Well I received three (Creedence) test pressings of these LP's last Friday from Chad
(Kassem, Acoustic Sounds) and was wondering if I was hearing things. Simply put these are by a
large large margin the best sounding versions of these great songs that
I have ever heard. The differences are staggering. On *Lookin' out My
Back Door* the utter naturalness, weight and body that simply doesn't
exist elsewhere on any recording of this that I have owned . After 30
odd years of always thinking that these records could or should sound
better these test pressings prove it. Whatever decisions made in the
mastering of these records works just fine and once again proves that
there is more to the art of record mastering than the ability to run a
mastering lathe. It's time to start saving up folks cause these are the
real deal. Congratulations to all involved.
Brian Hartsell
Mikey sez:
I've just listened to the first two CCR test pressings mastered by Kevin
Gray and Steve Hoffman at AcousTech mastering (at RTI) and let me tell
you:
when the bass kicked in on "I Put a Spell on You" I thought I
was playing a 45 at 33 1/3 it was so deep and THICK but it was 33 1/3
and when the guitars kicked in, it was WOWIE!!!!!!!!!!!! The
transparency, transient SNAP and overall clarity without brightness or
edge is phenomenal! This is as close to listening to a master tape as
I've heard from vinyl--not hyperbole.
Based on this, I think Kevin has put together the
best
sounding lathe/cutting set-up I've heard yet--better than what they were
using at Future Disc for the DCC cuts and without the hum--and those
were gooood of course.....the top end is just right--dynamics, depth,
detail, the whole ball of waxxxxxxxxxx. I was cautiously optimistic
having heard how great the Ella/Gershwin box cut there came out, but I
was not prepared for THIS..... congrats to all, and now back to the
other LPs........
.................Michael Fremer, Senior contributing editor,
Stereophile, Music editor, Listener
