mikewilliamson

Only wanted ELECTRA, and it was gone the second it went on sale. Depression.

I tweeted them just now and got this response: Earth Analog ‏@Earth_Analog1m Got delayed at studio this evening so selling hum vinyl records at 9:00...missed the 8:00 time! Sorry!

You might think it's a "shitty" release, but the customer clearly did not. It was very limited, and the store paid for it from the distributor with what was most certainly the understanding it was being sold on RSD to a customer at retail. Not being sold in an auction. If RSD released albums for FREE to stores and stipulated they must be auctioned for charity, that would be a different story. But you go on the RSD website, and this is a retail event. To support retail in general. It should not be up to the discretion of one store owner to turn it into an auction for their personal or political agendas, no matter how well intentioned it may be. If it was a record you had waited for overnight, you'd be singing a different tune.

Honestly, I think this is shitty of Fingerprints. The customer may have not handled himself well after being informed of this, but...RSD is a retail event. You want to auction stuff for charity? Do that with your own product. Get a musician to donate a signed guitar, whatever. But they should not, in my opinion, have ordered an item with a retail value, which customers are expecting to be able to buy for retail, and then denied customers that opportunity after having been lined up under that pretense for hours. What if APPLE stores did this for every iPhone release? "It's limited guys! Sorry, you gotta bid on it today. But it's cool, right? It's for a charity of our choice!" It creates animosity between consumer and the place of business, which is the antithesis of RSD.

Has there been any news on the Official (not Plain Recordings) LOVELESS and ISN'T ANYTHING vinyl reissues that I see Shields mentioned were coming in late 2012? http://pitchfork.com/features/interviews/8809-kevin-shields/ The crown jewel of the reissue series is a 2CD version of MBV's all-time classic Loveless that features a remaster of the original disc as well as another based on previously discarded analog tapes. (Shields says vinyl versions of the remasters are due "probably in a few months.")

My US Oceania has similar issues to MCIS. Cut incredibly loud, and with almost no deadwax at all. Lots of sibilance on Billy's vocals even on quiet songs near inner groove. The inner groove songs start sounding very "crushed" for about the last 5 minutes or so on each side.

Got another email from Stan. Here's my conversation in its entirety with Stan, save the first email I sent him which I will paraphrase for brevity by saying it contained the question about whether A&R mastering was aware of the issue, aware of the discussion, aware of the returns, and aware of the reputation they were making for themselves after both OCEANIA and MCIS having the same problem. My emails are in italics. _____________________________________________ I can only respond to my part in the process: We are going from 2012 to 2013,and are not stuck in the 80's or 90's. I want to thank you for bringing to my attention the on-line "Gang Mentality". It is comforting. In the words of one of my Rock hero's,getting out of rehab and going on the road again.... "I Walk Alone". I truly and respectfully appreciate the e mail. Stan ______________________________________________________________________ Stan, what does this mean? "We are going from 2012 to 2013,and are not stuck in the 80's or 90's." I appreciate your response, but am not sure any of it directly answered my query. Amazon.com has stopped carrying the Melon Collie vinyl reissue because of all the returns due to heavy distortion on even the most advanced cartridges during inner groove tracks like ZERO, etc. I'm a record collector for 25 years, have 4000 LPs, and an audiophile all-analog setup. So please understand my concern is not that of an online "gang mentality", but of quality control for vinyl releases which are so important to music lovers. Thanks, Mike _____________________________________________________________________ its like the plague. I have 30 + years. I have spent my life to be here now today. Can I ask a question?? what have you spent youre entire life dream on? I am blessed to have my name on the dead wax. I am broke, 2 fucked up marriges and single. I dont give a shit about amazon. I cut the re release,and everyone wants to bring me down. just return it. _________________________________________________________________ I am positive you love doing what you do and many congrats are due to you for following that dream and making a business out of it. That's rare. I will answer your question to me: My lifelong dream is to be a filmmaker and I am in Los Angeles following that dream. In the last two years I have directed and produced episodes of Tv for both SPIKE TV and HULU.com. But I also am always interested in bettering my craft and if someone has a valid note for me, I take it into consideration and don't just say "Hey! I'm followin' my dream here! Leave me alone!" The problems with OCEANIA and MCIS are not based in artistic opinion like "there's a little too much in the high end than what I prefer." It's purely technical: By mastering for vinyl at a loud volume near inner grooves, you are causing playback of everyone's vinyl on 8 songs to distort so bad that they are returning it in favor of not owning it at all for the price. I did return it, as i have the original pressing which does not have this issue (squeezed onto 3 vinyl, not 4). Look man...I understand it's shitty to have people bitching at you. Keep doing what you're doing, brother. Just stay away from the inner grooves. The rest sounds beautiful. Here's to more vinyl for both of us in 2013. Mike

