Roots Archives Forum

This is a bit off the subject, but in the sleeve notes to Heartbeats 'Sweet Talking' Heptones comp, it says something about the remastering not being as loud as some UK Studio One re-issues. I can only assume this is a shot to Soul Jazz's head. To my ears the Soul Jazz comps are pressed loud, but the sound quality is ok, not overly compressed. I don't know if this has been disscussed here before, but what's the general feeling on the two lables efforts with the same material? After all, Trojan under Sanctuary put out so many releases from so many different sources its hard to generalise, but since Heartbeat & Soul Jazz are presumably dealing with the same master tapes a direct comparrison can be made.

Mullett wrote:...but since Heartbeat & Soul Jazz are presumably dealing with the same master tapes a direct comparrison can be made.

In fact Heartbeat is dealing mostly with tapes while Soul Jazz dealt mostly with vinyl sources.

"At the risk of annoying Trojan" : there's nothing annoying for any company to complain about the sound quality of their releases. You can't return the CD to the company with a refund. There is no customer service. And there isn't any strong enough front from the comsumers on the sound quality (including loudness war, poor sound restauration, etc.).

Coxsone said (I quote from memory) : "What's wrong with the Studio One pressing quality ? They sell, so it's OK !"

N.

Mullett wrote:This is a bit off the subject, but in the sleeve notes to Heartbeats 'Sweet Talking' Heptones comp, it says something about the remastering not being as loud as some UK Studio One re-issues. I can only assume this is a shot to Soul Jazz's head. To my ears the Soul Jazz comps are pressed loud, but the sound quality is ok, not overly compressed. I don't know if this has been disscussed here before, but what's the general feeling on the two lables efforts with the same material? After all, Trojan under Sanctuary put out so many releases from so many different sources its hard to generalise, but since Heartbeat & Soul Jazz are presumably dealing with the same master tapes a direct comparrison can be made.

Heartbeat seems to not get enough respect for some reason. Maybe because they aren't catering to a specific demographic like SJ, but they have always tried to source from the master tapes, whereas Soul Jazz releases sound as though they are often from vinyl. If SJ does use the master tapes, they must goose up the sound to make them sound palatable to today's crowd....all volume, and not a lot of dynamic range. Give me the warmth of a Heartbeat S1 release any day. When you look at the breadth of their S1 catalogue since they started in the mid-80's, you have to admit that it's quite an accomplishment. They above isn't meant as a dis to SJ, as I do appreciate the fact that they are taking a chance with this music. It's more about Heartbeat getting props for a job well-done.

I hope my comments didn't sound like I was being negative about either SJ or Heartbeat; it was an intresting comment to make on an LP cover, I wondered if anyone knew what was behind it. For what its worth, I think we're lucky to have two companies that do a good job making such an important back catalogue availible. Given a choice, I prefer the sound of the Heartbeat releases, but thats not to say I don't enjoy listening to Soul Jazz's comps, which sound fine to me.

the vinyl stuff don't sound good to me either. must be the pressing methodes.

davek wrote:
If SJ does use the master tapes, they must goose up the sound to make them sound palatable to today's crowd....all volume, and not a lot of dynamic range. Give me the warmth of a Heartbeat S1 release any day.

Agreed - these thoughts have come to mind when reading many on-line and print reviews praising the SJ sound quality.

Soul Jazz/Studio 1 releases were aimed at the dance culture market, with both low and high ends boosted, a global compression and (what is very common in dances) the tracks audibly speeded up (at moments Burning Spear sounds almost like a chipmunk on their Spear release... terrible when you notice that, on the title Rocking Time for instance).

N.

Nicholas wrote:Soul Jazz/Studio 1 releases were aimed at the dance culture market, with both low and high ends boosted, a global compression and (what is very common in dances) the tracks audibly speeded up (at moments Burning Spear sounds almost like a chipmunk on their Spear release... terrible when you notice that, on the title Rocking Time for instance).

Interesting - I know it's been covered before, but what is compression? Is this what somehow makes these tracks louder? The SJ CD's can be a bit startling - do the records sound the same?

On a related note, just read that when the Beatles remasters were done, they sounded 'puny' compared to the discs of today, so a tiny bit of limiting was reluctantly applied to 'punch it up'.

>what is compression

compression is processing the signal/music by squashing down the volume of the high level frequencies and boosting up the volume of the low level frequencies so you basically convert a "hills and valleys" looking signal into more of just a big black square, and then boosting that whole mess up to just below clip. this allows the engineer to bring the whole thing up to what they consider a "proper" volume without worrying about clipping the high level frequencies. this sort of thing makes music sound "loud", which is ideal for car radios, cheap home music systems, club PAs (though there is a downside there...the music sounds dead). it is the standard that todays music mass producers prefer as it impresses 12 year old girls. seriously. it basically transforms "music" into mud.

thats not a very technically complete description but boiled down to its root its the devils work.

one love
jah bill

i might be wrong but isnt that called normalizeation.
i thought compression was to compress the size ofa digital file ie wav to mp3.
i think alot of record companies, use mp3 format they can swap with other companies or peole who got the original tapes download over the net, rather than posting a cd or original tape, then convert it back to wav for putting on cd, which doesnt work because its hard to put back what has been taken away.
Nick