Gary Numan Digest Sun, 19 May 96 Volume 1 : Issue 228 Today's Topics: A.F.E? Bronzing Numan PDO UK CDs Mastering more on sound New Numan fanzine PDO CDs and bronzing The Fury ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Date: Fri, 17 May 96 15:01:19 BST From: P Lindsay Subject: A.F.E? To: numan@cs.uwp.edu Hello All ... I was sitting listening to A.F.E? last night, one of the many live copies which I have, and I thought it would be an interesting idea to collate chronologically all the live versions I could find. Gary has provided us with a number of official ones, on Living Ornaments, White Noise, Skin Mechanic, Ghost, Dream Corrosion, Darklight, and I have a couple of others from the tours in the years 1983 (Warriors), 1985 (Fury), 1991 (Club tour and Outland? - I have a bit of a blank through the years 91 - 93 for some reason), and also an early version that was on the Old Grey Whistle Test in 1979. I would be really grateful if anyone could supply live copies of AFE? from the following years : 1981 (although I seem to remember that this was when Gary wasn't touring.) 1982 - I have a live tape of an American gig on the I, Assassin tour, and AFE isn't on the setlist. 1986 - Did Gary tour this year ? 1989 - or this year ? 1990 - or even this year ? 1992 - this was Isolate wasn't it ? So I've got (at the minute) 15 versions (with some duplicates on sthe same years). The ones I've listened to so far are cool. It's fascinating to hear how the song changes through the years. I would be prepared to send a copy of the tape to anyone who could contribute one of the above versions to finish tmy collection. I hope eveeryone on the digest appreciates that this is purely for my own pleasure - a tape with 20 versions of one song probably wouldn't be of interest to any other group of people than us, and then only a minority. :-) Cheers, Phil (P.Lindsay-94@student.lut.ac.uk) P.S. I have to agree with Cory, The Fury _rocks_. The only album I actively dislike is Machine and Soul. Even Bill Sharpe's collaboration has it's moments. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 16 May 1996 11:35:36 -0700 From: dlangs@sunstroke.sdsu.edu (Derek Langsford) Subject: Bronzing Numan PDO UK CDs To: numan@cs.uwp.edu In #227, Lisa Mesplay said: >Derek, > >You mentioned that PDO seems to be doing the best job of >producing/mastering the Numan discs. (I suspect you said they were best >at something slightly different, but I up and deleted the Digest before >taking notes--oops!). I wanted to bring up a problem that many of us on >a different list (wsd-l, for fans of World Serpent Distribution artists) >are having with our PDO discs: bronzing. This is a gradual process of >decay where the edges of a disc become a mottled bronze color and data >begins to disappear from the disc. In extreme cases, all that's left is >static. Without wanting to cause a stampede as you all pound towards >your CD racks to check your PDO Numan discs, I am curious to know if >anybody has noticed any bronzing? This information would be very >valuable to the folks on wsd-l. (BTW, they are lovely people who are >even more minutiae-oriented than Digesters, if you can believe it! ;>) >PDO has been very good about replacing bad World Serpent discs, if it >ever comes down to bronze Numan discs; I suspect that only WSD pressings >were affected, though. I have posted about the PDO bronzing problem before on the Digest. Some of Gary's discs are affected. Specifically: Ghost NUMACD1007 Isolate NUMACD1008 Machine and Soul NUMACD1009 PDO UK have been most gracious in their exchange program. Ghost and Isolate were replaced very quickly. I've been waiting for M&S for over 6 months now. They do promise to send me a new copy as soon as it is pressed. The M&S singles plus Skin Game and Emotion CD5s were also pressed by PDO UK but they have not indicated to me they are hoping to "bronze". BTW, none of my copies were bronzing but were replaced as part of a larger shipment of discs after I informed them of the PDO UK discs I owned. Pat Burns at the PDO Helpline desk has been excellent with all this. I have had some 4 or 5 CDs bronze on me, all from different labels (Rocket - Elton John, Windsong - Ultravox, Virgin - China Crisis, Fiction - Cure). I think the problem is with discs from a certain era (1992) that werre pressed with a different process. It is not a label specific problem. My comment about PDO is basically their CDs of Gary have been most consistant in sound quality. Nothing really bad. M&S as indicated by Cory Nyberg indicated, does sound off to some of us. I will post details of how to exchange discs with PDO UK, if anyone needs the info. Last thing, bronzing is not the pale gold colour on PDO UK's discs. That is normal, it is a dark burnt orange i.e. bronze, colour that "bleeds" in from the edges of the disc on the label side only. Derek -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Derek H. Langsford dlangs@sunstroke.sdsu.edu Dept. of Biology Tel. (619) 594 2885 San Diego State University Fax (619) 594 7831 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 16 May 1996 10:40:47 -0400 (EDT) From: Keith Dawe Subject: Mastering To: numan@cs.uwp.edu Wow. I cannot believe the debate that's going on here about sound quality. There *is* a problem with the sound quality and it is certainly *not* the artist's intention. Why do I know this? Try comparing your Berserker CD with the Isolate compilation-both are Numa, hence Numan created CDs--and listen to My Dying Machine, Berserker, and The Secret. Notice any difference? If not then this issue does not concern you; keep listening to Numan and enjoy! :-) If you do, then you know the mastering process is 'affecting' the music. This isn't nit-picking of Gary's work, this is an attempt to defend his works from the being destroyed by thoughtless mastering. We needed to tell Gary of the problem because...how