Remastered Version of "Carpenters"

[Larry]

This may have been brought up here before. I listened to the remastered version of "Carpenters" yesterday evening and noticed that Karen's voice is distorted on "Rainy Days and Mondays". It sounds fine on the Singles 1969-1981 and From The Top. Anyone else notice this or is my disc defective?

 

[Rick-An Ordinary Fool]

Larry, I have the black box set from Japan containing all 13 albums, these are the remastered classics cd's. I don't hear any distortion on my cd. However what you may be hearing is the original version. Remember that these remastered classics are all the songs presented in their original vinyl mixes.

With Richard releasing so many remixes in the past we hardly get the original vinyl mixes anymore and forget what the music really sounded like back then on vinyl. I've also read that the Japanese remastered classics cd's sound better than the US remastered classics cd's that the US sold separetly. I don't own the US remastered classics cd of "Carpenters".

n.p. Rainy Days from "Carpenters" black box set from Japan...

 

[Larry]

Thanks, Chris! I appreciate the quick response. Unfortunately I no longer own the LP's of any of the Carpenters' albums that I once had, so that I could do a comparison.

 

[Harry]

There were all kinds of recording anomalies on those old vinyl albums, but with vinyl imperfections themselves, they went rather unnoticed by many. The digital format of Compact Disc is a lot less forgiving, and often reveals imperfections in the recordings.

It may be that Richard is bothered by those imperfections too, hence the number of times he's issued the remixes of both "Rainy Days..." and "Superstar" over the years.

Harry