"Another Song" remix

[davidgra]

Hi all.

Well, after much searching, I managed to track down the 6-CD set called SWEET MEMORIES. It's quite a set! All the songs were selected by Richard Carpenter to create "themes" for each disc, and there are plenty of songs here that rarely get anthologized, like "Sailing on the Tide," "You," "Saturday," "B'wana She No Home," etc.

The track I was most interested to find was "Another Song," since it was reported to have been remixed. And remixed it was!

During the vocal section of "Another Song," the remixing is somewhat subtle. Karen's lead vocal is slightly more centered in the mix, the background vocals and harpsichord are less panned (making them also slightly more centered in the mix, rather than extremely left and right), and the string part that comes in at 1:07 is much more prominent.

The instrumental part during the second half of the song is where the changes become apparent. The bass part has been completely re-recorded, and is much funkier than the original (and also more prominent in the mix). The "kick" drum has been re-recorded as well, but isn't obnoxiously loud. Hearing the new bass line makes the song sound completely new.

Since the liner notes for this set are only in Japanese (the only English is Richard Carpenter's brief note at the beginning of each booklet, and the song lyrics), there isn't any info about remixes, so I'm going to have to listen to all 91 tracks to see if there are any other remixes I didn't know about... Not a bad project, just time-consuming!

David

 

[Tony]

David,

Thanks for answering a question I 've had for a few years. I downloaded this remixed version of "Another Song" from a now-defunct Carpenters site and was blown away by the re-recorded bass parts. It really adds a nice edge to this song, which has long been a favorite of mine. But I had no idea on which collection this remix could be found until now.

Also, around the same time and from the same site I downloaded "Crescent Noon". Since I don't have the "Close to You" CD with me here in NYC (long story), I haven't been able to compare this version with the original to see if it was remixed too. But just going by memory, the strings sound more prominent to me and the keyboards sound updated as well. And I believe the download was labeled a remix, but I'm not certain. Does anyone know if "Crescent Noon" has indeed been remixed?

Tony

 

[Rick-An Ordinary Fool]

Tony, are you referring to Donald's old site called, Goofus?

David which collection does this song appear? Is this the Cd's with the artwork covers that look painted, houses & stuff? I've seen something like that on ebay.

 

[Tony]

Chris,

Yes, it was the "Goofus" site, which I really enjoyed visiting along with the "Road Ode" site.

Tony

 

[Rick-An Ordinary Fool]

I was wondering if Donald's site was still open under a diff name? I remember him saying he was changing servers & then the site disappeared. I have a bunch of mp3's that he made of mixes before the site went down. It was a really cool site for music. He use to also have all the Karen solo sessions tracks too but that was along time ago.

 

[Murray]

Unfortunately, Donald's site is gone for good. The (formerly free) server where the site had been hosted started charging for their service. Donald's site used a LOT of bandwidth (with people downloading mp3 and video files), so it would have cost him around $200 a month! He tried to find a new free server that would let him host mp3's, but he couldn't find one.

Murray
...who really misses "The House of Goofus"...

 

[davidgra]

David which collection does this song appear? Is this the Cd's with the artwork covers that look painted, houses & stuff? I've seen something like that on ebay.

Yes, this is the set with the watercolor-painted covers that have nothing to do with Karen and Richard.

Before I got it, I sort of assumed that this was some sort of non-official compilation, kind of like a K-Tel release -- licensed for legal use, but not put together by the artist or their record company. That was a wrong assumption, however. Richard personally selected the songs for this set to fit in six categories (like reminiscing and yearning for the past, falling in love, growing and changing, etc.), and he wrote (very) brief notes for each disc.

