📣 News Carpenters: "The Vinyl Collection"

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My Original 70's The Singles LP inside booklet, font is correct.
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The is the same booklet from the 2017 LP Collection note the funny font it's actually like this on the whole page so several songs have a weird font.
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They obviously had a problem managing photos with soft focus -- both the Horizon cover and the Hush inner sleeve used that.
 
Personally, I'd give them a pass on the images. Even within press runs of the original albums, there were some that would come out darker or lighter than others. And it appears that the "dot-matrix" effect is actually some sort of graphic anomaly that occurs in the printing process, akin to taking a small photo and blowing it up and seeing blockiness.

It's not perfect, I wish it were, but it wouldn't be a dealbreaker for me.

The misprint in the book? That's inexcusable.
 
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The booklet and the Hush photos don't bother me but the Horizon album cover does bother me because that's my favorite album cover shot and I wish it's wasn't pixelated. But I have other major issues going on lol
 
UMe is saying you should contact them directly. Just provide them with proof of purchase.

Unfortunately these are good solutions for you who reside in the United States, but one who lives in South America and it takes almost a month for the packages is a disaster that will touch this set in bad conditions, it is almost a loss due to the time that not all of us buy directly by amazon but by an intermediary :shrug:..... I will continue with my fingers crossed waiting for a set to arrive in good condition :sad::sad:... Regards
 
If there are only "pops" on a few songs on an album, is that considered worthy of sending back? Should I expect that each album would be absolutely perfect, or are a few pops acceptable? There are a couple albums that have 1 song with some surface noise for a short period of time. Obviously, mine are not nearly as bad as some on here.... Just thought I'd ask for others' thoughts.

Jonathan
 
Unfortunately these are good solutions for you who reside in the United States, but one who lives in South America and it takes almost a month for the packages is a disaster that will touch this set in bad conditions, it is almost a loss due to the time that not all of us buy directly by amazon but by an intermediary :shrug:..... I will continue with my fingers crossed waiting for a set to arrive in good condition :sad::sad:... Regards

It shouldn't matter who you purchase through @Misael Castillo Lopez. Once you receive your set, hang on to your receipt. If you have any issues or visible damage, contact Universal at [email protected], attach your receipt/proof of purchase and they will replace it.
 
(1) Thanks for the details, Rick-An-Ordinary-Fool.
The time you have spent uploading photos --and other fine-details--
seems to have exceeded the time Universal spent producing this Vinyl Set.
(2) I never doubted for a moment that Universal Music would mess this up---
from the moment I first read of the set, until the first reviews came in---
my fears unfortunately were well-founded.....too bad.
(3) I note that virtually every Japanese Vinyl pressing I own is in excellent condition,
both the Vinyl and the ancillary product (posters, booklets...). No 'pops'....etc.
It is fairly easy with smaller press-runs to insist on excellent quality control.
(4) Sadly, this was an attempt by Universal to monetize on the Vinyl resurgence.
(5) I hope Richard files another lawsuit, as the future ramifications could spread beyond
the confines of this one Set (e.g., consumers--such as myself--will no longer purchase
any product from Universal Music). Folks who rely on those 'Amazon' reviews will get edgy, also.
(6) Thanks Chris May for the contact information for Universal Costumer Support.
 
We also need to keep in mind that the tapes used to make this set, and the images, are decades old. No way they can ever be reproduced perfectly. The art likely does not exist anymore either--remember on the TJB LPs, with the original art gone, they had to reproduce the covers from scans of the originals. I have a few sets that cost way more than this where things are not quite perfect either.

The unavoidable slight tearing of the spindle hole on the label...I can pull out a dozen of my 180g records at random, and most of those will have this as well. I just checked a few recent 180g releases while I'm still at home. Don't lose any sleep over this, IOW. :wink:

Joe Jackson / Night and Day / Intervention Records -- yes
Peter Gabriel / 1 (Car) / Real World Records -- yes (slight)
Donald Fagen / Morph The Cat / Warner -- yes (slight)
Stevie Ray Vaughan / In Step / Analogue Productions -- no
Bill Evans / Trio '65 / ORG (45 RPM) -- yes, both discs
Beatles / Revolver / Parlophone (2012 vinyl) -- yes
Santana / Santana / Mobile Fidelity (45 RPM) -- yes, both discs (slight on #2)
Pat Metheny / Orchestrion / Nonesuch (Pallas pressed) -- yes, both discs (slight on #2)
Sade / Love Deluxe / Music On Vinyl -- maybe (white label, hard to see, black mark might be flashing)
 
I feel that since UMe has offered us a solution to replace our defective records, we really don't need to focus further on quality control issues of the defective items. It's done and over with. Still plenty to discuss though--mastering, packaging, etc., and hopefully how much better the replacement products are.

As for the replacements, patience is in order--if they find they need to make a new pressing run on these records, it could take a little time before it happens. If that happens, and with record pressing plant capacity booked to capacity (which is out of UMe's control), my guess is that a timeframe for receiving replacements is a complete unknown at this point.
 
consumers--such as myself--will no longer purchase
any product from Universal Music

I'm reminded of the James Bond movie title NEVER SAY NEVER AGAIN. As there will possibly be something very interesting released for the 50th anniversary, I would be hesitant to be so emphatic.
 
Now, if Richard Carpenter had actually opened-up the Box Set
the one he is holding in the AP-interview Video for the release of this Set,
and, found the issues in "his" Set, as they are reported on the Forum,
what would his reaction have been---at that moment in time ?

Surely, he would have "hit the roof"......
 
As I said mentioned above, I think we're past needing to hammer this defect issue into the ground. UMe has made good on offering replacements, so it's behind us now. Once the replacements start shipping, we'll be able to get a better idea of how these sound.

