m_007
Member
With a new batch of LP vinyl releases hitting the stores the vinyl resurgence is getting stronger day by day. Mostly audiophiles and music lovers are looking to enjoy the smooth rich sound of vinyl and enjoy the 12"x12" cover art that only an LP can offer. I was really excited at the prospect of the new Sony DADC releases and want to offer a few reviews of LPs I have purchased. First up is Teesri Manzil. RD Burman's groundbreaking score from 1966 and I also own this soundtrack on the Odeon Vinyl pressing (3AEX-5109) and the 2 in 1 RPG Teesri Manzil/Caravan CD (CDF 10017).
One of my favourite soundtracks from the 1960's. This review is not about the music, but more about the new Sony DADC LP release ... so here goes ...
Cover Art: The Sony DADC LP largely replicates the original LP cover art on a glossy sturdy sleeve. The cover art is very low-res when compared with the original LP. Most notable and distracting is a large white band across the picture of Asha Parekh on the front of the sleeve. The back of the sleeve features a slight re-arrangement of information and pictures when compared with the original. Again, any replicated photos are low-res and blurry. The cover features the track listing (which is the same order as on the original LP - more about this later), and the original write-up about RD Burman. I can see that there must have been some sort of printing problem as the lines about RD Burman are printed on a sticker which is attached to the cover next to a picture of RB Burman (albeit a smaller picture than featured on the original). Following that is A LOT of text featuring copyright statements and license information.
The record: The record is pressed on great quality vinyl. Very glossy and no warping issues. It is housed in a plain, poly-lined inner sleeve and was amazingly clean. The record was not warped at all and looks great! The label is bare bones and really only has the LP Title and an interesting statement "See Inlay Card for Details" which reminds me of the cassette days. No track listing is on the record label itself.
The LP Cover states 4 tracks on each side:
Side 1:
1) Title Music
2) Main Hoon Pyar Tera
3) Deewana Mujse Nahin
4) Main Inpe Marta Hoon
Side 2:
1) O Haseena
2) Tumne Mujhe Dekha
3) O Mera Sona
4) Music
The LP only has three tracks pressed on each side and is missing the "Title Music" from side 1 and "Music" from side 2. One reason for seeking out the LP is to get the complete soundtrack as was originally released. In this case this has not happened and the cover art does not indicate what is actually pressed on the LP. A major disappointment.
The sound: I played the LP on my Audio Technica LP-1240 paired with a Nagaoka MP-200 cartridge and stylus with about 60 hours of usage. I played each track and compared with the original LP and CD. I can (on request) try to provide a track by track breakdown between the CD and LP releases that I have - but for now I am posting a summary of the complete LP.
The Sony DADC LP seems to be using the same digital source as the CD. You can clearly hear a quick fade-in and fade-out at the beginning/end of each song the reveals an underlying hum throughout the soundtrack from the sound files that were used for the master of this LP. The LP itself displays a lot of over processed digital cleaning (metallic sounding) and sibilance throughout. The digital processing that has been done has interfered with the top end which has caused a marked increase in sibilance, and top end "squelching"/distortion. The bottom end is not rounded out well and sounds as if it is artificially boosted (which hasn't helped to warm up the sound, instead it is boomy at the bottom end and merges with the mids). The Odeon pressing sounds warmer in comparison. The drums at the beginning of O Haseena have a good deal of definition on the Odeon pressing, but the drums on the Sony DADC pressing descend in to a mess of sound and distortion. The violins are harsh and it makes for a fatiguing listening session.
While the Odeon isn't perfect it is still my go to version of this soundtrack (how I wish I could source the Angel pressing of this soundtrack). Listening to the Sony DADC release I was greatly missing the sound of my Odeon LP.
Thankfully I have a near mint copy that I have kept clean and like new.
While I really want to applaud the interest in releasing vintage soundtracks on vinyl, I hope that Sony DADC can do a much better job for their next batch of releases. If the sources are the same as the CDs that I have long rejected then owning another version of that source isn't what I am looking for.
I can't recommend this LP release unfortunately.
I would be much happier with a good quality duplicate made from an Angel pressing of this LP with minimal digital processing. Done properly, even if we can replicate 75% of the sound quality from the original pressings (I know getting the master tapes is impossible) then that is progress. The digital masters made when these soundtracks were released on CD are not good.
Many exhibit too much digital cleaning to the point that it impacts the sound quality. The sound needs to be balanced to keep the warmth and depth that vinyl lovers are looking for, that we sadly lost when we moved to CD.
In short - the vinyl used for these pressings is great. Many of the Saregama vinyl releases had warping issues and were scuffed due to poor handling in the pressing plant. So far I don't see these issues with Sony DADC and I must applaud Sony DADC for the excellent pressing and handling of these LPs.
The missing tracks from the soundtrack in unforgivable, especially when the outer sleeve promises the full soundtrack. Unfortunately this LP only offers what is available on the CD (or digital downloads). I would hope that as these endeavours move forward that some additional work is done on sourcing good quality analogue sources (perhaps gifting the source provider with a copy of the new LP and a credit on the cover of the record?) Many forum members have carefully preserved and cherished LPs that I am sure sound better than the digital masters that are being selected for pressing on to new LPs. These could be used to capture as much as can be captured, mastered digitally using lossless files and minimally processed.