would you like it if you tried to bring out a record and it didn't come out the way you wanted it to? -------------- $100 REWARD for anyone who can find my ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 16 May 1996 17:38:09 -0400 (EDT) From: Erin Tavano Subject: more on sound To: numan@cs.uwp.edu had i realized that such criticism was going into gary's lap i would have spoken up sooner, so it's not a case of killing the messenger. derek raised the question of whether it was a real issue; we're talking about it, so it is. but the point is, however nicely and constructively the criticism is phrased (which i can tell you probably barely matters, artists being the sensitive types they are), i don't think it's the digest's place to go forth and dish it out, especially as there is less than universal agreement on the matter. i think gary's reply was proof enough that there are controls on the sound quality, and unfortunately, you can't please everyone. erin ps. note how this post can be seen on one screen, and fails to mention my years of devotion to gary and a reference to every album. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 16 May 1996 16:53:29 +0100 (BST) From: Jon Garland Subject: New Numan fanzine To: numan@cs.uwp.edu UK-based Digest subscribers may like to know that there is a new Gary Numan fanzine now available! Called 'Whisper of Truth', it features articles by regular Digest contributors Matthew Tamea, Andy McHaffie, Sean Francis, Colin Edwards, Karen Fairbrass and the legendary Markus Dietrich. To obtain a copy, make cheques/POs payable to 'J Garland' for 2pounds thirty (inc p&p) and send 'em to: Whisper of Truth 250 Avenue Road Extension Leicester LE2 3EL First thirty orders received marvellous free gifts! Jon Garland ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 16 May 1996 10:24:39 +0100 From: mathew Subject: PDO CDs and bronzing To: numan@cs.uwp.edu (Gary Numan) Lisa Mesplay wrote: >taking notes--oops!). I wanted to bring up a problem that many of us on >a different list (wsd-l, for fans of World Serpent Distribution artists) >are having with our PDO discs: bronzing. This is a gradual process of >decay where the edges of a disc become a mottled bronze color and data >begins to disappear from the disc. In extreme cases, all that's left is >static. Without wanting to cause a stampede as you all pound towards >your CD racks to check your PDO Numan discs, I am curious to know if >anybody has noticed any bronzing? I checked all my CDs, and the only one which was damaged was "The Last Temptation of Reid" by LARD, which is an Alternative Tentacles CD. All my Numan stuff was OK. The bronzing only affects CDs sourced from a single PDO UK factory before 1995; it doesn't affect any non-UK CDs, and only affects some PDO UK CDs. The factory in question was a converted LaserDisc factory ('cause LaserDisc never caught on over here) which used a different plating process to the normal CD manufacturing process. mathew [ Trying to prevent any further spread of the "CD rot" myth. ] -- meta@pobox.com http://www.pobox.com/~meta/ "In any event, this is a straw herring for debate." - solovay@netcom.com (Andrew Solovay) ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 16 May 1996 03:15:26 -0500 (EST) From: MHDST4@vms.cis.pitt.edu Subject: The Fury To: numan@cs.uwp.edu I bought the Fury on cassette in the fall of 1991. My previous exposure to his music was all the albums he had released here. The two tracks I had recognized before listening were Call Out the Dogs and Creatures. I liked the former, had no feelings for the latter. I had found the Fury at this used music shop that I had found and dragged two friends to take me there. so on the way back I forced them to pop the tape in and listened to side 1. Call Out the Dogs floored me. It was totally differennt to me then anything i had heard of his. I was hypnotized by the female vocals and thought what a great way to start an album. Then came This Disease which to me is disjointed and very repetitious and for me is subpar. You Fascination was a track more on par with COTD. I will admit that it's just as repetitous as TD but for me it works here. Miracles picks up where Complex left off and I liked it. The side ended with the Pleasure Skin, which with the line 'We are new man, we're the service/The Pleasure skin together with the keyboard accompanying it for me made this song. I couldnt make out the words, which meant I had to buy the vinyl later on to get them, but this track closes out the side excellently. At the point the tape came out; the friends had had enough. I had to wait til I got home. I then ran up saw my roomate was not in and threw it in. Creatures started it off and I still feel the same about it today. I skip it usually when I play the CD. Tricks I have waffled on; some days I think it's great; sometimes I think its fair. At this point I think this side is a dud, but then come the two strongest tracks lyric-wise on the album. God only knows is truly a great track; i was very happy somebody asked Gary about the "oxygen law;" Ive always wondered about that. I Still Remember is that song for everybody who cannot forget a part of their past. The last line made me wonder if he was considering quitting. Overall two words for me sum up the album: repetition and samey. In some cases it works very well, in others it doesnt. I think this was a very strong album; it is still the highest charting album since Warriors, charting at UK#24; Ive often thought it was because he was smiling on the back of the LP. I would suppose I liked it because of the order I heard it in, not having heard Warriors or Berserker yet. In conclusion, I think it is an album that while may not have the greatness of his earlier works, nonetheless it rests comfortably among them. ------------------------------ End of Gary Numan Digest ******************************