Please don't kill me as I started yet another thread on this.
But the number of viewings on the previous onces show me that there MUST BE some kind of interest in this topic...
And I would like to say a special THANK YOU to elvissessions and MysteryTrain for their wonderful contributions, who (unlike me) make this board an entertaining, valuable and reliable source for Elvis fans all around the world!
Anyway, here's Part 1 of my observations:
I have to mention that I didn’t own the Franklin Mint set, so I listened to most of the remasters for the first time.
Some issues have probably been already on the master tapes and some have been probably mentioned before. Sorry for repeating.
I know not every comment here is positive. It's just mine and not necessarily everybody's opinion...
At the same time I again bring up a lot of questions that need to be answered.
One thing I noticed real bad is that on quite a few songs during the intro there are drop-outs.
Are they new (aging of tape?) or have they already been there but never quite that audible?
Now let's finally focus on some songs / sessions:
The “Love Me Tender” session sounds really clear now, fantastic improved sound!
Did they probably take “Let Me” from scratch and use the audio track and Elvis’ vocal overdub to combine them a-new?
Finally the intro of “How’s The World Treating You” doesn’t sound like it’s been spliced anymore (right before Elvis starts singing).
There are drop-outs on the ending of “Got A Lot O’ Livin’ To Do!”
It’s funny because “One Night” sounds like it has been no-noised. I have no proof for that. Just a thought because there's virtually no tape-hiss audible to my ears.
Immediately after that follows “True Love”, which has a whole lot of tape hiss on it. Did the engineers back then also use noise reduction? Probably during the process of copying the master on a different reel?
“Surrender” sounds marvelous!
The Splice on “In My Father’s House (Are Many Mansions)” sounds a little sloppy, as the spliced part comes in a split second too fast.
I never heard “In My Way” in such a fantastic sound quality!
There’s a drop-out on the first drum-hit of “Steppin’ Out Of Line”, Elvis’ voice is still overdriven.
I never cared too much for “I Met Her Today” but here the sound is simply astonishing. A crystal clear beauty!
Unfortunately the edited tracks from the “Kid Galahad”-soundtrack have been released again in its edited form. It makes perfect sense as the unedited versions were released for the first time in 1993. I never before heard Elvis humming along on the intro of “Home Is Where The Heart Is”!
“She’s Not You” is slightly clipped on the beginning but the strange sound on 2:05 is still audible (finger snap or creaky bone ?).
Strange, but they also used the short stereo version of “Mama”.
“Dainty Little Moonbeams” still leads into the finale of “Girls! Girls! Girls!”
Finally they corrected the splice on “Plantation Rock”. But compared to “I Don’t Wanna Be Tied” (the previous track), it sounds unbelievably flat!
Listen to the right channel on the intro of “Marguerita” - the acoustic guitar is clearly audible.
The intro to “Spring Fever” is slightly clipped, therefore the Jordanaires sing “pring fever”.
The intro to “Scratch My Back (Then I’ll Scratch Yours)” is still clipped, but hey, who cares?
“Down In The Alley” has the correct intro without missing any drumbeat.
The error on the intro of “Fools Fall In Love” has been corrected.
“I’ll Remember You” is the original edited version.
“I’ll Take Love” still has the bad splicing job close to the end.
“Sing You Children” has an sloppy, amateurish fade-out job, it fades out with a lot of echo and then there’s a sound that reminds me of a skipping record… ???
The drum hit on the ending of “Clambake” is stil there (was missing on the “Double Features” and restored for the FTD).
The strange reverb on “Let Yourself Go” (Version 1) is finally gone again.
“High Heel Sneakers” is the originally edited version.
“You Don't Know Me (Record Version)” has the fixed ending.
“Stay Away” has the longer fade-out.
“Wonderful World” and “Edge Of Reality” have the original fade-outs.
“A Little Less Conversation” is the single version (Take 16) with the longer fade-out.
“Swing Down Sweet Chariot” (Version 2) is unfortunately the overdubbed version - one more reason to keep the “Double Features” CD that contains the original undubbed version.
“Signs Of The Zodiac” has a lot of (additional?) echo. So what…?
“Mama Liked The Roses” has the longest fade-out.
“My Little Friend” is the remixed version as used first on the “Almost In Love”-LP.
“In The Ghetto” has the original fade-out.
“Rubberneckin’” is the remixed version as used first on the “Almost In Love”-LP.
“Without Love (There Is Nothing)” has a slight early fade.
“I'll Hold You In My Heart (Till I Can Hold You In My Arms)” has a rather bad “intro-job”.
“Suspicious Minds” fades again at 4:19.
“Any Day Now” still has the strange “distant” sound.
… to be continued …
