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PO: Queens of the Stone Age - ...Like Clockwork


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My Indy copy definitely has noticeable surface noise when turned up super loud.

I did the same thing and looked to see if there was dust on my stylus. There wasn't.

Not super noticeable, but definitely minorly...noticable.

 

Yeah, seeing as this is pressed at 45rpm I do expect some minor surface noise at higher volume but not loud scraping sounds throughout an entire side. I honestly thought my stylus was hitting a stone every cycle! I can't even see anything on the surface of the vinyl, which is strange.

 

Will see how the deluxe compares...

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Arrggghhh!! My deluxe arrived today and it's not good. Yet again both LP's are warped (although thankfully, not as severe as the first 2 copies I had), both have surface marks on the vinyl and small pimples in places. They do play without any major issues though (just occasional mild crackle here and there) so I shall stick with it. It's just so disappionting, considering the high price. I expected higher quality from Pallas. I'm now 6/6 warped LP's, it's terrible.

 

I see the deadwax has ''Pallas U.S.A.'' Stamped in. Does that mean it was pressed in the US and not actually at the 'real' plant in Germany?

 

Also, anyone else noticed the distortion in a few places (mainly in 'I Sat by the Ocean' and 'Fairweather Friends')? It seems to be on the master itself, but just would like to eliminate a problem with my copy.

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I got the regular edition last week. The album has grown on me massively now that I have gotten past the initial disappointment that it is not a 'heavy' album, and am really enjoying it for what it is.

No warping, but noticeable surface noise.

I kind of disagree I think it's a decently heavy album. Hell listen to that opening track. The first note the strings are almost falling off the guitar haha

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Arrggghhh!! My deluxe arrived today and it's not good. Yet again both LP's are warped (although thankfully, not as severe as the first 2 copies I had), both have surface marks on the vinyl and small pimples in places. They do play without any major issues though (just occasional mild crackle here and there) so I shall stick with it. It's just so disappionting, considering the high price. I expected higher quality from Pallas. I'm now 6/6 warped LP's, it's terrible.

 

I see the deadwax has ''Pallas U.S.A.'' Stamped in. Does that mean it was pressed in the US and not actually at the 'real' plant in Germany?

 

Also, anyone else noticed the distortion in a few places (mainly in 'I Sat by the Ocean' and 'Fairweather Friends')? It seems to be on the master itself, but just would like to eliminate a problem with my copy.

This isn't nearly as bad as your issues, but as I posted previously, my copy of the deluxe arrived sans LP 2. Contacted Matador, they said they would send me JUST the 2nd LP. I ended up getting two copies of the 2nd LP, which was lucky, as one of them immediately had a skip in "I Appear Missing". The 2nd copy did not. And I don't know what it is about those records but they are dust magnets, I've cleaned them already, but the level of dust attraction is beyond anything else in my collection that I'm playing at the moment. Ended up with a skip on "If I Had a Tail" that I thankfully was able to mostly fix by cleaning the record. The packaging of this thing is unreal, but it seems like there have been some issues overall. I know I'm not the only one who was missing the 2nd LP, and your story is just a shit show. Sorry man. 

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1st off... Digging the new record and 2nd... Found a cool new Forum.  & 3rd...

 

I too have Distorted Vinyl.  Don't know what else to call it.  It's not just surface noise.  I now have had 3 different copies of the Blue Limited Edition "like Clockwork" album that have a distorted scraping sound on each revolution of the album (about every 2 seconds).  Totally Sucks!  When I returned my 1st Record and the 2nd one had the same problem (with different degrees a severity) I knew I couldn't be the only one. The record store said no one else has reported the problem so I called Matador and they too said no reports.  I highly doubt that.

 

So I sent them a Mp3 taken from across the room with the Distortion/scraping louder than the piano and vocal line between I appear Missing and Like Clockwork, side D.  They sent me 2 new discs.  I asked them to... (Ok I'm now going to call Them, Him, because it was just 1 guy I talked to & now emailing with.) So I asked Him to please listen to the records before shipping them.  He said, exact words from the email...

 

"We've just tested out this disc on our record player, and while there is a slightly audible "swoosh" in the lead up to track 1, we didn't hear any problems really. This disc, coming from our second shipment, is surely a different batch than the two you received. I hope you find this disc acceptable. All I can say is that vinyl is not always perfect; that's part of the appeal."

