[bobeau]

It's not just the quality of the music, which is of course superb... but now my setup is quite nice I'm listening to the One Love compilation and am finding the recording quality of the songs stunning - the soundstage, detail, eq, etc, to be standouts amongst my music collection.

Anyone feel the same?

 

[wakeride74]

Not to downplay Bob who was awesome but I think that most reggae music (if recorded well) has a easy time creating that sound. I feel the same way about Steel Pulse who is also very good and even 311 when playing one of their reggae sounding tracks.

 

[markl]

The early Bob stuff before he was signed to Island sound like 1920's field recordings transferred to digital from crumbling vinyl. But yes, the recently-remastered of his Island stuff sounds great. That One Love comp was mastered at the same time as the remasters (with the bonus tracks) by the same guy, Ted Jensen, and he always does great work.

Now you'll need to start exploring his albums proper. They're all incredible.

 

[Wmcmanus]

Quote:

Originally Posted by markl The early Bob stuff before he was signed to Island sound like 1920's field recordings transferred to digital from crumbling vinyl. Now you'll need to start exploring his albums proper. They're all incredible.

Right on both counts. Some of the stuff that they recorded in the early days sounds absolutely terrible. It was just a bunch of guys hanging out, really. They didn't have much of a studio, equipment, or knowledge of the recording process. The bootlegs are even worse, some of which are unintelligible.

But, when it comes to "his albulms proper", ya mon! I've back filled my Marley collection recently and am still going through a lot of them for the first time. For those of us who grew up on Exodous, Rastaman Vibration, Uprising, Burnin' (and of course the WAY overplayed Legend), there is SO much more out there. If you do a Marley search at Amazon.com, you'll get over 400 different titles (or variations thereof). Stick to the main studio abulms and you can easily get it done in 20 or less.

 

[s m @]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Wmcmanus Right on both counts. Some of the stuff that they recorded in the early days sounds absolutely terrible. It was just a bunch of .

I know where you're coming from, b/c I've heard some of the dodgy-looking discs you find at cut prices from time to time, and they really don't sound good at all. However, a year ago or so I got a 3 LP set issued by Earmark titled 'Sun Is Shining', which collects a bunch of the old sides recorded by the group before they signed to Island. It sounds good, although obviously not as 'hi-fi' as the later Island recordings. However, it's the rawness and energy that has made these probably my favourite Marley recordings, although they were more of a group then. And even just the sound I like a lot, the warmth vinyl brings to the deep bass is something. Anyway, I believe this set is also available as seperate LPs as well. Most of the songs on it later were re-recorded for Island.

I've heard that Lee Perry is responsible for the glut of recordings that is available on disc, that he basically owns them from the early sessions where the band had no leverage. I think he sold them to fairly shady companies and no one along the way cared much about the sound, so rough recordings got rougher. Earmark takes consistently loving care with their stuff, though. No, I don't work for them, ha ha.

 

[markl]

That's right, the problem is that no one owns the copyright on those early recordings so they've been re-issued *thousands* of times from every fly-by-night label, almost all drawing from old 45's or LPs, not the master tapes.

Best bet for the old stuff on CD is the Audio Fidelity SACD hybrid mastered by Steve Hoffman called "Young Mystic". Original tapes, best enginer in the business. SACD layer is silly given recording quality, but you get it anyway. Only problem is that the disc has not nearly enough tracks on it. Next best bet is the 2CD set Trenchtown Rock Anthology 69-78, looks like this:

 

[Scrith]

I recommend the recent live release: Live at the Roxy

 

[Jahn]

i always wondered this...

my crappy redbook copy of Legend from the 80's sounds like it has totally different takes and edits from the remastered Legend (which has a far better sound quality.) How come?