source, but that is still no excuse, as far as I can see, for a lack of musical *depth*.

the "pros" cant do it because they have hidden agendas and/or different standards. thats the only plausable reason. hell blood and fire did it!

one love
jah bill

jb welda wrote:the "pros" cant do it because they have hidden agendas and/or different standards. thats the only plausable reason. hell blood and fire did it!

I know that it's a total non-answer - but sometimes you just have to put it down to them (i.e. the record labels or the producers in charge of remastering) deciding to make it sound how they want it to sound...