There are plenty of other things to discuss about the set. :wink:
 
I mentioned the artwork is beautiful but it's not without some fault. Here are pics showing a dot matrix pixel error to the front of the Horizon LP cover (Richard Shirt) you can clearly see the pixel that is not on the original 70's LP. Also for A Kind of Hush the inside photo also has the same weird dot matrix. The label for AKOH is also not exact. The lyric booklet for The Singles also has the error as mentioned in font.

Horizon Cover Dot Matrix
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Same Dot Matrix on inside AKOH
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Left side is my original 70's inside photo in comparison to the right side which is the color is off and the dot matrix appears
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I too noticed these flaws. It’s a shame; the recreated artwork was nearly spot-on otherwise.
 
Now, if Richard Carpenter had actually opened-up the Box Set
the one he is holding in the AP-interview Video for the release of this Set,
and, found the issues in "his" Set, as they are reported on the Forum,
what would his reaction have been---at that moment in time ?

Surely, he would have "hit the roof"......

I believe he’s holding an empty box (for the camera)! The actual box is quite heavy.
 
We also need to keep in mind that the tapes used to make this set, and the images, are decades old. No way they can ever be reproduced perfectly. The art likely does not exist anymore either--remember on the TJB LPs, with the original art gone, they had to reproduce the covers from scans of the originals.

Exactly. Prior to 1989, the advertising company I work for did all of its print production using transparencies, pasteup, copy PMTs...it was all physical assembly of the different components. Everything changed over to digital around the turn of the decade. So I would bet that none of the original artwork exists, at least in a usable form, and that they did resort to scanning the originals...which does create the issues seen on these new jackets, including type that doesn't convert correctly. The type could have been fixed easily enough, but I doubt there's much they could have done with the Horizon and Hush photos, especially if the original shots had been doctored in any way for the original covers (which they probably were). You can get away with badly reproduced artwork when shrinking it down to CD jewel case size, but not when it's used in full album dimensions.

In this case, it probably helps that a lot of the Carpenters original album covers weren't all that complex. Not too difficult to reproduce the tan album, The Singles, etc.
 
So I would bet that none of the original artwork exists, at least in a usable form, and that they did resort to scanning the originals...which does create the issues seen on these new jackets, including type that doesn't convert correctly.
That looks like a moiré effect on the Horizon jacket I have. I get that when scanning printed photos, as the "dots" in the printed image don't match up and/or "clash" with the pixels scanned by the printer (without getting overly technical).

A better description is here: The Print Guide: Moiré

Photographing to "reproduce" a photo or album jacket is not the solution either--been there, done that, it doesn't work out well. Photography introduces "keystoning" (you can never get a truly "square" image no matter how hard you try), the color shift via white balance is a chore to reproduce*, and the lighting and white balance will be different depending on how different lighting in the room hits it. My old album cover photos (I'm talking mid 90s) were so horrible that it was an embarrassment to post them--they always had this "dirty" look to them. The only way photography might work is in a darkroom using a "copy stand" (if such a thing in digital were even made). That has controlled lighting, and the sensor would be on a fixed horizontal plane. Which is pretty much how a scanner operates, now that I think about it.

As for reproducing an image from either a scan or a photograph though...reproducing it to what? The only thing you can restore it from is the piece you have on hand. Printing darkness, contrast, detail and color varies between batches--that has been true ever since printing was invented. And on a computer, a monitor needs to be calibrated before it can be used for graphics work. (It's a necessary pain...and all flat screen monitors I have used also have this color shift depending on what angle you view it from.)

So, colors and contrast may have been reproduced perfectly compared to the album cover that was used to recreate this album art for the set, but that does not mean it will match every other copy out there in the market. It can't. It's impossible.
 
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As I said mentioned above, I think we're past needing to hammer this defect issue into the ground. UMe has made good on offering replacements, so it's behind us now. Once the replacements start shipping, we'll be able to get a better idea of how these sound.

There are plenty of other things to discuss about the set. :wink:



UMe has made good on offering replacements true, now let's see if they follow through with non-defective product.
 
Carpenters deserved better than this from Universal. As for the fans, it’s very disappointing.
UMe has dealt with it, and is looking into the "why" at this point. Plus, I forgot to mention that UMe really cannot control what happens at the pressing plant, other than voting with their own "wallet" (so to speak) by not choosing that pressing plant in the future. Given release deadlines and such, it is possible they had to use any plant that available capacity so they could get this set out prior to the Holiday shopping season. The backlog at pressing plants stretches months into the future. It's not like UMe sits in the pressing plant and demands they make the records as cheaply as possible. Rather, they trust whichever pressing plant they ship their work order to, to do a good job, at a cost they negotiate ahead of time (although I doubt anyone can negotiate cost since demand far outstrips supply/capacity). And in that, the pressing plant failed miserably. They went to the trouble of having Ron McMaster do the mastering on these discs, vs. others who could have done a far worse job. So they did not cut corners there. (Which makes the pressing plant issues even more sad.)

The album art? It is what it is. Like they say, you can't make a silk purse out of a pig's ear, or...you can't polish a turd. :wink: If all they had to go on were scans of original album covers and innersleeves, they can't make them any better than the source. No amount of Photoshop expertise or trickery can cure that.
 
I'm very happy that Universal has taken quick action on this issue after all it's part of the Carpenters legacy it's important. There are many new fans out there not familiar with how great LP pressings can be and this new LP set is going to be out there for a long time to come we want the best it can be. It's not a limited edition run like the white vinyl Collected.

I look forward to my next post being more positive. :)
 
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