Darkside of the Moon original press A-2 B-1

[Andrew1984]

Just found and played Van Morrison Moon Dance. Looks like original Australian press using UK parts.

 

Sounds like Van is playing in the room haha

 

https://www.discogs.com/Van-Morrison-Moondance/release/2319571

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited March 12, 2021 by Andrew1984

[YCC]

Van's stock standard early LPs sound fantastic as they are. No need for remasters.

[Blood_Red_Bird]

1 hour ago, Andrew1984 said:

Looks like original Australian press using UK parts.

This is the catalogue number which identifies the album title only,

there will be other markings (matrix numbers/letters) which identify the pressing stampers

First press Australian copies will have a lime green label, yours is 2nd at least

Match the matrix numbers with those on Discogs & you will find your pressing

[Andrew1984]

1 hour ago, YCC said:

Van's stock standard early LPs sound fantastic as they are. No need for remasters.

True but try find a good original press that doesn't cost a fortune. The new reissues are printed from the original master tapes and are on 180gm vinyl and are only $35

Edited March 13, 2021 by Andrew1984

[Candyflip]

3 hours ago, Andrew1984 said:

True but try find a good original press that doesn't cost a fortune. The new reissues are printed from the original master tapes and are on 180gm vinyl and are only $35

If you can't find original Aus pressed Van Morrison cheap, you' re simply looking in the wrong places.

I was at a record fair last weekend and could have had my pick, all for under $35.

US and Uk OG pressings are a different matter.

 

BTW: 180gm means nothing in regards to SQ.

I repeat: absolutely nothing.

[Andrew1984]

2 minutes ago, candyflip said:

If you can't find original Aus pressed Van Morrison cheap, you' re simply looking in the wrong places.

I was at a record fair last weekend and could have had my pick, all for under $35.

US and Uk OG pressings are a different matter.

 

BTW: 180gm means nothing in regards to SQ.

I repeat: absolutely nothing.

Yeah I meant the original US UK prints. 

 

All I can say re the 180gm re-issue is it's dead flat, the vinyl is silent, and it sounds like Van is playing in my living room. As good sound as the original Beatles and Pink Floyd cuts I mentioned above

[Candyflip]

1 minute ago, Andrew1984 said:

Yeah I meant the original US UK prints. 

 

All I can say re the 180gm re-issue is it's dead flat, the vinyl is silent, and it sounds like Van is playing in my living room. As good sound as the original Beatles and Pink Floyd cuts I mentioned above

Fantastic.  

It's nothing to do with 120/140/160/180+ gm.

[Andrew1984]

Another find. Elton Yellow Brick Road. Original Australian press. Sounds absolutely amazing. Does anyone know if Mushroom got proper US / UK plates or made their own ?

 

Edited March 13, 2021 by Andrew1984

[Andrew1984]

Bought this today for $50 AUD.

 

Made from original masters by Bernie Grundman, Bob Ludwig

 

******* magical! 

 

I can't believe I paid someone $35 for an old shitty press.

 

This is as good as the Beatles original presses. 

 

https://www.discogs.com/Dire-Straits-Brothers-In-Arms/release/15687665

 

Silent vinyl, HUGE soundstage. Front row concert ****

 

[Honreekea]

On 11/03/2021 at 9:12 PM, EV Cali said:

Now if it was a UK first pressing, with both posters and stickers, in excellent condition, you would have some thing closer to black gold.

I seem to remember having the poster with my Aust quad version of this album.  Still have the  album, buggered were the poster  got to...

[Andrew1984]

Just put Hotel California on. Based on the matrix it's the origianl Australian press https://www.discogs.com/Eagles-Hotel-California/release/4143361

 

It looks like it's using the same parts as the original CMS Santa Maria pressing. Is that correct?

7E 1084 A

https://www.discogs.com/Eagles-Hotel-California/release/1354816

 

[Candyflip]

2 hours ago, Andrew1984 said:

Just put Hotel California on. Based on the matrix it's the origianl Australian press https://www.discogs.com/Eagles-Hotel-California/release/4143361

 

It looks like it's using the same parts as the original CMS Santa Maria pressing. Is that correct?

7E 1084 A

https://www.discogs.com/Eagles-Hotel-California/release/1354816

No, it's not.

 

When the stampers are made, the engineer or mastering guy might scratch some writing onto the metal master itself. This is to let them know exactly what they are pressing at the Plant (because they don't come with labels, and once out of their big cardboard transport sleeved that you can see in the video I posted above, the stampers might get mixed up in rare circumstances), and so they include some etchings that make sense to everyone involved. Sometimes they are educational, sometimes they are a just a bit of fun and reflect the mastering engineer (or the band's) humour. Sometimes both.

