Rage Against The Machine S/T: Audio Fidelity Hybrid Stereo SACD (June 2016)

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steelydave

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amazon.com has a listing for an Audio Fidelity release of Rage Against The Machine's eponymous first album here:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B01EMP3V5Y/

Release date is June 17th (same day as the Laura Nyro SACD).

So, the questions are, is it a SACD? It's only listed as a CD at present (with no other info) but it carries the same price as other AF SACDs, $29.98. If it is a SACD, is there any chance of a 5.1 track? It is a Sony title, but I don't recall this being one of their announced but never released SACDs.

Even as a stereo-only SACD it's a pretty attractive proposition - for me it was one of the best sounding albums of the 90's (especially the vinyl which has a few more dB of dynamic range vs. the CD) not to mention the fact that it's loaded with great riffs and a fantastic rhythm section. I appreciate the vocals may not be everyone's cup of tea, but what a powerful album.

Dave's fun fact: GGGarth, the producer of this album is Garth Richardson, son of Jack Richardson who produced pretty much all of the Guess Who's records from 1969-1975. The 'GGGarth' pseudonym comes from the fact that Garth having a stutter causing him to pronounce his own name that way.
 
amazon.com has a listing for an Audio Fidelity release of Rage Against The Machine's eponymous first album here:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B01EMP3V5Y/

Release date is June 17th (same day as the Laura Nyro SACD).

So, the questions are, is it a SACD? It's only listed as a CD at present (with no other info) but it carries the same price as other AF SACDs, $29.98. If it is a SACD, is there any chance of a 5.1 track? It is a Sony title, but I don't recall this being one of their announced but never released SACDs.

Even as a stereo-only SACD it's a pretty attractive proposition - for me it was one of the best sounding albums of the 90's (especially the vinyl which has a few more dB of dynamic range vs. the CD) not to mention the fact that it's loaded with great riffs and a fantastic rhythm section. I appreciate the vocals may not be everyone's cup of tea, but what a powerful album.

Dave's fun fact: GGGarth, the producer of this album is Garth Richardson, son of Jack Richardson who produced pretty much all of the Guess Who's records from 1969-1975. The 'GGGarth' pseudonym comes from the fact that Garth having a stutter causing him to pronounce his own name that way.

2 things of note... at this point in time....Audio Fidelity doesn't release "CD's"...and amazon seldom gets the description correct..so yes I would say it's a SACD...when RT posted about this release a few weeks ago I did some research and could not find a multi channel version of this title in the past...and several people mentioned they had never heard of an unreleased surround in existence....
 
Never heard of it, but I see it's on Prime Music Streaming so I'll check it out.
 
The word today from Steve Hoffman on Facebook

Rage Against The Machine - Steve Hoffman - Stereo SACD - April 25 2016.jpg

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?....105811056166426.13034.100002125975202&type=3
 
Hmm, hard to se how this can be improved sonically, but please prove me wrong!

Agree Steve on the cover, ties in with Operation Mindcrime - stunning music behind a dreadful cover.
 
Day one for me, original 1/2" 30ips analogue tapes > DSD? Hell yeah.
Never got the only AAA version of this (original US vinyl) but at 25 mins/side I always imagined something may have been left on the table...I expect this SACD will answer that.
 
So this was initially recorded all analogue then transfered to digital? Was that common practice, I mean even for the early 90s?
 
What's wrong with the album cover. A bit of a ripoff from Wish You Were Here perhaps.
 
So this was initially recorded all analogue then transfered to digital? Was that common practice, I mean even for the early 90s?

There are artists and engineers recording in analog to this day. So it has lived on beyond the '90s! :)
 
What's wrong with the album cover. A bit of a ripoff from Wish You Were Here perhaps.

Probably to do with the fact that it's an actual human being committing suicide by self immolation.

A lot of bands, especially newer ones at the time, were recording analog in the early 90's because the sound in general was a return to the more organic sounds of the 60's and 70's. Bands like The Black Crowes, Lenny Kravitz, Pearl Jam, Nirvana, Alice In Chains, etc. wanted to get away from the glossy sounds and big production of the late 80's and do things the way their musical heroes (ie bands like Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, etc.) did and analog recording was one of them.
 
Probably to do with the fact that it's an actual human being committing suicide by self immolation.

A lot of bands, especially newer ones at the time, were recording analog in the early 90's because the sound in general was a return to the more organic sounds of the 60's and 70's. Bands like The Black Crowes, Lenny Kravitz, Pearl Jam, Nirvana, Alice In Chains, etc. wanted to get away from the glossy sounds and big production of the late 80's and do things the way their musical heroes (ie bands like Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, etc.) did and analog recording was one of them.

Here and I thought he just set himself on fire. :banana:
 
What a shame Pearl Jam care solely about releasing on vinyl vs. how the vinyl is being produced.

With this being a Sony licence, perhaps Audio Fidelity might be able to do a release of Pearl Jam's Ten? I know the first three Dave Matthews Band albums were all 100% analogue too, both fall under Sony.
 
This means NO surround version will ever get made. I will have to do with the upmix then.

The original Vinyl is perfect. I doubt this SACD can sound any better, but it will still sound great.
 
Original vinyl:

SIDE A - 24m26s
SIDE B - 27m58s

In my book that's FAR from perfect, I can't imagine any pressing house or cutting engineer will tell you that's even acceptable never mind optimum! RTI state 24m/side is the absolute maximum time while 18m is optimum, most places will state to try and keep it at 20m/side for maximum fidelity and cutting volume (which helps with noise floor).

This was 1992, so it's not surprising they didn't pony up for a 2LP 33rpm release, a perfect vinyl release for me today would be cutting this once again AAA but over 3LPs at 45rpm.
 
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