Burton Cummings Lp - just bad mastering?

[ClarkNovak]

Last year I finally found the Quad press of Burton Cummings' 1976 solo debut on Portrait. I ripped it with Audition and did the SQ decode on the computer - but the results were disappointing. The recording was too bright, too brittle-sounding. There was a lot of sibilance, which broke up a lot during decoding. I tried tons of things to decrease the treble splatter and finally gave up, figuring I had a bad pressing or worn Lp.

Well, I just got a sealed stereo copy of the Lp and threw it on the turntable, only to hear the same sibilance and splatter! I'm astonished that this sort of thing made release as late as 1976. especially from a producer like Richard Perry. So I'm guessing that the mastering job was just crappy from the session tapes.

My question is - has anyone heard the Q8 of this title? Does it sound the same way, or is it better fidelity? Has anyone else noticed this effect on the Lp, either stereo or Quad?

 

[AlexB]

I have both the Q8 and the SQ LP. Both - the LP played through a Tate - have always struck me as among the best quality quad recordings around. No complaints. Can't explain our different perceptions.

 

[dr8track]

I've never heard the LP, but I have the Q8 and a conversion in both dts and dvd-a format and don't recall any of them having the issues you describe. It's been awhile since I listened to this recording, but I think what you describe would have stood out to me.

 

[ClarkNovak]

Been a while since my original post, but these replies brought it back to me.

Recently I've been working with my turntable (Pioneer PL-L1000 linear tracker with a Pioneer P600 elliptical stylus) and found that when I replaced the stylus, there was significant tracking error, increasing from the outer edge to the label. This manifests as increasing sibilance. Turns out that my tonearm tracking was 1/2 gram below recommended force (1.0g vs. 1.5g).

I guess I thought that a linear tracker would be immune to errors like this, but I was wrong

I plan on replacing the cart with an AT-440MLa, which should zero out any remaining errors (I hope!).