The whole set came in a cardboard box that is almost as big as the box for the 35th Anniversary collection. Strangely, though, the box doesn't have the Carpenters' logo on it, although each of the individual discs has the logo on the cover and a photo of Karen and Richard on the back.
The covers contain watercolors of: a car on the beach, stores along a downtown street, a house (which looks a little like Mickey's house in Toontown at Disneyland!), a motel, a car with a surfboard on top, and a view of city buildings from a beach (sort of Santa Monica-ish).
I had hesitated buying this collection because of the cost, but I managed to get one at a pretty reasonable price. It's quite a fascinating addition to my collection; I just need to find the time to go in and listen to every track to see if there are any other remixes I didn't know about.

David

 

[Harry]

David,

Is there any evidence of an official-looking A&M logo on the packages or the discs? Usually, when these songs are licensed out to other entities, an A&M logo will mostly follow. I just wondered about that set.

Harry
...querying, online...

 

[davidgra]

Is there any evidence of an official-looking A&M logo on the packages or the discs? Usually, when these songs are licensed out to other entities, an A&M logo will mostly follow. I just wondered about that set.

Harry,

Yes, the A&M logo is on the back of each case, and on the discs themselves. Each disc also says "Mfd. by Polygram K.K., Japan" and is dated 1994 or 1995.

David

 

[andywithaz]

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2588093828&category=307

Is this the set that you all are talking about

 

[Harry]

Well, it had to happen. Knowing of a remix out there that I didn't have, the search began for the SWEET MEMORY set. I'd eyed this a few times on eBay, but until David's confirmation that this was a legit set, I wasn't willing to spring for it. It arrived this week.

As David mentioned, it's a massive 6-disc compilation, the largest ever released by Carpenters. Each disc is vaguely themed by subject matter, making it a rather interesting listen.

My curiosity was aroused as I looked through the set. It almost felt like it was a near-complete compilation of all of their studio material, so I set about the task of checking out just how much of their repertoire was contained in this set, which houses 91 tracks.

Counting up the tracks on the studio albums up to the point of this release (1994-95), I get about 119 strictly "Carpenters" tracks (eliminating the KC solo stuff on LOVELINES). The 'new' tracks on INTERPRETATIONS and AS TIME GOES BY didn't exist at this point, and I'm not counting the early box set stuff or the commercials and oddities on FROM THE TOP. Also eliminated from this count are all Christmas tracks, since this set doesn't contain any. Each "oldie" in the medley counted as one track. So 119 is the number of regular-album studio tracks by "Carpenters" to that point.

That means that SWEET MEMORY contains over 75% of Carpenters' regular studio material - a pretty thorough set.

Which also leads to the question, "So what's left off?"

Here are the leftover tracks:

Invocation
Your Wonderful Parade
Someday
Get Together
Ticket to Ride
What's the Use
All I Can Do
Benediction
Mr. Guder
I Kept on Loving You
Druscilla Penny
Bacharach/David Medley
Intermission
Flat Baroque
Piano Picker
A Song For You (Reprise)
I Can't Make Music
Desperado
Eventide
Breaking Up Is Hard To Do
On the Balcony of the Casa Rosada/Don't Cry for Me Argentina
Man Smart (Woman Smarter)
Calling Occupants of Interplanetary Craft
Somebody's Been Lyin'
You're Enough
At the End of a Song
Prime Time Love
Uninvited Guest
Kiss Me the Way You Did Last Night

Some of these are obvious choices to be left off - the intros and outros of album sides, the Bacharach medley which probably didn't fit in thematically, "Calling Occupants" in a class by its own, the Evita stuff, some of the mired-in-the-60s stuff from the early albums, a couple of Richard lead vocal tracks (though I wish "I Kept On Lovin' You" had been used instead of "Saturday"), and some odds and ends from the later albums.

I wouldn't recommend that a casual fan go searching for this set - it has really only one major unavailable-anywhere-else remix, "Another Song". It was a limited edition for Japan (like so many others), and generally features the latest and greatest remixes available up to that time. I'm happy I found it - it makes a nice addition to the collection.

One other oddity about the set. Mine came in fatter-than-usual jewel cases. I assume these were meant to house the rather bulky booklets that come with each disc - 40+ pages on heavier-than-usual paper. They're designed to hold single discs, but they're thicker than the standard ones. Standard jewel cases are aroun 10mm thick. These are 12mm thick, and I've never encountered any like this.