I Recieved now my 3rd printing of the album...  Not only is the scraping sound still there.  They sent me Warped Records!

My guess is that this guy is about 25 and never owned vinyl until he got some Free from his new job at Matador.  His Dad's records were scratchy and warped so this must seem like an acceptable $25 album.

Not sure what to do at this point.  I searched the net looking for others talking about it and finally found this thread.  I know there are many more people out there with this distorted Vinyl. I'd like to be able to post the Mp3 so you could hear what I'm trying to describe.

 

For the record... I have 2 TT and a couple hundred records.  This is not normal "noise" that goes along with Vinyl.

 

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Sounds like you have the same 'scraping' sound on side D that I had on 2 copies of the normal edition. It's a continuous noise throughout the entire side. My deluxe doesn't have this.

 

The guy you spoke to is talking crap. Receiving a duff press is not what the appeal of vinyl is. Of course, there will be oaccasional crackle but defects like this are certainly not normal, as we who play records know.

 

I can't remember the llast time I had such hassle with a release. I've had plenty of warped/badly pressed LP's before but usually get better copies 2nd time round. This time it was starting to take the piss. Even my deluxe copy is only just about what I'd call ''Passable'' for my standards. Still warped but I can't detect any pitch issues and it plays well.

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My deluxe copy is a little noisy, mostly near the beginning of each side, but definitely not the worst I've heard. I notice a little distortion but only  in louder parts. I think higher end cartridges would handle this better. I'm just glad the run-out grooves don't go into the labels like on Era Vulgaris. Speaking of distortion, my copy of Era Vulgaris is much worse. And the guy from Matador that said "that's part of the appeal" is very confused.

 

As for the music, this album is awesome! Much different feel than all the others, but none of their albums are the same.

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I've only dealt with them on this LP, but from my experience and what I'm reading about other people's experience, Matador blows. 

 

In terms of customer service, definitely. They once sent me the wrong record and it took them weeks to respond to e-mails about it. Eventually had to go the route of a Paypal claim just to get their attention. 

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Ok, I figured out how to post some sound clips...

 

Careful, these 2 clips were recorded right next to the speaker

Distorted Scrape on side A/B and Ok side C/D from 1st album are clips from the 1st Album I bought. Side A/B was very bad, side C/D was ok... you can actually hear the scraping sound but just faintly. It's fallowed by the pop/click sound... notice it at 15 seconds in.  I returned this album and the 2nd one also had the Distorted scraping but on all 4 sides, so I contacted Matador.

 

These next 2 clips were recorded from across the room as listening to the record. Turn it up, they're quieter.

Distorted Scrape on side C/D 3rd Album is from the 3rd Album I received from Matador

Normal Playing Album diff artist  Here is what a Album should sound like.  Recorded exactly like the C/D 3rd Album

 

I've never done anything like this.  I just can't believe I have received 3 different records 1 from the East Coast and 2 from the West Coast with the exact same problems yet I'm told there has been No others that have complained about this problem.

I was going to Drop it but decided to call Matador one more time... seeing how they sent me a Album with the Exact same problem and Warped. That they supposedly listened to.
The Gal I just talked to said I obviously have a problem with either the Engineering or Mastering of the album and there's nothing they can do at this point.  Please don't call back anymore (that was my 2nd phone call the other being 1 week ago) and if you have anymore concerns please do it through eMail.

 

Nice!

 

I know the recording industry is in general not doing well and I don't want to cause problems for Matador but this is just crazy to me.

 

Listen to these clips... does anyone else have this on their Records?

Thanks
 

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yeah as I said, I was worried ahah. Shouldnt have been it seems, wonder if mine was a different press (purchased it in NZ but assume they were all pressed at the same place).

 

By the way the cover art is cool and mine isnt even the deluxe version! The blue really pops, looks great on the shelf next to The Knife - shaking the habitual neon pink haha.

 

I really really like this album. And I much prefer the heavy soul style of the last three Queens albums. ALot of the music on lullabies and era didnt make sense to me until I saw them live... made a big arena feel like a small intimate club gig! Theres just something about the groove that they make that I just love - for an entirely different reason to why I loved songs for the deaf and Rated R.

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Isn't the bottom of your cartridge touching the surface of these records? It tends to happen if your cartridge is designed to be close to it, or when the record presents considerable warpage.

 

I know the recording industry is in general not doing well and I don't want to cause problems for Matador but this is just crazy to me.

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