You won't find many supporters of your "it's only a record" mentality...On a goddamn record collecting board. If you want to discuss more pressing matters, I'm sure Yahoo News could use more posters on their stories.

That is part of the vinyl mastering: how it is laid to wax. And it appears it was Getz who decided to lay it all the way to the label. So yes, his vinyl mastering is at fault. But he doesn't care because, according to him, he's like the Billy Joe Armstrong of vinyl mastering and does his own thing, regardless of how a turntable will respond.

I emailed A&R Mastering, to ask them if they were aware of the mass returns on this product that resulted in Amazon to stop carrying it, and discussion on this board, Smashing Pumpkins board, and Steve Hoffman board. I just got a response from Stan Getz himself. Though I don't believe it answers any of my questions. And it certainly accepts none of the blame. I am going to shoot him back a response but here's what he said: "I can only respond to my part in the process: We are going from 2012 to 2013,and are not stuck in the 80's or 90's. I want to thank you for bringing to my attention the on-line "Gang Mentality". It is comforting. In the words of one of my Rock hero's,getting out of rehab and going on the road again.... "I Walk Alone". I truly and respectfully appreciate the e mail. Stan" Can anyone make sense of that???

Ok, you guys love COMFORT. I like it fine, but I'd say it's generally rated least among the 3 records by Failure fans and, if that was the ONLY record Failure ever released, I doubt we'd be talking about them. Big Failure fan here. Just bein' for reals. There's a reason ORG says the COMFORT reissue didn't sell! Anyways...Go post on the ORG Facebook page. Remind them you want MAGNIFIED. http://www.facebook.com/orgmusiclabel

In July, I posted on their Facebook page about this. in August they responded with a sliver of hope. Have heard nothing since. They should have started with MAGNIFIED for reissues. No one, and I mean no one, loves COMFORT. It's the album you buy because you love MAGNIFIED and FANTASTIC PLANET. And COMFORT was available on vinyl in the US as a promo. Not so for Magnified. Anyways, here's the posts: Mike Williamson What's the scoop on the FAILURE "Magnified" pressing? It's the only Failure album never pressed on vinyl anywhere in the world and fans have been foaming at the mouth for it since you announced it. I haven't heard anything in over a year about it, though. Press that sucker! Like · · July 25 at 7:58am near Burbank ORG Music news on this coming soon. August 9 at 11:56am · Like

'I'm curious...Those that think it sounds fine: Did you all receive yours from Canada? Those that think it sounds bad: Did you receive yours from the USA? Could be the Canadian batch is ok.

Haha! Good eye! Looooooove WASP. Need CRIMSON IDOL on vinyl.

I have a YAQIN 100-B amp, and a YAQIN 22-B phono pre amp, both tube. My turntable is a REGA RP6 with a GOLDRING 1042 cartridge. That's SIAMESE DREAM (original press) spinning on it in the pic. I will say this...Having only listened to side 1 of the first LP...The first two tracks sounded great. Midway through the 3rd track I Was feeling the crunch. By the end of ZERO, it was pointless for me to keep it since there is another option... I just went ahead and bought the original MELLON 3LP off eBay. No more reissue problems for me.

Of course it doesn't mean analog automatically sounds better than digital...When there's a manufacturing error it can sound worse. Same with digital. But it has the capacity to sound better. And I don't have 4000k cds. I have 4000 lps. And yes, my setup is cool. And Billy didn't master the LPs, so he isn't the one who would be calling me. But maybe someone should. And I don't know if my dick is bigger than yours, but my hearing is obviously better.

