The "New Elvis" sound ?

[dennyelvis]

With the rapid development in digital cd sound .... DSD Technolgy .... and whatever else is available .... the Elvis sound of today is a far cry from vinyl and audio cassette.
The sound u get now is amazing :supriced: being able to hear almost every breath in the studio is incredible. But do we all agree that this is the way to go with his music :hmm: after all the fans that were there with the King when he started on 78's + 45's will probably argue that there is something lost on these ultra modern digital recordings.
I guess im asking the older fans amongst us if they are happier with the "new" sound or do they prefer turning up the volume on their vinyl ?

Also a question regarding this DSD stuff .... i believe you need a special system to play it ..... is this so ? ...... and also how does it sound ?

[delvisologist]

hi denny i guess it is better to have the best sound....however....playing vinyl is something special to me and many many others so....they both have something which i wouldn't like to part with

[curtis simpkins]

I to love vinyl lps for the original sound and mix's.
now i do love today sound cds, in fact much better sound when they frist came out in the last 80's early 90's.

dsd technolgy is the best for the old master tapes.
and i hope they put out more of his music out on thie technolgy sound.

(but i allways keep my vinyl's)- :D

[mn-designs]

The new dsd remastered cd's are sounding very good. As far for you question, if you need a special player for this dsd cd's: NO only for the SACD (Super Audio CD) you'll need a dvd player with a SACD decoder. With this SACD you'll get a 5.1 surround sound, and the sound quality is amazing with these SACD's, it's almost if you are in the middle of the studio! But as far as the Elvis cd's with the newly dsd transfers..they only used the technology of this SACD. So the cd has NOT surround sound and it's 'normal' cd. The sound with dsd transfers is quite good, sometimes a little too much bass, but they come very close (soundwise) to the 30 #1 hits & second to none cd's, those cd's were remastered from the original mastertapes! and these new re-releases were remastered from the well-known source tapes. That are the tapes that BMG made when they started to make the digitally transfers in the mid 80's. Those tapes are by now remastered 3 or 4 times...let's hope that bmg/sony will treat the complete Elvis catalogue in this way and in this tempo, so we have the serie complete in the next 2 years..

[NightRider]

Interesting topic Denny (y)

I for one always hunt for the best sounding release. The Cd wasn't a patch on vinyl for ( not sure how to word this....) 'Feeling of how it was meant to sound when recorded' if you know what i mean. The early cd's...although they had there obvious advantages over vinyl...were not transfered to digital correctly. Not all of course....but many were bland in sound and didn't do justice to the album in question.

Of course this didn't last very long on most releases. And you soon found better sounding versions. I remember being gutted at recieving 'Promised Land' CD.The sound was aweful when compared to my vinyl version. Elvis' voice was 'quiet' enough on the vinyl....the cd might has well have been an instrumental (n) Of course...that is a little OTT. But the way it felt at the time.

However from probably 1988 onwards the cds have done nothing but improve the listening experience. They have moved on leaps and bounds since then. If any of you have heard Elvis' debut album on the Japanese cardboard releases....then you should know that there should be no other way to listen to Elvis :notworthy

The new HDCD technology is absolutely awesome. There are several releases from the far east - just compilations- done in this way and they are just as awesome as the E1 and S2N releases.
I could not do without these. The sound is far superior and as i have said its the perfect way to listen to Elvis.

Give me back my crackling copies on vinyl ? No way...though i do still see the attraction to vinyl. And it should remain special to Elvis fans as thats what format it originally came out on.

Sadly i don't have too much vinyl left. But the memory remains :P

The only worry with all this new improved technology is when and if , the rest of Elvis' back catolgue is re-mastered in this way. Something i will no doubt enjoy...but my wallet, i am afraid, will not :hmm:

[Jungleroom76]

With the rapid development in digital cd sound .... DSD Technolgy .... and whatever else is available .... the Elvis sound of today is a far cry from vinyl and audio cassette.
The sound u get now is amazing :supriced: being able to hear almost every breath in the studio is incredible. But do we all agree that this is the way to go with his music :hmm: after all the fans that were there with the King when he started on 78's + 45's will probably argue that there is something lost on these ultra modern digital recordings.
I guess im asking the older fans amongst us if they are happier with the "new" sound or do they prefer turning up the volume on their vinyl ?

