Achtung Baby/Zooropa remasters CONFIRMED for Fall 2011 by Rolling Stone - Part II

[sonichka]

Thanks for the info! I just got a record player so its interesting to learn about lps. So maybe its not my imagination that the first songs sometimes sounds better.

 

[doctorwho]

and the 360 tour will have failed miserably.

And the RIAA will de-certify all of U2's albums to indicate that they bearly sold 100K copies total in the U.S.

Thanks for the info! I just got a record player so its interesting to learn about lps. So maybe its not my imagination that the first songs sometimes sounds better.

I'm younger than U2, but uh, still older than, oh, you. I grew up with turntables. That was the major way to buy music in my day. I hated 8-tracks as often the track would shift in the middle of a song! And cassette tapes were cheap and broke easily. Reel-to-reel had already died out by the time I was buying music.

LP's scratch and I welcomed the change to CD. CD's were compact, they didn't skip and were far more durable. They could be scratched, but not nearly as easily as an LP. While a CD could skip, an LP could get stuck in a groove or skip too. So CD's were a winner.

Digital is even better as the likelihood of corruption is even lower. Plus the amount of music one can put on a player is incredible.

However, LP's survived because there is a certain warmth to their sound that is lacking in CDs and pure digital music. Often those come across a bit too harsh. LP's have a soothing, softening effect. DJ's often use LP's as it allows for better mixing at a club. I prefer listening to jazz or classical on vinyl when I'm at home.

As for rock, I actually prefer CD or digital, but I like LP's still due to the cover. One of the best features of an LP was the magnificent artwork. CD's were O.K., but the artwork was reduced. Some compensation occurred by including more in a CD booklet. Pure digital removes that feature and has made music more disposable. This is one reason music sales are down - people don't view music as an event any more. It's not tangible - just a quick download. At least movies can be an event still.

I'll allow you to determine if LP or CD or mp3 is for you. But at least you have the choice still.

 

[bono_man2002]

At present, whats the difference between CD1 and CD6?

 

[Nick66]

When a lot of songs are crammed onto one side of a record songs closer to the center of the album tend to suffer from inner groove distortion. Audiophile releases tend to spread an album out on 2 lps to avoid this.

True...they're spreading the "songs" over more LP's, and hence they have more blank space at the end of each LP (rather than one jammed LP).

For example if there's only one song on one side of an LP, it generally it will sound better if the song takes up less "space" on the LP, i.e. more grooves per inch, than if it took up all the available space.

 

[sonichka]

migght be early versions and/or demos?

 

[bono_man2002]

or Teletubbies remixed as per COBL at the later shows on the 360 Tour.

 

[david]

True...they're spreading the "songs" over more LP's, and hence they have more blank space at the end of each LP (rather than one jammed LP).

For example if there's only one song on one side of an LP, it generally it will sound better if the song takes up less "space" on the LP, i.e. more grooves per inch, than if it took up all the available space.

Yeah that is why I like collecting 12 inch singles especially if they're 45rpm.

 

[canedge]

Thanks for the info! I just got a record player so its interesting to learn about lps. So maybe its not my imagination that the first songs sometimes sounds better.

I have learned never to doubt what you are hearing. Especially with a record like The Joshua Tree where there are crickets, low volume mixes, outros and truly unheard of sounds. And thats just on side two.

Often the beginning of tracks will also sound louder. For example, if you listen to EBTTRT, I swear the volume is pumped more in the first ten seconds than the rest of the song.

 

[Popmartijn]

At present, whats the difference between CD1 and CD6?

CD6 are demos and early versions of the Achtung Baby songs.

 

[Muldfeld]

Uber Deluxe selling for only $308.99 on amazon.ca. Pre-order it quickly because prices tend to change abruptly at this site:
Achtung Baby - 20th Anniversary Edition (Uber Deluxe Box Set): U2: Amazon.ca: Music

 

[Super Yo]

CD6 are demos and early versions of the Achtung Baby songs.

Are we sure about that?

 

[dan_smee]

Yeah we are. The U2.com press release says there is a full album of demos and early versions

 

[dazzledbylight]

ugh i got rid of my turntable when i had to move into a much smaller space a bunch of years ago. It only needed a new (?drive) belt.
A special rubber band that connected the 1/4 size smaller turning "wheel" to the big turntable platter....

dang i should of just put in (protectedly wrapped in bubble wrap in a box the bottom of one of my closets........
i still have some vinyl left from back then (including Silver & Gold) AB was my first U2 cassette purchase when my of Vinyl LP got to scratched.
I did not have a CD player for a long time.

and ha I never kow that some songs sounded better on the first few in on an LP

I have never heard the difference between CD & LP or analouge tape > but my hearing was so-so from the start. I have heard the comparision of warmth of vinyl vs CD.

I wonder if there's an analogy between what occurs in The Print ( and now digital pixels) world: and sound.

When you print something it's broken down into special colored dots of Cyan , magenta yellow and black. Or in B&W just different sizes of black dots and dots/per inch to create the illusion of shades of gray...

SO say with Art work of a continuous black, grays ans whites and or plus colors... the finer the dots per inch are (like pixels amounts) the more smooth and continuous a reproduction of a work of art will look like.

Is it possible that digiital "loses" just a wee bit in transfering sounds into digital VS analouge

ah well, CDs will be it for me (plus he DVD's with it)

 

[elevated_u2_fan]

I would like to give a warning to those ordering off amazon.ca... I've pre-ordered the Boy/October/War and UF sets from them previously and in both cases had to wait well past the release date to get them. In the case of UF it was 2 to 3 weeks after it was released until they finally got it in stock and shipped it out. I ordered JT and NLOTH from amazon.com and had them 3 days after they were released...

