STP - Core, New vs Old


I picked up this brand new remastered Core, and it was like I'd never heard the bass lines in my life. Let's A/B it with the OG CD. We'll use track 7, Creep.

The very first problem is volume. The CD is louder than the record. That's a line vs phono level problem, I'm converting the much smaller analogue signal to digital and pumping them out of the same headphone jack. If I want them the same volume I have to actually normalize the sources to the same volume. OK, let's do it. 'Scuse me while I feed them both into Ardour.


Yeah, peaks at -1 for the CD, peaks at -10 for the record. Best I can do is cut the CD and boost the vinyl until my ears are satisfied.


Now the second problem, they don't play at the same speed. The vinyl is faster by a rate of about 1 second per minute. You're probably not going to feel it if you listen to one then the other, but it does mean you can't just flip back and forth without a noticeable disruption in continuity. That's OK though, I'm not trying to be granular, I'm interested in clearly audible differences between the two.

And there are several. The vinyl is brighter, and that's because it has noticeably less low end. Now, the trouble with a comparison like this is you have to pick one and compare the other to it. The CD sounds darker and more boomy compared to the vinyl, the vinyl sounds brighter and more brittle compared to the CD. Those are not equivalent experiences, and in the end my brain definitely prefers the new vinyl version. To me it sounds cleaner, clearer, like there's less pressure; it's a physically easier experience for my ears to absorb.

I mentioned how remarkable it was to hear the actual bass guitar notes on the very first cold-listen, but I also noticed a huge difference in Scott's background vocals. It's most noticeable on the line "and this I feel as the dawn it fades to gray." That line is definitely louder in the vinyl mix. So much so that I've never heard the changing melody notes on the word "gray" until now, and i've heard this entire album several hundred times on tape, CD, radio, etc.. Now after close examination I can just barely hear it on the CD, but it's still much more audible on this vinyl version. 

That's not an isolated incident, by the way, it holds true for the entire album. What I can't decide is if there has been an actual remix or if it's entirely the result of cutting out the extreme lows. Regardless, it's not even close, I vastly prefer the sound of this new vinyl over the original CD.

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