Each disc in the set also came with a cardboard slipcase, colored to match the pastel themes of the set in general. The slipcase has a round hole in it giving a peek at the artwork underneath.

This set, as I understand it, was only available through mail order in Japan. I'm guessing it was like a Time-Life deal here in the US, where you got another disc every month or so throughout the 1994-95 period, and then sometime later was available as a completed box set. Since mine didn't have a box, I can only assume that it was an individual disc-program purchase originally.

All in all - I'm happy.

Harry
...with some details on another major Carpenters purchase, online...

 

[Rick-An Ordinary Fool]

Great review Harry, nice to see you added this to your collection. What I found interesting was the pictures used for the covers always made me feel they were not official A & M releases. You wonder with a list as long as this, why Richard just didn't complete the entire list...the left overs could just about fill 1 more CD and it would be complete. How is the mastering of these Japan CD's? How do they compare to the recent 13 CD Japan Box set?

I'm almost tempted to check out a used CD store for a US remastered version of Kind of Hush & compare it with the one from the recent 13 Box Set, I'm not that happy with the remastering on that one.

 

[Harry]

The mastering on the SWEET MEMORY set sounds fine to me. Since most are remixes or more modern recordings, everything sounds nice and balanced to me, though I have to admit that I've most of my listening in the car this past week, and am only through about the first 3 discs.

Based on your HUSH question, Chris, I just did a couple of comparisons. First off, I'm not sure what problems you're having with the 35th Anniversary HUSH disc, but it sounds reasonably identical to me with the 1998 Remaster.

Just to see what you might be talking about, I also dug out the LP and the original '80s issue disc. First off, the LP naturally has a more analog sound to it, though the CD sounds cleaner. Perhaps it's the digital sterileness you're perceiving. Anyway, the first thing that really stood out was the difference in speed on the song "You." I don't know which is more correct - perhaps 'Perfect-Pitch Rudy" can come to the reszcue, but the LP version of "You" is perceptably faster than either of the later-issued CDs. Yet it's the same speed as the old '80s CD recording.

There are other differences on the '80s CD as well, most notably the single version of "I Need To Be In Love" being included instead of the album version. I hadn't noticed it before, but I think the '80s CD version of that song may also be HAECO-CSG'd. With headphones, Karen's vocal sounded a bit off-balance.

Harry
...who has many kinds of HUSH, online...

 

[Chris May]

This past week we finished mastering an album that I produced for a band called 'jonas day', and as we worked through some of the frequent mastering issues that come up, it got me pondering the occasional threads that pop up here regarding the "Hush" album.

I think this has been the most talked about album (second in line to "Passage") regarding the mastering. Personally, I don't think it has as much to do with the mastering as everyone thinks it does. In my opinion, the album was mixed with a lot of 'mids' and bottom, but not a whole lot up top. On a side note, you can also hear quite a bit of editing throughout the album, making this release my least favorite with regards to production, etc. On the other hand, the production is great (if that makes any sense) with regards to arrangements, backing vocals, etc. All in all, the equalization frequencies have always driven me nuts with both "Hush" AND "Passage". Don't think there is too much that can be done additionally in a mastering session to fix this, as good as digital remastering is. Mastering can clean up a mix, sometimes significantly, but not always as any mastering engineer will tell you that you shouldn't rely on him (or her) to "fix" a bad mix. You mix it the way you prefer, THEN master for balance, compression, etc. If the album turns out better than expected (which often times may be the case with a good mastering engineer), then it's considered to be gravy!

Oh, and by the way, if you want to check out an awesome up and coming band, (if it's ok with Harry), go to www.jonasday.com.

-Chris

 

[Rick-An Ordinary Fool]

The LP naturally has a more analog sound to it, though the CD sounds cleaner. Perhaps it's the digital sterileness you're perceiving.