 

In the case of your US original Eagles pressing example, they etched in 7E-1084-A (the catalog number, and the 'A' side of the stamper - remember there are two for each record) and 'CSM' (the pressing plant for that particular stamper). Also STERLING, as that's the name of the mastering house they used in this example.

 

For the Aussie record, IF they used the original metal stamper flown across from the US, the exact same markings would be visible in our local copy deadwax. As you rightly point out in your link, the markings in the AUS copy are actually 'A MX183243-F 7E1084-1'. You can see that these don't match the US versions (any of them exactly), and include extra etchings that our local engineers decided to put in (and they are free to write whatever they want). 'MX' defines the Aussie copies and this is extremely common for WEA and associated companies from the time period here. MX often lets you know it is certainly an Aussie pressing, even if the other etchings are exactly the same as the US/UK/EU presses.

 

So in example Scenario 1, the US record company send across the 'metal' to Aus. The decision is to use the US stampers, which are marked 'ABCDEF' and when used in the local record presses will imprint the exact 'ABCDEF' used overseas, plus whatever the local engineer might have etched into it on arrival in Australia. So you would find 'ABCDEF' (exaclty as it was, with no extra or changed characters) and say 'MX123456' and maybe 'hey, what a great day!' as well, depending on what the local mastering engineer decided to etch that day.

 

In example Scenario 2, the US record company doesn't send across the metal this time, and instead sends a tape copy of the original master tapes (a 'dub'). The dub goes to the local mastering studio, is checked for suitability, potentially re-mixed or otherwise tinkered with, but then mastered out to have an acetate cut, and eventually, a number of stampers formed from that for our local factories to use. On each of those stampers, etchings will be included that won't match the US/UK/EU originals, although they may be similar if for example they included a catalog number which is near the same as the overseas version. But even then, such as your Eagles copy above, the numbers and letters differ slightly.

 

It sounds complicated when written out like this perhaps, but the concept is pretty simple: if they use overseas metal masters (stampers) here, the etchings would be exactly the same in our deadwax, plus any additions our guys add.

In your US example above, the exact US etchings shown at Discogs are not replicated in any Australian deadwax: it is impossible for it to be a US stamper.

[Andrew1984]

14 hours ago, candyflip said:

No, it's not.

 

When the stampers are made, the engineer or mastering guy might scratch some writing onto the metal master itself. This is to let them know exactly what they are pressing at the Plant (because they don't come with labels, and once out of their big cardboard transport sleeved that you can see in the video I posted above, the stampers might get mixed up in rare circumstances), and so they include some etchings that make sense to everyone involved. Sometimes they are educational, sometimes they are a just a bit of fun and reflect the mastering engineer (or the band's) humour. Sometimes both.

 

In the case of your US original Eagles pressing example, they etched in 7E-1084-A (the catalog number, and the 'A' side of the stamper - remember there are two for each record) and 'CSM' (the pressing plant for that particular stamper). Also STERLING, as that's the name of the mastering house they used in this example.

 

For the Aussie record, IF they used the original metal stamper flown across from the US, the exact same markings would be visible in our local copy deadwax. As you rightly point out in your link, the markings in the AUS copy are actually 'A MX183243-F 7E1084-1'. You can see that these don't match the US versions (any of them exactly), and include extra etchings that our local engineers decided to put in (and they are free to write whatever they want). 'MX' defines the Aussie copies and this is extremely common for WEA and associated companies from the time period here. MX often lets you know it is certainly an Aussie pressing, even if the other etchings are exactly the same as the US/UK/EU presses.

 

So in example Scenario 1, the US record company send across the 'metal' to Aus. The decision is to use the US stampers, which are marked 'ABCDEF' and when used in the local record presses will imprint the exact 'ABCDEF' used overseas, plus whatever the local engineer might have etched into it on arrival in Australia. So you would find 'ABCDEF' (exaclty as it was, with no extra or changed characters) and say 'MX123456' and maybe 'hey, what a great day!' as well, depending on what the local mastering engineer decided to etch that day.

 

In example Scenario 2, the US record company doesn't send across the metal this time, and instead sends a tape copy of the original master tapes (a 'dub'). The dub goes to the local mastering studio, is checked for suitability, potentially re-mixed or otherwise tinkered with, but then mastered out to have an acetate cut, and eventually, a number of stampers formed from that for our local factories to use. On each of those stampers, etchings will be included that won't match the US/UK/EU originals, although they may be similar if for example they included a catalog number which is near the same as the overseas version. But even then, such as your Eagles copy above, the numbers and letters differ slightly.

