Anybody have any bad sounding CD's?

[Ken]

Technology has come a long way as far as remastering albums for CD. and I guess maybe there aren't that many discs that actually sounds terrible anymore.

But I remember back in the late 80's (around '87 / '88)when I first started buying CD's I may have had maybe four at the time, I purchased a disc called The Ultimate Rascals - by you guessed it - The Rascals!

I was really happy because I had literally worn out my cassette copy of Time Peace - Greatest Hits and wanted to upgrade.


Well I bought it and happily brought it home and placed it in the player to have a listen. and the quality was for lack of a better word (well I can think of a few actually LOL) CRAP! tape hiss , sloppy fade outs on the songs . Just terrible . I was crushed! it seemed the more I listened the worst it seemed to be.

I ended up getting the Rhino collection a few years later and what an improvement okay some of the songs are in Mono - but I didn't care I like 'em - the sound was to my years 100% better. Back in the mid 90's I was CD shopping and noticed that that Ultimate Collection was still in print ! I wondered if they improved the sound (I noticed it had slightly different cover art) but it was the same collection.

[SAT-I need more room!!]

The only piss poor CD I remember getting was the Greatest Hits of The Shangri-Las.

I ordered out of Collectables catalog. They are usually a reputable company (I have several reissue singles from them). I ordered the CD SPECIFICALLY for Give Him a Great Big Kiss. Right in the beginning of the song, there is an abrupt skip that is from the source, not on the disc itself or the player. Of course it's the one song I want!


You inspired me to do another post....

[Ken]

SAT-Laney's said:

The only piss poor CD I remember getting was the Greatest Hits of The Shangri-Las.

I ordered out of Collectables catalog. They are usually a reputable company (I have several reissue singles from them). I ordered the CD SPECIFICALLY for Give Him a Great Big Kiss. Right in the beginning of the song, there is an abrupt skip that is from the source, not on the disc itself or the player. Of course it's the one song I want!


You inspired me to do another post....

Oh geez - doesn't that suck ?


oh great!

[Dawn]

Not so far with CDs, but I've run into that problem a few times with albums and cassettes. Years ago, I had a Chuck Berry hits collection on LP, and the sound quality was just horrible - muffled and grating. I also had a Beatles cassette that I bought back in '86 that sounded pretty bad. It was part of a budget series called La Musica Historia del Rock or something similar, and featured one of their early live performances. I'm not sure if it was due to a poor recording or a poor quality cassette, but it was very distorted and tinny. I think I only listened to it halfway through once, and later traded it for something else.

[H2IZCOOL]

Not with CDs, but with 45s a long time ago. Sometimes I'd be looking for a particular oldie that I couldn't find, and I'd go into an "Oldies Store" and buy a 45. A good example is Let The Good Times Roll by Shirley and Lee. It turned out to be a remake - not the original recording, and had very poor quality - like the sound studio was under water. - and I'd wind up paying more for these 45s than some good ones. Needless to say, I started avoiding that store.

[Pete70s]

Hi Ken!

I have that Ultimate Rascals compilation, not the one with the newer "photo" cover, but the original. Warner Special products did several of those "Ultimate" collections back in the 80's (I have the Box Tops one as well). I never thought the sound was THAT bad, but when these came out, CD's were still fairly new on the market, labels were rushing product out, and a lot of this stuff wasn't really recorded for 80's technology to begin with. So maybe it never phased me much how bad they sounded.

I do, however, have a few gripes about other CD purchases I've made over the years:

Petula Clark-Greatest Hits (GNP Crescendo) The only CD available for a LONG time of her hits. The sound isn't horrible, but the levels are so LOW and muddy, I can't put anything off this disc onto a mix CD, because the other songs on it will always be WAY louder! I think there are newer CD reissues of Petula Clark out now, hopefully they have more "punch".

Paul Revere & The Raiders-Legend Of Paul Revere (Sony) Not that the whole thing sounds bad, it actually sounds good! I just have two gripes 1) The version of "Like, Long Hair" obviously comes from a vinyl 45 (Understandable, it was probably the ONLY available source. I'm sure that the master tape is LONG gone). But it has a very ominous "pop" right after the first note. HOW COULD THEY OVERLOOK THIS? It would have taken one second to edit it out! I do it all the time when I transfer my old vinyl to CD!! and 2) I HATE the remix of "The Great Airplane Strike". They totally KILLED the ending!!