This is probably what I am referring to. I did a side by side to the 80's pressing of AKUH and the mini lp style cd from the box set & I can tell the Japan Cd is cleaner & probably sounds better overall.

I think my problem is I'm listening too much to my LP's & 45's.

I also have the 80's CD, listening to INTBIL you may be right, Karen's vocal is more centered on the japan remastered cd than the 80's. I wonder if this could be.


If you could listen to Sandy on the japan remastered & the 80's CD and then listen to Sandy on the Treasures 2 cd set. Listen closely to the first 45 sec when Karen sings the first couple lines there is a instrument (sounds like brush against a drum head tapping) this sound is more prominent on the Treasures but on the remastered & 80's cd it is buried deeper & not so prominent. I also think this song sandy on the Treasures sound better overall, Karen sound like she could be right next to me. I looked & it doesn't say Richard re-mixed Sandy for Treasures so I am assuming this is the original version, but there is a slight different I'm hearing.

 

[andywithaz]

My A Kind Of Hush LP sounds very closely to the remastered CD. There is hardly any difference.

I have noticed that A Kind of Hush and Passage sound like they are older recording. Must have something to with the high frequencies mentioned above. I compared both CDs to the LPs. They both sound like they were recorded pre-1972.

 

[Rick-An Ordinary Fool]

Also on Sandy on the Treasures CD, at 2:44/2:45 do you hear a drop out on the vocals on the word Sandy? It is like 1 or 2 sec's. I don't hear this on the japan remastered or the 80's cd.

 

[Harry]

If you could listen to Sandy on the japan remastered & the 80's CD and then listen to Sandy on the Treasures 2 cd set. Listen closely to the first 45 sec when Karen sings the first couple lines there is a instrument (sounds like brush against a drum head tapping) this sound is more prominent on the Treasures but on the remastered & 80's cd it is buried deeper & not so prominent. I also think this song sandy on the Treasures sound better overall, Karen sound like she could be right next to me. I looked & it doesn't say Richard re-mixed Sandy for Treasures so I am assuming this is the original version, but there is a slight different I'm hearing.

These are equalized quite differently. The TREASURES version of "Sandy" has a lot more of the high frequencies, which often is interpreted by our brains as having "clearer" sound. My tastes tend to run toward the accentuated highs, so to me, the TREASURES mix sounds better.

But maybe the more middle-range sound is what Richard was really looking for - after all, the most recent issue of that song, on CARPENTERS PERFORM CARPENTER, sounds just like the remastered CD of HUSH, and the original LP as well.

Hey, for all we know (no pun intended), when Richard put the TREASURES package together, he might have had a head-cold and boosted the highs so it sounded normal to him!

Harry
NP: lots of "Sandy" versions, online...

 

[Rick-An Ordinary Fool]

Equalized, that is probably the correct word I was searching for but couldn't get out.

Harry wrote: The TREASURES version of "Sandy" has a lot more of the high frequencies.

Probably why I like this version better.

...Still playing w/ the Carpenters black box, those little cardboard sleeves, hot stuff, online...

 

[andywithaz]

I love the high frequencies much better.

To me the Essential Collection has a noticeable difference of higher frequencies. Anyone else agree?

compare the difference between AM and FM. FM has higher frequencies so it sounds much better and clearer.

 

[andywithaz]

I don't know why but I was just listening to Sandy from Treasures and I noticed something. There is a lot more tape hiss on this track.

Could this be from the higher frequencies

 

[Rudy]

EQ is a no-no in many cases...while it boosts the high end, it also boosts the tape hiss. And if there's more tape hiss, there's a tendency to squash it with digital noise reduction. It's OK to touch things up with a little bit of EQ of the subtractive type (reducing mids, perhaps), but only slightly. Too much and it starts to sound unnatural.

 

[andywithaz]

My 24K Gold Audiophile copy of Carpenters Gold Greatest Hits has noticeable tape hiss even on the remixes because there was no digital noise reduction. I have just fallen in love with this CD. It is the best sounding Carpenters CD yet.