Maybe an outreach could be done? Very sadly this release fails to deliver.
Will post additional reviews in the coming days (I have Kati Patang, Kashmir Ki Kali, Umrao Jaan & Awara from Sony DADC).
One of my favourite soundtracks from the 1960's. This review is not about the music, but more about the new Sony DADC LP release ... so here goes ...
Cover Art: The Sony DADC LP largely replicates the original LP cover art on a glossy sturdy sleeve. The cover art is very low-res when compared with the original LP. Most notable and distracting is a large white band across the picture of Asha Parekh on the front of the sleeve. The back of the sleeve features a slight re-arrangement of information and pictures when compared with the original. Again, any replicated photos are low-res and blurry. The cover features the track listing (which is the same order as on the original LP - more about this later), and the original write-up about RD Burman. I can see that there must have been some sort of printing problem as the lines about RD Burman are printed on a sticker which is attached to the cover next to a picture of RB Burman (albeit a smaller picture than featured on the original). Following that is A LOT of text featuring copyright statements and license information.
The record: The record is pressed on great quality vinyl. Very glossy and no warping issues. It is housed in a plain, poly-lined inner sleeve and was amazingly clean. The record was not warped at all and looks great! The label is bare bones and really only has the LP Title and an interesting statement "See Inlay Card for Details" which reminds me of the cassette days. No track listing is on the record label itself.
The LP Cover states 4 tracks on each side:
Side 1:
1) Title Music
2) Main Hoon Pyar Tera
3) Deewana Mujse Nahin
4) Main Inpe Marta Hoon
Side 2:
1) O Haseena
2) Tumne Mujhe Dekha
3) O Mera Sona
4) Music
The LP only has three tracks pressed on each side and is missing the "Title Music" from side 1 and "Music" from side 2. One reason for seeking out the LP is to get the complete soundtrack as was originally released. In this case this has not happened and the cover art does not indicate what is actually pressed on the LP. A major disappointment.
The sound: I played the LP on my Audio Technica LP-1240 paired with a Nagaoka MP-200 cartridge and stylus with about 60 hours of usage. I played each track and compared with the original LP and CD. I can (on request) try to provide a track by track breakdown between the CD and LP releases that I have - but for now I am posting a summary of the complete LP.
The Sony DADC LP seems to be using the same digital source as the CD. You can clearly hear a quick fade-in and fade-out at the beginning/end of each song the reveals an underlying hum throughout the soundtrack from the sound files that were used for the master of this LP. The LP itself displays a lot of over processed digital cleaning (metallic sounding) and sibilance throughout. The digital processing that has been done has interfered with the top end which has caused a marked increase in sibilance, and top end "squelching"/distortion. The bottom end is not rounded out well and sounds as if it is artificially boosted (which hasn't helped to warm up the sound, instead it is boomy at the bottom end and merges with the mids). The Odeon pressing sounds warmer in comparison. The drums at the beginning of O Haseena have a good deal of definition on the Odeon pressing, but the drums on the Sony DADC pressing descend in to a mess of sound and distortion. The violins are harsh and it makes for a fatiguing listening session.
While the Odeon isn't perfect it is still my go to version of this soundtrack (how I wish I could source the Angel pressing of this soundtrack). Listening to the Sony DADC release I was greatly missing the sound of my Odeon LP.
Thankfully I have a near mint copy that I have kept clean and like new.
While I really want to applaud the interest in releasing vintage soundtracks on vinyl, I hope that Sony DADC can do a much better job for their next batch of releases. If the sources are the same as the CDs that I have long rejected then owning another version of that source isn't what I am looking for.
I can't recommend this LP release unfortunately.
I would be much happier with a good quality duplicate made from an Angel pressing of this LP with minimal digital processing. Done properly, even if we can replicate 75% of the sound quality from the original pressings (I know getting the master tapes is impossible) then that is progress. The digital masters made when these soundtracks were released on CD are not good.
Many exhibit too much digital cleaning to the point that it impacts the sound quality. The sound needs to be balanced to keep the warmth and depth that vinyl lovers are looking for, that we sadly lost when we moved to CD.
In short - the vinyl used for these pressings is great. Many of the Saregama vinyl releases had warping issues and were scuffed due to poor handling in the pressing plant. So far I don't see these issues with Sony DADC and I must applaud Sony DADC for the excellent pressing and handling of these LPs.
The missing tracks from the soundtrack in unforgivable, especially when the outer sleeve promises the full soundtrack. Unfortunately this LP only offers what is available on the CD (or digital downloads). I would hope that as these endeavours move forward that some additional work is done on sourcing good quality analogue sources (perhaps gifting the source provider with a copy of the new LP and a credit on the cover of the record?) Many forum members have carefully preserved and cherished LPs that I am sure sound better than the digital masters that are being selected for pressing on to new LPs. These could be used to capture as much as can be captured, mastered digitally using lossless files and minimally processed.
Maybe an outreach could be done? Very sadly this release fails to deliver.
Will post additional reviews in the coming days (I have Kati Patang, Kashmir Ki Kali, Umrao Jaan & Awara from Sony DADC).