Also a question regarding this DSD stuff .... i believe you need a special system to play it ..... is this so ? ...... and also how does it sound ?

Very interesting question Dennyelvis... :hmm:

I agree 100% that the sound quality of the music released today is MUCH better than what you can find on audio cassettes....I have NEVER been much of a fan of audio cassettes....I just thought they never really captured the true sound of most music...they always sound kind of dull and wobbly to me, regardless of which player I play them in....and they just don't seem to last as long as other formats of music!

As for my thoughts on whether we should be improving the sound quality of Elvis' music or not....that is a tough question! I guess if the quality is improved while still maintaining the integrity of the music in terms of hearing it the way Elvis wanted it to be heard, then that is fine with me. A classic example of my thoughts on this are the Sun recordings....on some past RCA releases, the quality of the songs were improved but in such a way that the overall feeling of the whole "Sun Sessions Sound", so to speak, was lost. But I think RCA finally got it right on the ELVIS AT SUN release from last year! Does that make sense?? :blink:

As for the new DSD technology, you don't need a special player to play those CD's as Patrick pointed out! But I definitely think that the DSD technology is a bit spotty in my opinion....I think that the use of the DSD technology on the E1 and E2 CD's is a DEFINITE improvement!! But on some of the new re-releases which claim to use the DSD technology, I don't hear much of an improvement to the point that fans should run right out and buy the re-releases just because of that reason alone. One example is the ULTIMATE GOSPEL release...while I can definitely hear some improvement in the sound quality of the tracks on that CD, I certainly don't see it as a primary selling point, nor do I see it as the primary reason that a fan should purchase that CD. My thought on this DSD technology is that the quality of the sound improvement is linked to the time spent on remastering the tracks! In the case of E1 and E2, more than a year was spent on remastering the tracks on each album....and the improved quality showed immensely!! But on some of the subsequent releases which claim to use the DSD technology for improved quality, I just don't think the same time and care was placed into each album/track and thus the sound improvement is not nearly as noticable! But again....this is just my opinion!! :blink:

TCB!
Mike

[dennyelvis]

Some great replys there ... :clap: i have to agree on the Ultimate Gospel release .... it did get alot of hype and i dont think it quite lived upto it.
When you say E1 + E2 .... are u refering to the No#1s cds are something else :hmm: just not sure which u mean.

[Deke Rivers]

on #1 hits and 2nd to none.....I feel some improvement was made on some tracks but others seem to digress to me (something is amiss), some even sound muffled and not as clear (Way Down for example). To my ears #1 hits was a hit and miss (All Shook Up seems much more punchy and alive) and I am not overly pleased with the total end result. 2nd to none was much better over all. The Sun Sessions has been the best over all result all the way around...night and day difference. At first glance the new Loving You seems not as alive in places as some past releases of songs from this cd.
Oh well, just my two cents.....seems most everyone thinks #1 hits has great sound..but I just don't think so...collectively anyway.

[elvis77ro]

Elvis was and still is an evolution.
Evolution is something we need as fans, from vinyl to not known yet sistem records...
Let's be happy and enjoy all time of our lifes, Elvis is everywhere, and we have to be happy when sounds or images are more near as reality was.
Elvis is not only a passion of generations, is for sure of our civilization and Elvis must be saved in a way or another. Thanks for all they did this thing, officials, not officials, home maders, to all (sure, only for quality works, here are a lot for covers)
For the good times!!!

[Jungleroom76]

Some great replys there ... :clap: i have to agree on the Ultimate Gospel release .... it did get alot of hype and i dont think it quite lived upto it.
When you say E1 + E2 .... are u refering to the No#1s cds are something else :hmm: just not sure which u mean.

SORRY ABOUT THAT DENNYELVIS!!! :blink: ;)

E1 = ELVIS 30 #1 HITS
E2 = ELVIS: SECOND TO NONE

Usually you will find most fans just use E1 and/or E2 instead of typing out the full CD titles to save time!! Hope this clarifies it for you and again, sorry for any confusion I caused you!! :blush:

TCB!
Mike