Underworld - Dubnobasswithmyheadman 20th Anniversary Deluxe Edition

[purlieu]

Dubnobass -> Second Toughest -> Beaucoup Fish is a pretty good history lesson of how music 'sounded' throughout the '90s.

[Tricone RC]

 

My old dubnobass CD was frustratingly quiet - was the original just poorly mastered?

Nope, just proof that that the loudness war killed the dynamics in albums

 

You reckon? I noticed its quiet-ness in comparison to presses from the same era e.g. the first two Orbital albums

[hayhook]

This might be the quietest cd I own. Looking forward to the remaster. Hope it's not brickwalled.

[Soloman Tump]

Had a despatch email for the vinyl set. Sweet.

[sysyphus]

I got phone sex to see me through the emptiness in my 501's...Dirty Epic has never sounded as lush. Listened to the first three of the five cds so far and I'm lovin' it.

[Jamesqdot]

It really does sound fantastic now.

 

And I'm as happy to hear "Thing In A Book" remastered to this level as the album itself.

[Soloman Tump]

 

Thunder thunder lightning ahead

Then I kiss you dark & long

 

This album is the tits and this pressing / remaster sounds amazing

[Aphex_Squarepusher_Twin]

In the name of God!

 

A lot of my favorite albums are being released as 5 cd deluxe box sets. I'm not sure if this is a good or bad thing.

a bad thing, 'cause money... no? lol

[beerwolf]

yeah but more tunes to sink one's teeth into....

[Drix]

This is an amazing re-release! Only bad thing that I can put my finger on is they they didn't include the original Lemon Interrupt - Dirty, with the Akira sample, but cut the ending as all the re-releases has. Damn shame they couldn't clear that sample. The remaster sounds great though, and I absolutely love the bonus disks! :D

[EdamAnchorman]

loving the deluxe re-issue! thing in a book is great, and one of my favorite tracks, most 'ospitable, sounds absolutely beautiful

[Goiter Sanchez]

So it's not brickwalled then? May someone send me a screen cap of a waveform from one of the tracks?

[mcbpete]

Here's a comparison between Mmm Skyscaper .... original version (top) and the new one (bottom):

 

 

So on simply viewing the waveform it looks like it's more like it's been 'normalised' with still lots of dynamics and still a bit of headroom, rather than what I feared they'd do and just brickwall it all. Actually on hearing it, the mix is just very different - IIRC they went back to the original midi files and recreated everything with a better mastering chain. So aye, not simply just brickwalled and limited - the mix has kind of just been brought right up to do date. Everything is super clear, so much space between all of the elements in the track - they did good !

[Guest mrgerbik]

if only all the 20th anniversary remasters sounded as good as this one...

[Soloman Tump]

Here's a comparison between Mmm Skyscaper .... original version (top) and the new one (bottom):

 

 

So on simply viewing the waveform it looks like it's more like it's been 'normalised' with still lots of dynamics and still a bit of headroom, rather than what I feared they'd do and just brickwall it all. Actually on hearing it, the mix is just very different - IIRC they went back to the original midi files and recreated everything with a better mastering chain. So aye, not simply just brickwalled and limited - the mix has kind of just been brought right up to do date. Everything is super clear, so much space between all of the elements in the track - they did good !

Yep. Basically everything has its place in the mix. Of course everything is louder but it sounds amazing.

 

Great feedback from the royal festival hall gig last night. By all accounts it looked and sounded amazing, like proper great acoustics in there as you would expect.

 

A few minutes of Underworld at the Royal Festival…:

[BUNKUM]

This is sounding great from all these comments, going to put the 5cd box on my Christmas list, it's not a limited run is it?

 

I'm sure I also read somewhere they *may* give some of their other albums the same treatment, would love to see a STITI box.

[Goiter Sanchez]

Here's a comparison between Mmm Skyscaper .... original version (top) and the new one (bottom):

 

 

So on simply viewing the waveform it looks like it's more like it's been 'normalised' with still lots of dynamics and still a bit of headroom, rather than what I feared they'd do and just brickwall it all. Actually on hearing it, the mix is just very different - IIRC they went back to the original midi files and recreated everything with a better mastering chain. So aye, not simply just brickwalled and limited - the mix has kind of just been brought right up to do date. Everything is super clear, so much space between all of the elements in the track - they did good !

Amazing, thanks so much for posting this! I'm sold!

[ZoeB]

Wow, this one almost slipped me by! I'm pretty much working my way backwards through the discs, so haven't got to the main album yet (listening to it in roughly chronological order, I guess, so you can see the ideas gestating), but so far it's great! :D The outtakes and early mixes provide a real insight into their creative process, which is invaluable for learning how to hone your craft. I wish more people would release such things, and this is a particularly good album to do it with, partly as it's so good (the original album is one of the ones we've been listening to the most this year in our household... it's aged very well) and partly as it really did seem to just come out of nowhere stylistically, until you listen to the intermediate mixes. The Ride the Sainted Rhythms message board has some other interesting rarities along those lines too... You can really chart their previously hidden progression from Freur through to this album. Fascinating stuff!