I can't remember the title of this CD, but it was a collection of early 60's pop hits, and the CD was on Laurie records (Yes, a CD on Dion' s old label!). One of the songs actually had a SKIP in it, like a record skip, not a CD skip. It was recorded from a 45 and the record had skipped, and they just put it on the CD that way! What a rip-off from a once reputable label!#nosmileys

[lora]

I didn't purchase my first until '98, so needless to say I've never had this problem. All of the albums I own on disc, if fairly old, have been remastered.

I did purchase a vinyl of Barbra Streisand's "People" album at a flea market once. I only paid a buck for it, so it was worth it just to hear the songs, but the quality is pretty poor. You can tell that it was listened to quite a bit because there are noticeable scratches in the playing.

[Ken]

Dawn said:

Not so far with CDs, but I've run into that problem a few times with albums and cassettes. Years ago, I had a Chuck Berry hits collection on LP, and the sound quality was just horrible - muffled and grating. I also had a Beatles cassette that I bought back in '86 that sounded pretty bad. It was part of a budget series called La Musica Historia del Rock or something similar, and featured one of their early live performances. I'm not sure if it was due to a poor recording or a poor quality cassette, but it was very distorted and tinny. I think I only listened to it halfway through once, and later traded it for something else.

I remember while on the school band trip to Disneyland during my senior year. We had stopped so the bus could refuel. So we all went into the store there and I decided to buy a new cassette to listened to.


I decided on CCR's Chronicle - I looked at the tape and noticed it was a mexican import (I've often wondered since then if it was a pirated copy, it did have the familiar art work ) and thought that was kind of cool.

Well that all changed when I placed it in my walkman to listen to it - the sound quality was really awful . I was so ticked off I ended up throwing the tape out the window of the bus LOL thankfully it only cost a few dollars

[Ken]

Pete70s said:

Hi Ken!

I have that Ultimate Rascals compilation, not the one with the newer "photo" cover, but the original. Warner Special products did several of those "Ultimate" collections back in the 80's (I have the Box Tops one as well). I never thought the sound was THAT bad, but when these came out, CD's were still fairly new on the market, labels were rushing product out, and a lot of this stuff wasn't really recorded for 80's technology to begin with. So maybe it never phased me much how bad they sounded.

I do, however, have a few gripes about other CD purchases I've made over the years:

Petula Clark-Greatest Hits (GNP Crescendo) The only CD available for a LONG time of her hits. The sound isn't horrible, but the levels are so LOW and muddy, I can't put anything off this disc onto a mix CD, because the other songs on it will always be WAY louder! I think there are newer CD reissues of Petula Clark out now, hopefully they have more "punch".

Paul Revere & The Raiders-Legend Of Paul Revere (Sony) Not that the whole thing sounds bad, it actually sounds good! I just have two gripes 1) The version of "Like, Long Hair" obviously comes from a vinyl 45 (Understandable, it was probably the ONLY available source. I'm sure that the master tape is LONG gone). But it has a very ominous "pop" right after the first note. HOW COULD THEY OVERLOOK THIS? It would have taken one second to edit it out! I do it all the time when I transfer my old vinyl to CD!! and 2) I HATE the remix of "The Great Airplane Strike". They totally KILLED the ending!!

I can't remember the title of this CD, but it was a collection of early 60's pop hits, and the CD was on Laurie records (Yes, a CD on Dion' s old label!). One of the songs actually had a SKIP in it, like a record skip, not a CD skip. It was recorded from a 45 and the record had skipped, and they just put it on the CD that way! What a rip-off from a once reputable label!

Hey Pete - That's very true about the labels rushing out product ,obviously to meet the demand, I totally agree.

I also have both the Box Tops collection and the Highs of The 70's compilation. I thought both of those sounded good actually.


I have that Paul Revere collection and noticed that pop on Like Long Hair right away LOL and also thought couldn't they have fixed that ?

[Ken]

Lora said:

I didn't purchase my first until '98, so needless to say I've never had this problem. All of the albums I own on disc, if fairly old, have been remastered.

I did purchase a vinyl of Barbra Streisand's "People" album at a flea market once. I only paid a buck for it, so it was worth it just to hear the songs, but the quality is pretty poor. You can tell that it was listened to quite a bit because there are noticeable scratches in the playing.

Hey Lora

I have a couple of 45's from the 50's that are in pretty rough shape LOL , but I'm happy because at least I have copies since their both very hard to find