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Thread: Starcastle - Citadel cd mastering questions

  1. #1

    Starcastle - Citadel cd mastering questions

    This is a small issue in the scheme of things, but it's always bugged me. On both the original Japanese cd and the Renaissance Records cd of Starcastle - Citaldel, the mastering seems to be kind of the 'hot' side. It's especially noticeable on the last track 'Why Have They Gone' when it builds to a crescendo around the 6:20 mark, sounds like distortion there.

    I assume this is not present on the vinyl version? I was wondering if the Rock Candy edition had solved this issue or not. If anyone has that I'd appreciate their opinion on the sound quality.

    Thanks

  2. #2
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    The designation of "re-mastered" is a misnomer. None of the original master tapes have ever been truly re-mastered. What has been done is simply taking an already available CD, running it through an EQ program and then calling it "re-mastered". Nothing more than you could do yourself at home. I know nothing about Rock Candy. I do know that the band has never received a dime from any of the "re-issues", or from any downloads or any other sales of any of the music the band ever created...ever. Nice business.

  3. #3
    Highly Evolved Orangutan JKL2000's Avatar
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    ^^ Wow, I bought the first three albums as downloads from iTunes - sad that the band never was paid by Apple.

    Also, I remember now, that Starcastle is one of the bands that got shafted by Progrock Records. I actually noticed just the other day that Shawn Gordon is still active in the prog world on Facebook, to some extent anyway.

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    Member LASERCD's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by JKL2000 View Post
    ^^ Wow, I bought the first three albums as downloads from iTunes - sad that the band never was paid by Apple.
    Apple pays the rights holder - whoever that is. I assume Sony.

  5. #5
    Highly Evolved Orangutan JKL2000's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by LASERCD View Post
    Apple pays the rights holder - whoever that is. I assume Sony.
    Oh, right - well, Welcome to the Machine then...

  6. #6
    Why was the band not paid? Is it because they received a large advance from the record company prior to their first album, and royalties from sales of their albums never earned out the advance? Or is there a more nefarious reason?

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    Highly Evolved Orangutan JKL2000's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by SongForAmerica View Post
    Why was the band not paid? Is it because they received a large advance from the record company prior to their first album, and royalties from sales of their albums never earned out the advance? Or is there a more nefarious reason?
    I’m not sure he meant they weren’t paid for the initial releases.

    But don’t forget the other popular trick of charging the band for the recording and promotion of the album.

  8. #8
    I've got the Rock Candy reissues. They sound fine to me - comparable to the vinyl but I'm not really much of an audiophile.

    I love the music of Starcastle. It's appalling how the music industry treats so many performers.

    Still hoping for some new music at some point.

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    Never really cared for the production of Fountains of Light and Citadel. Both done by RTB who did many popular albums back in the day and I always found his production to be thin. Maybe it worked the best for Queen. I’m not sure if the vinyl sounds much better than the cd mastering or not but to me neither sound great.


    Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

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    Member Koreabruce's Avatar
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    The distortion you hear is in the original recording, courtesy of Roy Thomas Baker's production style. It's evident in the vinyl as well. I always thought this was an annoying feature of many of RTB's recording projects. In an interview I read somewhere, I recall him saying that he wanted the songs of the groups he was recording to really jump out over the radio, so he intentionally tracked instruments overly "hot". You can hear distortion especially in the drums and some of the massed vocals on early Queen albums (Queen II is a perfect example). As Fractured mentions, Starcastle's Fountains of Light and Citadel both suffer from this technique.

  11. #11
    Citadel is just as hot on vinyl, it's always suprised me how loud and brash that LP is. I think both the first and Fountains sound better, but I've never been a big RTB fan either way. For an actually GOOD production on a Starcastle album you have to go to Real to Reel, which is musically kinda bland but has a nice mix/production courtesy of Jeffrey Lesser - better known for his work with Barbra Streisand ...

  12. #12
    Ok thanks for the info guys. Too bad on the RTB production, I thought it was just a cd mastering error. The production on their 1st album is much better.

  13. #13
    btw I recently found some videos Steve Hagler made this year reminiscing about Starcastle. Worth checking out of you liked the band https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCy8...OzJQWK1Eh4ErxA

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    Member Mikhael's Avatar
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    Well, if Queen was anything to by, RTB squashed the livin' sh!t out of all the instruments (compression). He must've just got his first LA2A back then. And Queen II was my favourite Queen album (Prof. May's as well, according to interviews).
    Gnish-gnosh borble wiff, shlauuffin oople tirk.

  15. #15
    Gee, I really like the production on both Fountains of Light and Citadel. The first and best song on the latter, "Shine On Brightly," really shows off your stereo system! The problem I have with Citadel is that the songs aren't as good as on the previous two albums. Maybe they blew their creativity on the incredible cover art.

  16. #16
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    Quote Originally Posted by SongForAmerica View Post
    Maybe they blew their creativity on the incredible cover art.
    The incredible artwork of Greg Hildebrandt. He’s been doing the album covers and tour programs for Trans-Siberian Orchestra for a while now.

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