De La Soul - Classic or Dud?

i mean i thought we all agreed that the "official" version of "magic number" (that's been there for several weeks now) definitely has some missing / different elements?

(and i like it just fine?)

(I'm happy you like it just fine.) (I don't.)

I read that Prince Paul was working on the sample re-dos on the reissues as well

see to me, that's a great sign.

Prince Paul needs a luden.

In light of that Deborah Mannis-Gardner interview I posted upthread, it's probably a good idea to buy a physical copy of any other hip-hop album you'd want prior to the mid-'90s. It just sounds like there's a ton of albums out there that are extremely vulnerable to litigious rights holders, including some that I would count among my very favorites.

is there a thread on attempts at re-recording/recreating recordings? wheatus' teenage dirtbag 2020, taylor swift's old albums, or the kind of blue note for note cover album from 2014

(I'm happy you like it just fine.) (I don't.)

It's taken them this long to reissue them as they'll be coming out, and they had to jump countless hurdles and jump through endless hoops to get there. If you want a copy of the original, they are plenty of them out there. These reissues are as good as they can manage them at this moment in time.

Yeah, "Magic Number" was on the radio, and I tried listening out for the replayed and/or changed things. Then "has anybody in the audience" popped up and I realised that radio stations still have the originals in their database, and I doubt they'll be updating them anytime soon.

Camper Van Beethoven rerecorded a bunch of songs for a greatest hits collection.

I think the Violent Femmes did this for Blister In The Sun on some soundtrack album.

Prince threatened to do it but as far as I know never got around to it.

I think this will be much different than Def Leppard re-recording "Rock of Ages" or whatever. Thinking it'll sound more like the Chic "sample" in "Rappers Delight".

They aren't touching the original vocals I assume, so it's a bit like a remix that's trying to sound as close to the original as possible

I was curious about this (and avoiding some work this morning) so did a quick a/b of what's on Spotify to the original CD.

The only other change besides Eddie Murphy I heard in The Magic Number was the "do the shang-a-lang" sample is at a lower pitch than the original. Maybe they used a harmonizer or something on the original and didn't on this, but it sounded like the same source (not a replay) just pitched differently. I can't hear anything else on that or Eye Know, but curious about the rest of the albums.

What does a “sample redo” mean in this context? Might they be replacing the samples with different but similar samples where the rights can be secured? Or recording “covers” of the sampled performances. Or resampling the original snippets but this time with the rights pre-cleared?

Pierre Menard, author of 3 Feet High and Rising.

i'm concerned that even if the sample replacements sound the same, just knowing that they replaced them is going to make it psychologically difficult for me to enjoy the reissues

It's Joaquin Phoenix saying How High's the Water, Mama?

By dint of replacing or cutting samples, the songs will have been mixed again from the ground up (probably no automation/recall in those days, or if there was, and by some miracle they still had the floppy disks, it'd be specific to whatever desk they originally used) The Magic Number sounds louder now because it is a modern remix and master, although you can hear that they've referenced the original, all the grain in the vocal tracks is still there, I think the panning is different in places though.

listening to buhloone mind state (original vers no streaming baby) one cool thing about this album is while theyre at the height of their dense abstract lyricism even when you cant literally understand what theyre talking about when you dont catch all the references it still feels like it make sense it never comes off as cryptic its still engaging, to me at least :)

"fuck being hard Posdnuos is complicated" is one of the greatest lyrics ever

its a forceful straight forward line that pops out of the weeds of a more... complicated song

It's unfortunate they waited this long to essentially admit defeat and redo the albums without the samples. In my opinion, it's wrong to redo these albums like this. It completely eliminates the historical significance and original charm / joy of these albums. Does anyone believe the new versions will become the ultimate versions to listen to?

seeing as almost everyone uses the streams yeah prob

personally if it takes a close side by side listening to tell the difference i dont really see the big deal

if theyre obviously different and worse thats bad tho

did they remaster them too

is there a thread on attempts at re-recording/recreating recordings? wheatus' teenage dirtbag 2020

LOL what??? why did we need a new version of that

With a track like TMN that is so ingrained in my memory, not hearing the Eddie sample is weird, but not a dealbreaker, but if the Syl Johnson sample was missing it'd somehow greatly affect my enjoyment of it.

In my opinion, it's wrong to redo these albums like this.

But it's either this or the albums essentially don't exist, streaming. It took them this long to get to this point, and as mentioned above it seemingly takes a close side-by-side listen to notice the joins.

And, you know, you could buy an OG vinyl or CD or cassette copy and rip that. They exist! In multitudes!!