You sound like the inexperienced kid to me. I'm 35, have been collecting vinyl for 20 years, have a $2000 turntable and a $1500 all tube amp. I have 4000 vinyl LPs. Vinyl is not supposed to sound "distorted/fuzzed out". It's supposed to be superior sonically in every way to digital, save for surface noise on the LP. We are not discussing surface noise. We are discussing mastering/pressing defects. If you don't understand it, there's no need to contribute.

I don't have the capability to rip vinyl, but if you've been collecting vinyl for a long time, chances are you've heard something like this a couple times. Basically, it's just pressed too hot and combined with the placement at the innermost grooves of the record, cartridges can't track it. It starts breaking up into static and sounds crunched. I was once in a band and we used a "budget" company to press a 7" - inexperienced indie company of 1 guy - and it sounded like this. It's just distorted, you know? Like when you would try and record a CD to tape and had the input set too high. It's hot.

Just listened to side A of mine. Zero is way crunched. Totally unacceptable for any major release. Sending it back. Guys PLEASE don't just post about it here. Post on SP facebook and twitter page, EMI Music facebook and twitter, etc. This sort of vinyl release where the packaging is the point, and the sound quality is secondary has GOT to stop.

That's the problem right there. Once you get that close to the inner label, the grooves are so thin that a loud song will definitely distort or produce sibilance. It's so stupid to spread this out to 4 LPs, only to have each side STILL go to the ass end of the wax. I'm sure the first two songs sound great, cuz they have all that room to stretch out.

It's absolutely a legitimate complaint. There is most likely a pressing defect in a swanky boxset. And it happens to be on one of the most famous songs from the album. ( I don't remember people wearing T Shirts in the 90s that said "Tonight Tonight" on them, but I remember hoards of "Zero" shirts) If you don't mind spending money on defective merch, so be it. But if one song on a box set is clearly defective, the label should remedy it. By your theory, if there was a blu ray of some movie, and one scene was accidentally black and white instead of color, people shouldn't complain because the other 118 minutes are fine?

Do you have the record, Gentlesenator? Are you saying this is production distortion, and not mistracking of a cartridge due to poor pressing? Mistracking is a pretty recognizable sound. And everyone is saying the digital version, and previous CD and Vinyl versions do not sound like this. Honestly, I have not received mine yet. But when there's this much of a stink from people across the board, I'm willing to bet there's an issue.

I've already posted on the twitter accounts for @EMIMusicGlobal , @SmashingPumpkin , @emimusic , and @Billy No response from any yet.

Everyone who is hearing a defect should definitely do this. I got a 13TH FLOOR ELEVATORS box set earlier this year and two of the LPs had their label stickers switched...So you would put on what you thought was one record and it would be another. Enough people complained that they eventually shipped new discs to people (they initially responded with a laughable "it makes this first pressing collectible!" retort) At any rate, someone said earlier quality control with vinyl is higher now than ever. I have to heartily disagree. Back when vinyl was the norm, people actually knew how to master and press vinyl. Since the post-digital resurgence this is a dying art that many picked up again, but few really have mastered (pun intended). 180 gram is the big lie, let me tell you. Just cuz it's thicker doesn't mean it sounds better. There's way more that goes into making vinyl sound good than wax weight. I have so many paper thin vinyl records from the 80s that sound light years better than 180 gm modern releases. No one knows how to do these frikken things anymore. Neil Young sends his masters to Germany to be pressed, for chrissakes! THAT's quality control. He knows there's no one Stateside doing excellent pressings. So...We should definitely complain. Let people know we like vinyl for the sound quality. Not just because the cover looks cool. Make these people learn their damn trades again!

Is anyone having the problem with ZERO on vinyl that everyone reviewing on AMAZON is having? http://www.amazon.com/Mellon-Infinite-Sadness-Smashing-Pumpkins/product-reviews/B008Z9L94O/ref=cm_cr_pr_top_recent?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=0&sortBy=bySubmissionDateDescending