 

It sounds complicated when written out like this perhaps, but the concept is pretty simple: if they use overseas metal masters (stampers) here, the etchings would be exactly the same in our deadwax, plus any additions our guys add.

In your US example above, the exact US etchings shown at Discogs are not replicated in any Australian deadwax: it is impossible for it to be a US stamper.

Thanks mate. Super detailed response! Unfortunate that's it's not using the OG plates, however it still sounds amazing! Super warm and detailed. 

[Andrew1984]

On 11/03/2021 at 11:57 PM, candyflip said:

So glad they are a brilliant experience for you, but it's not QUITE the original 'master plates'.

 

What you are referring to is metal stampers, pressed (in this case) from original master tapes in the UK.

However, it is not the case that ALL records you list had metal stampers sent from the UK to press Aussie copies.

What happened more often was that copies of master tapes were sent from the UK, so local copies could be mastered and produced for our own stampers to be used in Aussie factories producing vinyl.

 

For example, the Pink Floyd 'Wish You Were Here' Aussie copy you have was not produced using UK stampers (or 'metal', colloquially) flown across from Britain.

It was from a taped copy, mastered locally again and pressed to locally produced metal stampers, and then pressed here in our factories, which is why the deadwax markings are all our own unique identifiers and are totally different to the UK originals. If we'd used UK original stampers, their markings would have shown up of course in our deadwax matrices.

Hi mate, 

 

I've just checked the Australian version of Meddle I have. It looks like this version based on the matrix, however there doesn't seem to be much info... 

https://www.discogs.com/Pink-Floyd-Meddle/release/13789436

• Matrix / Runout (Runout Etchings Side A): SHVL 795A-2 (unidentified initials (GK maybe))
• Matrix / Runout (Runout Etchings Side B): SHVL 795B-3 (unidentified initials)

Record is near mint. 

 

Just played it and HOLY ****! Better sound quality than the original Dark Side, Rumours, and Beatles I've got. Seriously wow haha

Edited March 15, 2021 by Andrew1984

[EV Cali]

 

On 14/03/2021 at 4:49 PM, Honreekea said:

I seem to remember having the poster with my Aust quad version of this album.  Still have the  album, buggered were the poster  got to...

Australian Quad version had two posters but unlike the UK version did not include the stickers.

One poster is of the band members and the other is of pyramids.

In the last thirty years I have owned and sold about forty Au copies of DSOTM and only about a fifth of those have been stereo copies.

I believe the reason the Au quad copies have a higher value than the Au stereo copies is that the the opposite is true for  UK copies, ie the stereo version is more prevalent as a UK pressing, making the Au quad copies have a higher value ,especially over seas.

In the early nineties I took a number of Au quad copies back to the UK and funded part of my trip with the proceeds. The arrival of the   internet lowered the value of the Au quad copies, as it became easy to see that Au quad copies were quite easily available, with a quick search on ebay.

 

Edited March 15, 2021 by EV Cali

[Honreekea]

very interesting.  thanks

[mark rega]

When I saw this posting, having bought 95% of my album(vinyl) collection in the UK growing up late 60s to 80s ...so went to check my DSOM ... first time I have looked up discogs to see what any of my albums are worth ...amazed 200 quid for a good condition ...yes mine is a SHVL 804 2 poster and 3 stickers ... I just play it 

 

 

[Andrew1984]

9 minutes ago, mark rega said:

When I saw this posting, having bought 95% of my album(vinyl) collection in the UK growing up late 60s to 80s ...so went to check my DSOM ... first time I have looked up discogs to see what any of my albums are worth ...amazed 200 quid for a good condition ...yes mine is a SHVL 804 2 poster and 3 stickers ... I just play it 

 

 

Nice one! Looks like the 2nd issue, but still very nice! Some pretty stupid prices on Discogs for it! 

[Andrew1984]

On 11/03/2021 at 8:26 PM, Andrew1984 said:

So I just discovered my parents vinyl gathering dust up at the farm and found that all their vinyl is original Australian press, which meant some of it was produced using original UK and US plates. 

 

I then found this

 

Can someone tell me if I'm sitting on black gold? 

 

I also found a mint original of Wish You Were Here! It's easily the greatest thing I've ever heard in my life 

So I just listened to this back to back with my mint new 2016 pressing. And it's like chalk and cheese! 

