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Do All Capitol 80's Black/Rainbow Label Pressings Sound Great?

grooveman

grooveman

Super Member
It's been discussed here on AK, that The Beatles Capitol 80's black/rainbow label pressings sound excellent and can even better the original US 60's pressings. I tend to agree, having listened to and own several of these pressings. However...I still feel that the UK albums and pressings are the way to go.

That said...outside of The Beatles 80's reissue LPs, I recently picked up a nice copy of the "Quicksilver-Anthology" 2 LP set on the black/rainbow 80's label and it also sounds great! Do all the 80's Capitol pressings of older catalog titles sound this good?

The mastering sounds to be quite an improvement over the originals. BTW......in the run-off of the Quicksilver LP, it's stamped "Mastered By Capitol Records" with J. Lemay etched in. Any thoughts on these pressings by other Capitol artists other than The Beatles? Beach Boys, Floyd, Sinatra or any others that really sound outstanding?
 
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Glad to hera the Quicksilver stuff sounds excellent. I was very surprised myself by how good the Beatles stuff you mentioned sounded when I first heard them. Also the Purple capital's sound excellent as well.
 
Depends on the material. Sinatra as a rule has songs deleted. And the mono titles have that annoying added reverb. And there was still those annoying Duophonic titles often available with deleted tracks in budget lines. That era did have superb mastering and nice pressings. And is my go to era on Starline 45 singles.
 
I have one Beatles (Rarities) on the re-vamped rainbow label and note they used the same JVC vinyl formulation and A&M and Mo-Fi of the era.
If you hold it to the light, you can see through it and it's a greenish-amber colour.
I also have two Juice Newton titles from that era and both are excellent! I give them kudos, because their 70's pressing were often dismal.
 
KentTeffeteller said:
Depends on the material. Sinatra as a rule has songs deleted. And the mono titles have that annoying added reverb. And there was still those annoying Duophonic titles often available with deleted tracks in budget lines. That era did have superb mastering and nice pressings. And is my go to era on Starline 45 singles.
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I agree with you totally on the Sinatra Duophonic pressings.....they're awful! I only own/purchase original mono 50's pressings of the Capitol material, outside of the few later titles that are in true stereo.

Most of my Reprise LPs are original pressings in both mono/stereo......I'm not missing too many titles in the Sinatra catalog, including the Columbia and early Tommy Dorsey material.

Good to hear that others have found some decent LP titles/pressings on the 80's black/rainbow label as well as the late 70's Purple/Maroon. I personally would be interested in hearing any Pink Floyd titles pressed on these labels. Should sound pretty nice and would no doubt be an all analog mastered pressing if I'm not mistaken.
 
In regard to the 80's mastering at Capitol, I think that's a combination of people like Wally Traugott being one of the main mastering people there, and most of the cutting and plating taking place at the Capitol Tower in L.A.

In the 1950's to the late 1970's, most of the mastering and plating was done locally where Capitol had their pressing plants (Jacksonville, Winchester, etc.) and it was done from tape copies, not first generation tapes. Even L.A. used "safety copies" mostly.

But it appears (or more accurately - sounds) like people like Wally Traugott made sure they got a hold of true first generation tapes for the remasters they did of back catalog items in the 1980's. In the Beatles' case, that still meant second generation tapes, but that was still better than the fourth to fifth generation tapes used for mastering in the band's heyday.

Regarding the use of duophonic on the "green label" and beyond reissues of Sinatra and Beach Boys LP's, there appears to be various masterings of those titles. Some use the duophonic tapes, some use the mono. It's maddening because a lot of times the only way to make sure is to listen. I personally owned two copies each of "Beach Boys Today!" and the "Summer Days (and Summer Nights!!) 1980's era reissue LP's (with songs deleted) where one copy was duophonic and the other was straight mono. The jackets both said "duophonic" as well. Strange....
 
Thanks for all of the info concerning 80's Capitol pressings! Wally really knew what he was doing when he mastered those LPs! In regards to The Beach Boys pressings from the 80's, I've heard the "Budget Green Label" pressing of "Pet Sounds" is outstanding and in mono! I've yet to come across one of these pressings, but will definitely pick it up when I do!
 
KentTeffeteller said:
Get the DCC of "Pet Sounds" in mono. The Green Label has tracks deleted.
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Did it? That's one title from the series I remember sold for full list price as opposed to the budget price the other titles in the series were. I thought it was intact.

I wasn't interested in picking it up since I already had a very nice, mono, late 70's Japanese pressing
 
Hey--not all titles on that label sound great, trust me-I collect 80s heavily. But yes, anything Wally T mastered was excellent(R.I.P.!)

So, if they used the safety copies for all those years, I hope the original tapes are secured in an appropriate place...seems like they'd be PRIME for making re-issued LPs from nowadays...
 
The DCC "Pet Sounds" can be pricey.

The 80s Green Label w/ "Mastered by Capitol" in the deadwax is pretty darn good. I prefer the Brothers Record label version from the 70s, but that's just me.

I've attached the green label pictures. I don't see anything missing, but I'm sure our "Pet Sounds" freaks can confirm or deny.

Ken
 

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I have Nat Cole's purple label Christmas lp.Sounds nice.Also have a2lp Nat Cole rainbow label special products set.Sounds very nice.
 
KentTeffeteller said:
The Green Label was always some tracks deleted and cheaper. FWIW, your Japanese EMI mono is superior to one of those.
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I just did a check because this just bugged me. I really didn't think the green label "Pet Sounds" had deleted tracks and found out I was right. It doesn't.


I checked a number of sources and all agree it was the complete album. This is just an example: http://www.discogs.com/Beach-Boys-Pet-Sounds/release/2074097

I will agree that in general many green label Capitol reissues were abridged, but it's wrong to say ALL the releases in the series were. The rule of tumb seems to be if the LP was retitled (ie: "Beach Boys Today!" was called "Dance, Dance, Dance" in it's "N" prefix reissue) it's probably abridged. "Wild Honey" and "Friends" are also complete on the green label.

This goes for all the LP's by any artist in the series, not just The Beach Boys. It looks like it is a case by case basis.
 
I believe the Solo Beatles titles on the green 80's Capitol budget label are complete as well..... at least the Lennon's were from what I remember.
 
The Harvest label Capitol pressings of The Undertones,especially Positive Touch,one of the great pop records of all time by the way,sound much better than the UK EMIs.Same goes for Thomas Dolby.

The Capitol pressing of the first Church album,is one of the two best sounding pressings of the record I have heard.The other being the German (orange label pressed into the record) original pressing,on Carrere,pressed by Polydor.
 
grooveman said:
I believe the Solo Beatles titles on the green 80's Capitol budget label are complete as well..... at least the Lennon's were from what I remember.
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There is the famous 1982 two record Concert For Bangladesh,that was pulled for contractural reasons.Never actually seen one.Prices can vary widely on this.
 
KeninDC said:
The DCC "Pet Sounds" can be pricey.

The 80s Green Label w/ "Mastered by Capitol" in the deadwax is pretty darn good. I prefer the Brothers Record label version from the 70s, but that's just me.

I've attached the green label pictures. I don't see anything missing, but I'm sure our "Pet Sounds" freaks can confirm or deny.

Ken
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I have the DCC I bought brand new in the early 90s.I also have the Reprise.What I have not been able to find,is a mono original US pressing,that is above a VG,to do A to B comparisons on.
 
The Capitol rainbow mono Pet Sounds is not all that good of a record sonically. You have the best available vinyl in the DCC. The Brother Records two fer with Pet Sounds in mono is the best otherwise and a good reasonably priced option which is not too difficult to find.
 
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