I would love to listen to my CDs but that would involve going through all these boxes in hopes of finding them :/

I'm just going to listen to the new ones while I work the day they come out and hopefully I won't notice anything

did they remaster them too

― lag∞n, Tuesday, February 28, 2023 11:15 AM (fifteen minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

if they are remixing or altering the mixes they would have to

sure but did they remaster them

i personally dont use the streams too much but its the most popular way to listen to music so im happy that people who use them get to listen to this good shit

I mean I'm doubting this is like the bullshit Ozzy re-releases or Megadeth - Killing is My Business reissue where Dave actually resang the entire "Boots are Made for Walking" cover with 50-year old voice....right?

then again I am sympathetic to samples sounding 'off'.

but yeah go to discogs if ya want the originals, p much

haha, dave mustaine did what?

should've gotten jamez to sing the mechanix.

From everything I've read they spent literal years clearing samples, and there are a very few that they were unable to clear so they've either recorded the closest possible facsimile performances (which, given modern technology, is not actually that difficult) or omitted them. Anything where the whole song stands or falls on a sample they were unable to clear, they're obviously gonna have worked as hard as possible to re-create it.

(I'd love it if, instead of trying to re-create the sample on "Transmitting Live From Mars," they just chanted "Fuck the Turtles" for a minute and a half over a drum loop, but that's just me.)

but yeah go to discogs if ya want the originals, p much

― waiting for a czar to fall (Neanderthal), Tuesday, February 28, 2023 11:34 AM (seven minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

the prices might come down a bit on the originals hopefully

that's what I'm thinking. guessing depends what format/condition you want right now.

people look down their noses at vinyl me please but my subscription was worth it for the 3 feet high and rising pressing

"fuck being hard Posdnuos is complicated" is one of the greatest lyrics ever

― his cartoon heart expands, then he relaxes by smoking crack (stevie)

lol remember when Morbs adapted this line for his screen name

From everything I've read they spent literal years clearing samples, and there are a very few that they were unable to clear so they've either recorded the closest possible facsimile performances (which, given modern technology, is not actually that difficult) or omitted them. Anything where the whole song stands or falls on a sample they were unable to clear, they're obviously gonna have worked as hard as possible to re-create it.

OTM. Sample re-plays are pretty interesting to do, but obviously it's easier to do with a track that hasn't come out yet compared to one where so many people are familiar with the texture of a sample, the pitch of the reverb, etc.

tbf those people should have kept their CDs

otm

Those De La Soul CDs are among the most used and scratched in my collection

i'm going to buy some regardless just cuz this is the first time de la isn't getting totally fucked out of the money

^^

BUT THE SAMPLES

speaking of, here's the adult film dialogue-sampling remix of "eye know." wonder if this one will be included?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nHzzBvXReWY
"eye know (the kiss mix)" (1989)

this song does not contain explicit lyrics, but the thought is erotic.

LOL what??? why did we need a new version of that

― waiting for a czar to fall (Neanderthal), Tuesday, February 28, 2023 5:19 PM

slight derail but basically an attempt to move the streaming units to something that would pay for retirement funds, nice little rs story https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/teenage-dirtbag-wheatus-interview-brendan-brown-974332/

somewhat relevant to thread is the phone sample anecdote:

As beloved as “Teenage Dirtbag” is, it’s hard to imagine that any listener has spent too much time obsessing over the glitchy, three-note, synth-like sound that briefly shows up in the first chorus, right after the “she rings my bell” line. Still, last September, Brown attempted to crowdsource its origin, offering an engineering credit for anyone who could track it down. He was unsuccessful, and ended up having to attempt to reproduce the sound on his own.

“It turned out to be so much more complicated than we could have imagined,” Brown says, before explaining the process at length.

“We spent nine days transposing and moving harmonies around, moving the sound to different harmonies so that it sounded like the original, because we don’t know what the original sound was. It was just a phone thing sampled from somewhere,” he says. “It took us nine days until two o’clock in the morning. We were freaking out, like, ‘What the fuck? How do we do it?’ Anyway, we got there, but the process was like, ‘You gotta be fucking kidding me.’ We had to do all this research on DTMF, the Bell telephone system, to figure out what the notes corresponded to. … The sound happens again in the third verse, and they’re actually different harmonies. We got the first verse right, and the third verse wrong, so we had to start the transposing process all over again. That was another three days.”

Good article in the Times with more details on how they got their catalog to streaming.

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/01/arts/music/de-la-soul-catalog-streaming.html