YES Japanese reissues July

For those curious, here is how they look.

Original Atlantic on top
New SHM version below

 

Eesh. Looks to me like Kikuchi hasn't changed.

 

Well, someone did say the first two Yes albums on SHM were bad, but not the rest, so maybe "Beyond and Before" is the wrong track to sample. We can always hope right?

 

The SHM sounds absolutely sucktacular. :thumbsdn:

What does SHM stand for anyway...Severely Heavy-handed Mastering? Because every one I've ever heard is terrible.

 

If they are as compressed and bright as that one is...they're all bad IMO.

 

Wow, the guy requesting the samples ended up providing them. Thanks Jeff!!

I haven't played them yet, but the comments and pics are what I expected. I'll give them a listen when I can.

Tim

 

Not really. A report came in from someone who only bought the first two and thought they were bad. He didn't say anything about the others because he only bought the first two to test the waters.

Unless somebody reports that Kikuchi let his Barry Diament or Joe Gastwirt influence shine on part of the catalog while being his usual self on the earliest albums, I think we all know about what to expect here. From there it comes down to taste.

 

Yessongs is already OOP both on cdjapan and on HMV japan - I truly believe that its main attraction is its beautiful sleeve packaging.

 

Yep, they're going very quickly, listening to TFTO at the moment and to me they sound fine, but I also liked the last Rhinos too ...... the replica sleeves were the clincher for me as I said earlier. I know you guys trust your graphs over the ears of strangers, so it's up to you I guess .......

 

I'd like the Mini-LP packaging, but I can't see myself spending the money if they don't actually sound good! I was really looking forward to these, too.

 

As is CTTE. I almost purchased Yessongs, but now that it's OOP my life is a bit easier. I wonder if Big Generator is any good?

 

ditto

I'm still curious about those thumbs up given to Yessongs

 

Ironic, given that if you like the way the Japanese style packaging looks, you can still find beautiful condition copies of these out there for the same price or less:
http://cgi.ebay.com/YES-YESSONGS-JA...inyl?hash=item27aa69033e&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14

 

I uploaded a sample from one of the Yes SHM CDs. That's something one can listen to if they so choose.

I think some people just aren't able to admit that they don't really know what compression is or how it sounds, or at least admit that they don't mind how it sounds. When one actually seems to think that people who don't like compression are relying on "graphs" (er...?) or whatever else to come to this conclusion, it really comes off as this kind of strange, indignant behavior.

When I became interested in "audiophile" stuff I wanted to at least learn some of the most basic stuff. I wanted to learn about compression and dynamics, etc. It never occured to me to just jump in here and tell the old timers that they were crazy and all of this loud, maximized stuff sounded fine, the dynamics were good enough, stop looking at "charts" or whatever. I must be nuts but I wanted to learn what they were talking about.

 

Thanks for the samples, Jeff.

I find the SHM to be too bright, the guitar at the beginning really lost some of its body due to the EQ moves. This also makes the drums sound too tinny. But I don't know if it has reached Jeff's infamous "bacon in the frying pan" level yet...

But I must admit that that original doesn't sound too good either.

It's basically the same story as with most remasterings: some will find the original dull and some will find the remaster to be overly bright. To me a mastering somewhere in between would be desirable. It's a bit similar to 'Fragile' on CD - the original Atlantic is a little too dull, the Gastwirt is right and the MoFi has a somewhat bloated high end to my liking.

 

Do these new mini's have any difference at all in the packaging to the old mini's from the 90's?

 

I actually find the original a little on the bright side, but not nearly as bad as the SHM.

The SHM really lacks the punch of the old Atlantic, IMO. I don't have the Rhinos any longer but it'd be interesting to compare some of them and see how much tweaking was done. I don't recall the Rhino versions sounding anywhere near this bad, but I haven't heard those in ages.

 

Is the vinyl your reference point for the brightness level? I've only compared the two samples.

I can provide the Gastwirt remaster of "Beyond And Before" in case you or anyone else here is interested.
I don't have the Rhino here but I know someone who has so I could provide a sample in a couple of days...

 

No, just a personal observation and the vinyl might sound like that, too. The original Atlantic is pretty nice but just a little bright for my taste. I doubt the original UK vinyl would be like that but I could be wrong.

This would be helpful.

 

Jeff, do you have Yessongs to provide a clip?

 

Beyond And Before, Atlantic stock remaster by Joe Gastwirt:

https://www.yousendit.com/download/Y1RyK0dnUzhUWUJMWEE9PQ

Rhino coming ASAP.

 

No, but I went ahead and ordered it despite having little hope. I'll post samples when I get it.

 

Now,if Rhino could follow this with a Reissue of their own....The Japanese always are one step ahead of us..looks like they've did it to us yet again!

 

Er... the Rhino CDs are still in print. Why would they need a reissue?

And the Japanese tend to be one step behind when it comes to reissuing CDs. Their stuff often follows US and European releases and is thrown into their specialized mini lp packaging.