My original quad press is pretty beaten up. Lots of little scratches and surface noise as it had literally sat on a shelf uncovered for 30 years... 

 

However WOW! Even with all the surface noise it blows the new copy out of the water. The Quad effects are crazy too, especially in Money. It sounds like the music is actually floating all around the room. 

 

The first press feels like you're standing in the middle of a crowd at a concert filled with smoke and they're playing in the room with you. 

 

The new press although great, is too vanilla after hearing the OG cut. 

 

If you can find a good copy of the original Australian press, buy it! 

[Southerly]

I've got 3 copies of DSOTM but not the first pressing. I used to live in Brighton, Sussex and it's always had loads of s/hand record shops. When I think of all the first pressings I could have bought - who knew that LPs would be seen as investments. The first two are both NM but in the 90s I bought a lot of audiophile pressings, virtually all of which have rocketed in price - Santana's Supernatural is a prime example. I did buy the 30th anniversary of DSOTM and it is outstanding. These audiophile pressings from the 90s are excellent, if you can find any at a reasonable price buy them. Sadly a lot of output since the vinyl revival are crap, be careful.

[Andrew1984]

12 hours ago, Southerly said:

I've got 3 copies of DSOTM but not the first pressing. I used to live in Brighton, Sussex and it's always had loads of s/hand record shops. When I think of all the first pressings I could have bought - who knew that LPs would be seen as investments. The first two are both NM but in the 90s I bought a lot of audiophile pressings, virtually all of which have rocketed in price - Santana's Supernatural is a prime example. I did buy the 30th anniversary of DSOTM and it is outstanding. These audiophile pressings from the 90s are excellent, if you can find any at a reasonable price buy them. Sadly a lot of output since the vinyl revival are crap, be careful.

I've heard the 30th and 40th Anniversary presses are the way forward! Both are still getting $300+ haha

[Candyflip]

4 hours ago, Andrew1984 said:

I've heard the 30th and 40th Anniversary presses are the way forward! Both are still getting $300+ haha

Or a NM disc one for half that, locally.
https://www.discogs.com/sell/item/1272377199  

 

Don't just go on Discogs highest published sale prices as 'the price'.....you'll do yourself an injury.

[Southerly]

I hope this is not thread crapping but I've had an idea for a couple of  years now that I hav'nt been able to activate because of Covid - to set up a record fair only for consumers not professional media sellers. In France if you buy just (1) LP the postage via La Poste is €6.50 minimum. How about a bunch of friends getting together to buy and sell LPs/CDs/DVDs/cassettes. One stall/table equipped with one LED light. Who wants to shell out for an expensive first pressing LP eg. DSOTM via the net discogs/Ebay/etc. without actually seeing what they are buying. If you sell by using discogs/Ebay/Amazon/Wikipaedia you get screwed with buyers/sellers premium. 

 

I would happily sell my collection after I have digitised it person-to-person at a lower price than on these selling platforms. In Oz where most of the population live in cities this is a no brainer. No high postage costs, you see what you are buying, so if you decide to buy an expensive (even at reduced prices) first pressing you have seen the condition ergo no stress - have I done the right thing. When or if this virus is under control I intend to visit all the local radio stations to promote the idea. I've only had one bad buy on discogs and it cost me money and was not a nice experience.

[Andrew1984]

18 hours ago, candyflip said:

Or a NM disc one for half that, locally.
https://www.discogs.com/sell/item/1272377199  

 

Don't just go on Discogs highest published sale prices as 'the price'.....you'll do yourself an injury.

This is the Australian Quad pressing I have. Some very decent pricing available of this. This is made with the OG UK plates, so is essentially exactly the same as the original UK press that goes for HUGE money

https://www.discogs.com/sell/release/1340897?ev=rb

 

I'm tempted to get another copy as mine is from dad and it's pretty beaten up

[Candyflip]

8 hours ago, Andrew1984 said:

This is the Australian Quad pressing I have. Some very decent pricing available of this. This is made with the OG UK plates, so is essentially exactly the same as the original UK press that goes for HUGE money

https://www.discogs.com/sell/release/1340897?ev=rb

 

I'm tempted to get another copy as mine is from dad and it's pretty beaten up

But they're not same.

The UK stampers are SHVL 804 A-2 - the Aussie ones are QHVL 804 A-2.

Different 'plates'.

 

Do you mean the Aussie engineers used the same master tapes (or a dub thereof) perhaps, and so the Aussie pressings are merely one generation off the UK original studio masters?

That is possible.