Asia - Heat Of The Moment

The first disc to include "Heat Of The Moment" was the single-artist Asia album. I had the W. German target pressing, which (according to a post on the Steve Hoffman site) has the same mastering as the '80s-era US version. It's not a sonic masterpiece, but neither was the vinyl for this song. Virtually all the compilations I have use the same analog transfer as Asia:

• Time-Life's 2-CD Rock Dreams (1993; digitally exactly 1.2 dB louder)
• Razor & Tie's 2-CD Awesome '80s (1994)
• Time-Life's Guitar Rock Vol. 13 The Early '80s (1994; digitally exactly 1.2 dB louder than Awesome '80s)
• Priority's Rock Of The '80s Vol 14 (1994; has a tiny amount of extra compression)
• Time-Life's Sounds Of The Eighties Vol. 5 1982 (1994; differently EQ'd digital clone of Awesome '80s)
• Warner Special Products' 2-CD Rock This Way (1995)
• Madacy's Rock On 1982
  (1996; digitally exactly 1.2 dB louder than Awesome '80s)
• Simitar's Stud Rock Heart Breakers (1998; Remarkably, this song has noise reduction on this CD! Avoid!)
• Time-Life's 2-CD Classic Soft Rock Vol. 10 Heat Of The Moment (2007)

The only other "flavor" of mastering out there is on 1990's Then And Now disc. I can't tell if it's a new analog transfer or just a processing of the mastering from Asia. It's got a tiny bit of added compression compared to Asia. There's a digital clone on Geffen's 4-CD promo set Geffen Records A Music History Of The Decade (1990; digitally exactly 0.954 dB quieter than Then And Now).

There's a version that fades about 15 seconds early on Realm's Gold And Platinum Vol. 1 (1986) - avoid.

The version on swaitek's 50-CD The A List Disc 13 (1994) has noise reduction - avoid.

The version on Realm's 3-CD Greatest Hits Of The '80s Vol. 3 (2002) is compressed/limited compared to all the others - avoid.

Overall, I think I prefer the sound on 1990's Then And Now, which should be dirt cheap nowadays. Here are instructions for creating the promo 45 editfrom the version on Then And Now:

Segment 1:
Extends from 0:00.0 to 2:00.0 in in both the promo 45 edit and the LP/commercial 45 version
This segment ends on a bass drum beat.

Remove the 16 beats of the LP/commercial 45 version from 2:00.0 to 2:06.7.

Segment 2:
Extends from 2:00.0 to 2:55.2 of the promo 45 edit
Extends from 2:06.7 to 3:01.9 of the LP/commercial 45 version
This segment begins and ends on bass drum hits.

Remove the 32 beats of the LP/commercial 45 version from 3:01.9 to 3:15.0.

Segment 3:
Extends from 2:55.2 to 3:28.3 of the promo 45 edit
Extends from 3:15.0 to 3:53.0 of the LP/commercial 45 version
This segment begins on a bass drum hit. The end of this segment is about three seconds before the true end of the fade.

I added a fade from 3:16.7 to 3:28.3 of the promo 45 edit, which corresponds to 3:36.5 to 3:48.0 of the LP/commercial 45 version. If you didn't hasten the fade, the LP/commercial 45 fade, as is, would run about three seconds longer than the promo 45 fade.

Your mixdown will run 3:28.3, with edits at 2:00.0 and 2:55.2.

Edited by crapfromthepast

Never realized there was a promo edit for this. Tried to
recreate it = am confused.

NightAire wrote: CrapFromThePast wrote: There's a version that fades about 15 seconds early on Realm's Gold And Platinum Vol. 1 (1986) - avoid. Is it possible this is the video length version?

Possible, but more likely is that the mastering engineer at Realm faded early - there are a bunch of early fades on the first three Gold And Platinum volumes, released in 1986 and 1987.

Pretty sure its the LP version faded early.

NightAire wrote: CrapFromThePast wrote: There's a version that fades about 15 seconds early on Realm's Gold And Platinum Vol. 1 (1986) - avoid. Is it possible this is the video length version?

Doubtful.