Rush Vapor Trails Remastered?

Michael Martin · 09-22-2004, 03:29 PM

Surfing on Amazon, I saw that Rush had released a remastered version of Presto (one of their more underrated albums, IMNSHO), and saw a listing for Vapor Trails remastered.

Wanted to ask any Rush fans in HTF - does this mean we'll finally get a properly mixed version of this CD? I normally don't like double dipping, but it would be great to have a "corrected" version of VT.

TheLongshot · 09-22-2004, 03:55 PM

Quote:

does this mean we'll finally get a properly mixed version of this CD?

And that's the question. I guess we will find out when the Atlantic remasters finally come out. Until then, who knows?

Jason

Michael St. Clair · 09-22-2004, 04:32 PM

They vinyl is still compressed but not clipped, there is a slight improvement. Just using the same master as the vinyl would help somewhat.

Kevin C Brown · 09-22-2004, 08:41 PM

Someone let us know when you find out. I liked the disc, but oh man could the mastering be improved...

Paul.S · 09-22-2004, 09:26 PM

This has been discussed by the usual suspects (Kyle should be along shortly with perhaps more info.) in a couple of other threads, including the "Rush and covers" thread.

The VT remaster has seemingly been cancelled. There's been no new release date announcement. All the other Atlantic remasters streeted 8/31.

No amount of remastering will fix the train wreck of a recording that is VT.

-p

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Jeff Ulmer · 09-22-2004, 09:52 PM

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No amount of remastering will fix the train wreck of a recording that is VT.

I disagree. Given the years of experience Rush have at making sonically excellent recordings, what ended up on CD as Vapour Trails HAD to have been screwed up in the mastering. It is quite possible that all that would be required are a few minor settings changes in the mastering chain, such as raising the threshold on the limiter, and lowering the output ceiling.

John Wes · 09-23-2004, 10:02 AM

I think what Paul S is getting at,is that is the master tracks were probably recorded to hot to begin with. How would you fix that?

Too bad, as imho, the album was probably Rush's greatest effort....I was bummed to say the least the first time I spun it up and my ears hurt for the next 3 days..

Paul.S · 09-23-2004, 10:55 AM

Quote:

I disagree. Given the years of experience Rush have at making sonically excellent recordings, what ended up on CD as Vapour Trails HAD to have been screwed up in the mastering. It is quite possible that all that would be required are a few minor settings changes in the mastering chain, such as raising the threshold on the limiter, and lowering the output ceiling.

So it's your position, Jeff, that Howie Weinberg--who has been involved in the mastering of way more recordings than Ged, Alex and Neil put together--was just out to lunch during his VT mastering sessions and the fault is exclusively his? It's sonically obvious that there were already issues with the VT master tape when it arrived at Masterdisk, which were then exacerbated in the mastering process.

From Ged saying in interviews that he leaves his concert mic choices up to the engineers, to Neil saying in Work In Progress that--as long as they're not in his way--he also leaves mic choices up to his engineers, the boys are wicked terrific musicians, but not experienced engineers. I assume you've heard Victor? Sonically it is not impressive. I've yet to be impressed with the SQ of pretty much anything that's come out of Lerxt's home studio. At some point, perhaps while Neil was "riding on" and Alex was drinking somewhere, probably Ged listened to the VT final master and 'signed off' on it. I've read/seen/heard nothing about the band members disavowing/expressing dissatisfaction with the sound quality of the album since its release. Incidentally, VT is the first non-Terry Brown-produced album since GUP in which Rush is listed first in the production credit.

In case you haven't seen/read it already in the many discussions I've seen online in various places about this issue, please check out "Over the Limit: Ceiling Limited" by ProRec.com editor Rip Rowan which discusses the matter in depth, including amplitude graphs.

-p

Herschel · 09-23-2004, 11:12 AM

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So it's your position, Jeff, that Howie Weinberg--who has been involved in the mastering of way more recordings than Ged, Alex and Neil put together--was just out to lunch during his VT mastering sessions and the fault is exclusively his?

From reading that prorec article a few years ago, it sounded like the most likely cause was the pressure by the labels for the mastering to make everything LOUD. I've seen a number of discussions about this trend, and the general consensus is that the mastering engineers don't want to clip everything this badly, but the labels are forcing them to do it.

I think that's a much more likely explanation than the one that says the recording engineer was clueless and the original tracks are clipped.

TheLongshot · 09-23-2004, 11:32 AM

One thing I get the impression of is that the band was not satisfied with the mixes they were doing, which is why they brought in Howie to get something they could be happy with.

This is why I could believe that the problem could have been in the original recordings...

Jason

Herschel · 09-24-2004, 01:35 AM

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One thing I get the impression of is that the band was not satisfied with the mixes they were doing, which is why they brought in Howie to get something they could be happy with.

That doesn't sound quite right. I'm not saying you're wrong, it just sounds weird. If they weren't happy with the mixes, why not bring in someone different to make new MIXES, instead of trying to fix it in mastering?

I went back and looked at the graphs in that prorec article, since I remember being stunned by how badly clipped they were, and sure enough... ugly stuff. Badly recorded tracks aren't going to give you that kind of insane clipping, that's strictly a mastering issue.