Hot Stamper Pressings of the Music of The Band Available Now
Both the pressings of Music from Big Pink mastered by Capitol with the help of the Specialty Record Corporation (SRC) are just awful sounding. They released one in 1983 and another 1989. The notes you see below are for the 1989 pressing.
The overall sound was bright and forced, with edgy vocals. Who wants a Band record that sounds like that? The MoFi CD (from 1989) is better than the MoFi record, but that’s not saying much. I wouldn’t have either one in my collection.
Earlier this year we raved about our amazing sounding Shootout Winner:
- Here are just a few of the things we had to say about an incredible copy in our notes: “huge and breathy and weighty”…”very rich vox and toms”…”huge and rich and jumping out of the speakers”…”big and rich and spacious”
- Forget all those vague, veiled, lifeless, ambience-free Heavy Vinyl pressings – this is the Big Pink that The Band recorded!
- Remember when you used to play the same record over and over, never taking it off the turntable for days at a time?
- Well here it is – this pressing captures the music in a way that will make repeated plays the joy they are meant to be
EQ Issues
If you’ve ever played a pressing of this record you probably know what an absolute piece of garbage most of them are.
Many suffer from a severe lack of bass. As you may have noticed, we’re big bass fans around these parts, so a bass-free Big Pink just won’t do.
Finding a copy with proper tonality from top to bottom turns out to be a much more difficult prospect than one would think. Too many are thin, with painfully boosted upper midranges, and that EQ results in blary, gritty, grainy sound.
When you finally come across a pressing that is correct and natural, with plenty of Tubey Magic, more than anything else it simply comes as a relief. It shouldn’t have to be this way — for this or any other album — but it is.
Further Reading