 

[Cin]

my mouth was literally hanging open when reading about the Uber Deluxe box set..

I understand that it's awesome, so many goodies and I really really really want it but yeah, just like awesome tickets it's out of reach for someone on my budget.
but maybe Santa might be able to help me out a lil bit, I've been good.


Surely it would have to be a remaster, probably not as noticeable but technology has improved in leaps and bounds in the last 20 years. Are they going to do the same with Zooropa? seems odd that it's included in the Uber set

 

[TheEnd]

No...it just means that if a short record ends close to the label, they've used a lot of space, and as a general rule the more grooves per inch the higher quality sound.

You can also get inner groove distortion closer to the label. I think this is due to the angle of the tone arm causing increased tracking errors along the inner grooves. There are ways of reducing it (proper cartridge alignment is important, linear tracking tone arms help, putting less noisy tracks on the inner grooves helps) but I don't think it's completely avoidable due to basic physics. Since records have premium prices this day I guess they just try to avoid the problem by putting less tracks on each side.

 

[Hollow Island]

Well, some of those comments come from the Mccormick book, so if you have that just check the Zooropa section. Edge says the songs weren't "potent" and 'not classics' and describes the album as an "interlude". And here's one comment from Bono:

Quote:
"I thought of Zooropa at the time as a work of genius. I really thought our pop discipline was matching our experimentation and this was our Sgt. Pepper. I was a little wrong about that. The truth is our pop disciplines were letting us down. We didn't create hits. We didn't quite deliver the songs. And what would Sgt. Pepper be without the pop songs?"


All the bands comments from the Zooropa (and Pop) part of that book just have a tinge of disappointment in how those records ended up artistically and commercially (and U2 has a habit of often conflating the two).

Seems like what Bono is saying is that he was a much better judge of quality in 1993.

 

[Unknown Caller]

Seems like what Bono is saying is that he was a much better judge of quality in 1993.

 

[Rachel D.]

U2.com just sent me another email that looks the same as the first one. It has a link to this site:

U2 | Official Store at Universal Music

No info at all about tracklisting.

Oh yeah, and I saw this at U2.com a little bit ago:

http://community.u2.com/topic/24309/t/My-letter-to-Paul-McGuinness-that-I-wrote-this-morning-.html

 

[Galeongirl]

Perhaps it'd be time to spam Principle's fax machine once more. Give us a different dvd!

It's a bit sad that this Michelle person isn't aware of Amazon.com's outrageous first off prices. Because there's no way the box set is going to cost that much. It's just the way Amazon.com rolls, they put a sick expensive price up first and then lower it according to the rest.

 

[TM]

Quick question: Are the b-side vinyl's not included in the ubertheluxegigawtfbbq-version?

 

[U2girl]

Seems like what Bono is saying is that he was a much better judge of quality in 1993.

Comparing Sgt Pepper with Zooropa ? He WAS wrong.

 

[morgan1098]

Remember when the first three album remasters were announced, and the live b-sides ("I Threw a Brick/A Day Without me" and "Fire") weren't in the track list for War? I seem to remember a lot of people (me included) going ballistic about that. I don't think an official track list with the live tracks emerged until a week or so before the album was released.

...All this to say, I'm holding out hope that when the finalized, official track lists for AB are announced, a few more Zooropa tracks will have made it into the mix. I would think there's still time to do that before November...

 

[mr_perfect]

gonna have to edit this amazon.com just raised the uber price to $659.61

U2.com just sent me another email that looks the sahttp://m.espn.go.com/soccer/story?storyId=941299&leagueTag=ESP.1&lang=ENme as the first one. It has a link to this site:

U2 | Official Store at Universal Music

No info at all about tracklisting.

Oh yeah, and I saw this at U2.com a little bit ago:

My letter to Paul McGuinness that I wrote this morning. - All About U2 - Free Forum - U2 Community - Message Board

 

[Catman]

Well, some of those comments come from the Mccormick book, so if you have that just check the Zooropa section. Edge says the songs weren't "potent" and 'not classics' and describes the album as an "interlude". And here's one comment from Bono:



All the bands comments from the Zooropa (and Pop) part of that book just have a tinge of disappointment in how those records ended up artistically and commercially (and U2 has a habit of often conflating the two).

What I found particularly interesting about the crew's thoughts on Zooropa was that Paul McGuinness had the most positive thoughts of the record, even stating that it's "one of [his] favorites."

 

[U2_Guy]

What I found particularly interesting about the crew's thoughts on Zooropa was that Paul McGuinness had the most positive thoughts of the record, even stating that it's "one of [his] favorites."

An album with Lemon!!, Stay!!, Zooropa!!, Dirty Day!!, The First Time!! is a big time winner in my book.

 

[Popmartijn]

Quick question: Are the b-side vinyl's not included in the ubertheluxegigawtfbbq-version?

Yes, they are included.

 

[canedge]

Here is a link to a comprehensive examination.

Achtung Baby Anniversary Edition: What It Has and What It's Missing

 

[theedgeu2]

I'm pretty happy with a lot of the material that made those discs. There's a few that I already have but very pleased with it. The only thing I have a problem with is ZooTV Sydney being there. I'm interested in checking out those remixes of One.

 

[canedge]

Maybe U2 were doing a feeler when they posted it.