Remaster decision

[Stephen Swann]

Scott Heller writes:
>
>        I have been trying to figure out if one should desperately go out and
>        buy the new HW remasters, as there were only 4000 made. Are these
>        likely to disappear and become a rarity??? I am still holding out hope
>        that Griffin will be able to release them in the US.... What do you
>        all think?

Well, the description that I read here stated that they had pressed
4000 "each", and had sold "2500".  I presume that means that they have
sold 2500/16000.  So I don't think they're going to become unavailable
any time soon.

But, having said that...  unless it's a real financial hardship, I
would still get them soon, just to be safe.  You don't want to miss
these, you really don't.  I have said that old albums recorded for
vinyl usually don't sound as good when you put them on CD.  I'm
not really a vinylphile, I just know that albums that were recorded
for vinyl almost always sound better on vinyl.

These new remasters break that rule.  Take _Doremi_ for instance - if I
didn't know Hawkwind - if someone just played the new EMI remaster for
me, I would think that Hawkwind was some retro psychedelic Monster
Magnet type band, and I was listening to their new album, recorded in
1996.  The guitars are so intense that they'll burn holes in your
ears.  The hiss is *gone*, despite the fact that the treble has been
*increased*.  The whole album used to sound like it was recorded
through microphones wrapped in wet felt.  Now it sounds like it was
recorded in a modern digital studio.  You've probably heard what Mobile
Fidelity Sound Labs can make old vinyl-age recordings sound like.
These new EMI releases sound *better*.

Steve