PopTodd Posted January 11, 2011 Share Posted January 11, 2011 From a friend who actually worked on the original sessions:XTC – Skylarking (1986/2010 Remaster) 320 In the course of world renowned mastering engineer John Dents work on preparing the new double vinyl set of XTC’s Skylarking for release, an interesting and wonderful thing has been discovered. John has informed us that that somewhere in the chain from Todd Rundgrens Utopia sound studio and Londons Master room studio, way back in 1986, a fault has occurred that means all of the versions of Skylarking you’ve ever heard, on CD or vinyl, have sounded…how shall we put this?… wrong. How can this be I hear you think, sounds fine to me? The band themselves always had a nagging doubt that the album sounded a little too thin and bass light, not like they remembered it sounding from the recording process. Well, what John has identified is that the previous vinyl and CD’s {including the flashy US Fidelity version unfortunately} have been manufactured with their sound polarity reversed. In laymans terms this mix up means that sound waves that should be pushing out from your speakers are actually pulling them back and projecting from the rear. Something as simple as a wrongly wired XLR plug in Todds studio or the Master room would have resulted in this sound mishap. Making the record sound distant and thinner. He has identified that the original tapes appear in very good condition and with this problem now rectified APE will be able to present to you shortly a splendid double deep vinyl cut of this classic XTC album as it was intended to sound, but never has done due to human error. And, the new album cover is pretty durned NSFW (a close-up of a woman's naked pubic region, adorned with small flowers), so I have cut it out of this post. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
moxiebean Posted January 11, 2011 Share Posted January 11, 2011 Very cool - Skylarking is on my short list of "perfect" albums. Would love to see a domestic CD release of this, altho I can't say I'm digging the new album cover. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
tinnitus photography Posted January 11, 2011 Share Posted January 11, 2011 The release also features the cover art planned for the albums original release that was "banned" by Virgin. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
deepseacatfish Posted January 12, 2011 Share Posted January 12, 2011 While of late I've been preferring Black Sea to Skylarking they're both great albums. Kind of funny that no one worked to correct the sound issue on the masters before, but cool that they're reissuing it. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Sir Stewart Posted January 13, 2011 Share Posted January 13, 2011 From a friend who actually worked on the original sessions: And, the new album cover is pretty durned NSFW (a close-up of a woman's naked pubic region, adorned with small flowers), so I have cut it out of this post. Link? Quote Link to post Share on other sites
PopTodd Posted January 13, 2011 Author Share Posted January 13, 2011 Link?Check PMs. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Sir Stewart Posted January 13, 2011 Share Posted January 13, 2011 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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