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Starbuck - Moonlight Feels Right

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Topic: Starbuck - Moonlight Feels Right
Posted By: crapfromthepast
Subject: Starbuck - Moonlight Feels Right
Date Posted: 07 September 2016 at 7:47pm
Wow, that is some narrow stereo! If you start counting the beats as 1-2-3-4, then the long keyboard note on beat 5 should be panned slightly to the right. Verrrry slightly. The LP and 45 versions are the same.

Avoid the song on its first two CD appearances (at least of the discs I own):
  • Good Music's Rare Gold (1990) - I cannot say enough bad things about the sound on this disc. Taken from vinyl. At least there's no noise reduction.
  • Cema's 2-CD Mellow Gold (1991) - Heavy noise reduction sucks all the life out of the song. Likely from vinyl, but I couldn't listen to this for more than a few seconds to find out.
Bill Inglot unearthed some great source material for Rhino's Have A Nice Day Vol. 18 (1993). If it's from vinyl, it's pretty spotless. Why I think it may be from vinyl: The tape hiss fades along with the music on the fade (as opposed to most songs, where the music fades out but the tape hiss stays at a constant level.) Plus, it fades a second or two before the needledrop on Rare Gold. Neither of those things is typical for a Rhino disc.

Well, regardless of source material, the following discs use the same analog transfer as Have A Nice Day Vol. 18:
  • Time-Life's AM Gold Vol. 23 1976 (1996; digitally identical)
  • Varese's Lost 45s Of The '70s And '80s Vol. 1 (1998; digitally identical)
  • Simitar's Love Rocks 4 Songs Of Love (1998; differently-EQ'd digital clone)
Time-Life's Sounds Of The Seventies Vol. 31 AM Top Twenty (1993) uses the same analog transfer as Have A Nice Day Vol. 18, but swaps the left and right channels and shortens the fade by a second or two. These discs are based on the mastering for Sounds Of The Seventies Vol. 31 AM Top Twenty, and all have their left and right channels reversed:
  • Madacy's Rock On 1976 (1996; differently-EQ'd digital clone)
  • Madacy's Rock On 1976 (2004 reissue; differently-EQ'd digital clone)
  • Time-Life's 2-CD Seventies Music Explosion Vol. 1 Sunshine (2005; digitally exactly 3.1 dB louder)
EMI Australia's 5-CD Pop Complete (1999) also has its left and right channels reversed.

My recommendation for "Moonlight Feels Right": Rhino's Have A Nice Day Vol. 18 (1993)

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There's a lot of crap on the radio, but there's only one http://www.crapfromthepast.com" rel="nofollow - Crap From The Past .



Replies:
Posted By: Smokin' TomGary
Date Posted: 08 September 2016 at 2:30pm
Varese's THEN Totally Oldies 1 has the channels reversed. I refer to this cut, the HAND vol. 18 and Lost 45's of the 70's and 80's Vol 1 as the single mix. The album version, found on the "Moonlight Feels Right" CD on Music Club 50145 has a mix with less high end than the single mix. Comparing the vinyl 45 to the vinyl LP shows the same albeit minor difference.
The stereo image is narrow but it is audible especially the organs in the left channel.


Posted By: eriejwg
Date Posted: 08 September 2016 at 3:39pm
Should this be classified as a 45 mix on some CD's?


Posted By: Smokin' TomGary
Date Posted: 08 September 2016 at 4:57pm
Yes, I would agree with that.


Posted By: EdisonLite
Date Posted: 09 September 2016 at 12:37am
Mark Mathews - though it's suggested above that the Rhino 'Have a Nice Day' CD may have been taken from vinyl, I remember having a conversation with you about this very subject years ago and then you had checked out the recording closely and determined it was from tape. Am I remembering correctly? And did you ever hear the story of how Bill Inglot was able to get a tape master of a Private Stock recording, when all evidence points to the label owner's son throwing all Private Stock masters in the trash after refusing to pay any more storage bills (or maybe it was the storage company)?


Posted By: MMathews
Date Posted: 09 September 2016 at 12:54pm
Hi Edison - yes I recall that. I can't say for sure but I
remember doing some tests on the HAND source like
widening the stereo image or phase shifting it by moving
the center channel to one side. Usually on a vinyl source
doing that will reveal some groove noise but in this case
it did not.

My theory as to where a tape was found was that the tape
was copied for inclusion on an older V/A comp and Bill
Inglot was able to locate one of those copies. In the
90's, Inglot was interviewed by Mike Callahan in the old
BSN newsletter and he said he would always request a
30ips copy of the original master so he could do the
transfer to digital himself. My guess is that other
engineers in the past got similar copies of masters. So
copies can end up "kicking around" in the possession of
who knows who.

Then you have the occasional cases where producers kept
original tapes and only copies were provided to Private
Stock. Two such examples are Walter Murphy and Robert
Gordon. I bought the first Robert Gordon w/Link Wray
album on CD with bonus tracks and the masters used are
absolutely pristine.

THEN, finally there's always the option of locating and
requesting UK or foreign copies of tapes. I'm surprised
more of that effort was not done for so many of the
Private Stock hits released from vinyl. But then
again..that effort costs money and time.
MM   


Posted By: eriejwg
Date Posted: 09 September 2016 at 1:10pm
On Rhapsody (Napster), there is a "Moonlight Feels
Right" album that's listed as being on Private Stock. It
matches my Have a Nice Day, Vol. 18, with the same fade,
running 3:35.

There's another copy of the "Moonlight Feels Right"
album on Rhapsody (Napster) that's listed as being on
Starbuck Music. It runs 3:36 with a slightly later fade.
This one seems dull in sound compared to the Private
Stock version.



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