Imagine (French LP Pathé Marconi EMI 2C 064-4914) [Original Mix No Noise Reduction]
Posted: Mon May 29, 2023 12:36 pm
Since I downloaded this in 2008 it has always been my go to version. All thanks goes to the person who did the work. If you're here in the forum wave hello.
Original 2008 uploader notes are below. The only thing I added was an Artwork folder. The images are from Discogs.
hxxps://drive.google.com/file/d/1gtailbFENH-Gvp_JaYejIn4dW_hHFKr2/view?usp=sharing
**Original Notes**
John Lennon Plastic Ono Band w/ the Flux Fiddlers - Imagine (Original Mix - Non-Nr-ed)
01. Imagine
02. Crippled Inside
03. Jealous Guy
04. It's So Hard
05. I Don't Wanna Be a Soldier
06. Gimme Some Truth
07. Oh My Love
08. How Do You Sleep?
09. How?
10. Oh Yoko!
Source: C064-04914 (Stampers: A/B 2I) -> Technics 1210mk2 with AT-440 MLa stylus
-> Tascam DA20mk2 (A-D conversion 16 bit, 44kHz) -? Adobe Audition (Recording,
manual level correction, Waves De-crackle) -> CdWave -> Flac8
Prof sez:
As strange as it may seem, the original mix of this classic album is no longer
available on CD.
What we have gotten instead is a Yoko Ono supervised remix, which has had
digital hiss reduction applied on the original 8-track multitapes.
A totally unnecesarry move IMO, as the original mix sounds just fine.
Since the original CD from 1990 with the original mix also suffers from heavy hiss
reduction (obviously the hiss bothered Yoko a lot), I decided to go back to vinyl
for this torrent, in an attempt to present you the original recording in its full,
untampered glory.
You already have the MFSL ? Well, that CD contains the 2001 remix as well.
A Non-NR-ed official CD of the original version simply does not exist.
Yes, it may sound hissy during the quiet parts, but removing this with NR
also means removing the feel and ambiance of the original recording.
However, if you can't stand a bit of hiss, then by all means stick to the original
or remastered CD.
I found this vinyl copy some time ago in record store in a well sorted store in Nijmegen.
They had no less than 12 copies from different countries and years.
I picked out a 1st UK pressing with 1A stamper that looked really good (sleeve and lp).
Later, when I went to do quality control on a turntable, I aimed for the song 'Oh my love'
to hear how quiet the vinyl would be.
That was disappointing. A lot of crackles appeared with the piano.
So, I picked out another 1st-uk-vg+ copy and compared it. Same result.
Then I took out the other 10 copies, and started playing the beginning of OML of each one.
There were (many) dutch, uk and german issue's -old and newer.
They were all noisy, regardless their visual quality.
The last one I tried was a french re-issue w/ matrix 2I, and guess what !?
It blew them all away. So, that's the one I picked up and used here.
Still, the vinyl is somewhat noisy at time, and so I applied some de-crackle software
on the wave track. Sorry, but I was too lazy to do this manually this time.
It's a very time consuming process, you know.
But the result sounds fine enough to me to give it a go here.
Enjoy!
Original 2008 uploader notes are below. The only thing I added was an Artwork folder. The images are from Discogs.
hxxps://drive.google.com/file/d/1gtailbFENH-Gvp_JaYejIn4dW_hHFKr2/view?usp=sharing
**Original Notes**
John Lennon Plastic Ono Band w/ the Flux Fiddlers - Imagine (Original Mix - Non-Nr-ed)
01. Imagine
02. Crippled Inside
03. Jealous Guy
04. It's So Hard
05. I Don't Wanna Be a Soldier
06. Gimme Some Truth
07. Oh My Love
08. How Do You Sleep?
09. How?
10. Oh Yoko!
Source: C064-04914 (Stampers: A/B 2I) -> Technics 1210mk2 with AT-440 MLa stylus
-> Tascam DA20mk2 (A-D conversion 16 bit, 44kHz) -? Adobe Audition (Recording,
manual level correction, Waves De-crackle) -> CdWave -> Flac8
Prof sez:
As strange as it may seem, the original mix of this classic album is no longer
available on CD.
What we have gotten instead is a Yoko Ono supervised remix, which has had
digital hiss reduction applied on the original 8-track multitapes.
A totally unnecesarry move IMO, as the original mix sounds just fine.
Since the original CD from 1990 with the original mix also suffers from heavy hiss
reduction (obviously the hiss bothered Yoko a lot), I decided to go back to vinyl
for this torrent, in an attempt to present you the original recording in its full,
untampered glory.
You already have the MFSL ? Well, that CD contains the 2001 remix as well.
A Non-NR-ed official CD of the original version simply does not exist.
Yes, it may sound hissy during the quiet parts, but removing this with NR
also means removing the feel and ambiance of the original recording.
However, if you can't stand a bit of hiss, then by all means stick to the original
or remastered CD.
I found this vinyl copy some time ago in record store in a well sorted store in Nijmegen.
They had no less than 12 copies from different countries and years.
I picked out a 1st UK pressing with 1A stamper that looked really good (sleeve and lp).
Later, when I went to do quality control on a turntable, I aimed for the song 'Oh my love'
to hear how quiet the vinyl would be.
That was disappointing. A lot of crackles appeared with the piano.
So, I picked out another 1st-uk-vg+ copy and compared it. Same result.
Then I took out the other 10 copies, and started playing the beginning of OML of each one.
There were (many) dutch, uk and german issue's -old and newer.
They were all noisy, regardless their visual quality.
The last one I tried was a french re-issue w/ matrix 2I, and guess what !?
It blew them all away. So, that's the one I picked up and used here.
Still, the vinyl is somewhat noisy at time, and so I applied some de-crackle software
on the wave track. Sorry, but I was too lazy to do this manually this time.
It's a very time consuming process, you know.
But the result sounds fine enough to me to give it a go here.
Enjoy!
Volker