NL ->

TRACKLIST

1. Watcher Of The Skies . . . . . . . .8:35
2. Get 'Em Out By Friday. . . . . . . .9:19
3. The Return Of The Giant Hogweed. . .8:19
4. The Musical Box . . . . . . . . . .10:59
5. The Knife. . . . . . . . . . . . . .9:47

From http://www.stevehoffman.tv/forums/showthread.php?t=149728 (http://www.stevehoffman.tv/forums/showthread.php?t=149728

QUOTE:

There appear to be FOUR (?) original masterings of this title.

When clips were posted, preferences were expressed for both the Nimbus/Atlantic and Sanyo/Sonopress 2 versions (as Jeff pointed out, "this is really a question of taste"). Despite forum member Zal Schreiber recalling doing mastering for this title, both chiagerald and Jeff posted figures for the Atlantic disc that match the V/C Nimbus, so it remains unclear whether his version ever went into production.

Black Elk’s early (no barcode) UK copy lacks any indication of where it was made, but looks like a PDO Blackburn disc. Strangely, it matches a disc made by Sonopress in Germany.

There are TWO Sonopress editions!

Version 1
[Dr. M] - V/C Nimbus : 82.8% - 88.9% - 100.0% - 94.2% - 94.4%
[chia] - V/C EMI Uden, NL : 82.8% - 88.9% - 100.0% - 94.2% - 94.4%
[chia] - Atlantic WEA, US : 82.8% - 88.9% - 100.0% - 94.2% - 94.4%
NOTE: On the V/C Nimbus, in track 2 (Get 'Em Out by Friday) at around 9:12 before the applause fades, the sound stutters in the right channel. No one has reported this on any other early CD edition, so it is unknown whether this is a mastering error, a glitch on a particular pressing, or something actually on the master tape. (The DE cross-fades to the next track at this point; this could be a clue that it was an issue with the master tape that needed to be ‘fixed’).

Version 2
[BE] - V/C PDO, UK (?) : 96.7% - 100.0% - 95.4% - 100.0% - 100.0%
[Dr. M] - V/C Sonopress 1 : 96.7% - 100.0% - 95.4% - 100.0% - 100.0%

Version 3
[LP6] - V/C Sanyo, Japan : 100.0% - 100.0% - 91.3% - 86.5% - 99.7%

Version 4
[Jeff] - V/C Sonopress 2 : 93.4% - 94.0% - 85.5% - 81.1% - 93.3%
NOTE: Dr. M has suggested that Versions 3 and 4 may be level-shifted versions of each other. This is still awaiting confirmation.

After samples were posted, Raf was able to determine the following:

"The V/C Nimbus and the Atlantic are definitely identical, and they both have that ‘stuttering’ fadeout at the end of this track. It sounds good, though.

The V/C Sanyo Japan is a different mastering and does not have the fadeout anomaly on Track 2. And yes, it sounds good too."

SPOILER!

CODE

Exact Audio Copy V0.99 prebeta 4 from 23. January 2008

EAC extraction logfile from 9. November 2008, 1:15

Genesis / Live

Used drive : HL-DT-STDVDRAM GSA-4160B Adapter: 0 ID: 0

Read mode : Secure
Utilize accurate stream : Yes
Defeat audio cache : Yes
Make use of C2 pointers : No

Read offset correction : 667
Overread into Lead-In and Lead-Out : No
Fill up missing offset samples with silence : Yes
Delete leading and trailing silent blocks : No
Null samples used in CRC calculations : Yes
Used interface : Installed external ASPI interface
Gap handling : Appended to previous track

Used output format : User Defined Encoder
Selected bitrate : 128 kBit/s
Quality : High
Add ID3 tag : No
Command line compressor : C:\Programmi\FLAC\flac.exe
Additional command line options : -8 -V -T "ARTIST=%a" -T "TITLE=%t" -T "ALBUM=%g" -T "DATE=%y" -T "TRACKNUMBER=%n" -T "TOTALTRACKS=%x" -T "GENRE=%m" -T "ALBUMARTIST=%v" -T "ALBUM ARTIST=%v" -T "COMMENT=EAC V0.99 prebeta 4, Secure Mode, Test & Copy, Accurat

TOC of the extracted CD

Track | Start | Length | Start sector | End sector
---------------------------------------------------------
1 | 0:00.00 | 8:34.40 | 0 | 38589
2 | 8:34.40 | 9:18.55 | 38590 | 80494
3 | 17:53.20 | 8:18.65 | 80495 | 117909
4 | 26:12.10 | 10:59.25 | 117910 | 167359
5 | 37:11.35 | 9:47.08 | 167360 | 211392

Track 1

Filename C:\CDRip\01 - Watcher of the Skies.wav

Pre-gap length 0:00:02.00

Peak level 82.8 %
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC C6F7226E
Copy CRC C6F7226E
Cannot be verified as accurate (confidence 3) [68321893], AccurateRip returned [F6183845]
Copy OK

Track 2

Filename C:\CDRip\02 - Get 'em Out by Friday.wav

Pre-gap length 0:00:00.02

Peak level 88.9 %
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC 50BCFB07
Copy CRC 50BCFB07
Cannot be verified as accurate (confidence 4) [F6314872], AccurateRip returned [65259781]
Copy OK

Track 3

Filename C:\CDRip\03 - The Return of the Giant Hogweed.wav

Pre-gap length 0:00:01.00

Peak level 100.0 %
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC E9D71764
Copy CRC E9D71764
Cannot be verified as accurate (confidence 4) [6FC132F4], AccurateRip returned [124D197E]
Copy OK

Track 4

Filename C:\CDRip\04 - The Musical Box.wav

Pre-gap length 0:00:01.52

Peak level 94.2 %
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC 10D841DA
Copy CRC 10D841DA
Cannot be verified as accurate (confidence 4) [BB76D4C4], AccurateRip returned [EDBDA229]
Copy OK

Track 5

Filename C:\CDRip\05 - The Knife.wav

Pre-gap length 0:00:01.37

Peak level 94.4 %
Track quality 99.9 %
Test CRC C19FD0F1
Copy CRC C19FD0F1
Cannot be verified as accurate (confidence 4) [1433CDA8], AccurateRip returned [11099C1B]
Copy OK

No tracks could be verified as accurate
You may have a different pressing from the one(s) in the database

No errors occurred

End of status report

SPOILER!

As promised :-p