FAO JACK : Can I ask a favour of please

Hi Jack,

Can I ask a little favour of you please?

We all know your dad's mate Claude Flowers has been beavering away trying to sort out the new versions of the remasters. I just wondered - if you are in contact with him could you ask him how he is getting on please. I appreciate Claude may still be busy with the project but if he has now finished his work (pending release) it would be great if he could answer the following questions:-

1. Did he manage to find all the masters or are some tracks still from vinyl and if so which ones?

2. Did he make any changes to Disc 1 in each set or only Disc 2 ?

3. Was any compression applied in the mastering or are they flat transfers?

4. Will there be a sticker on the discs to indicate these are the new versions?

The answers to the above questions would be beneficial to both sides :-

1. The record buying public won't have to go through the new discs with a fine tooth comb looking for errors. If no statement is made then as soon as the new discs are out some smartarse on here will say "Don't buy the new discs - they are still cr*p - track 14 has surface noice etc etc"

2. The record company will deflect any customer complaints about what has and hasn't been fixed. If I ever handover any work I have done I always point out any shortcomings rather than just hope people don't notice.

I hope you can see how such a statement would be useful.

Does anyone else think this would be a good idea?

We all know your dad's mate Claude Flowers has been beavering away trying to sort out the new versions of the remasters. I just wondered - if you are in contact with him could you ask him how he is getting on please. I appreciate Claude may still be busy with the project but if he has now finished his work (pending release) it would be great if he could answer the following questions:-

Claude Flowers didn't do the work on the remasters.

From Hooky's blog :-

NEW ORDER RE-RELEASES UPDATE!

This is a very difficult one , we are aware of the problems and because we did not have finished product to listen to? It has, shall we say……. slipped through the net?? My great friend claude flowers has taken it on himself to sort this mess out personally, but please be aware , that after the fact it is going to be very difficult, unfortunately because many of you have purchased them already ( a great compliment in itself) we are doing all we can to try and get fresh masters made and available , somehow ? to try and remedy the situation, so please bear with us.

...is Claude Flowers no longer sorting this out then ? If it is someone else then maybe Jack could ask that person instead.

I guessed Claude was not actually doing the mastering (wasn't he an author) - but assumed from Hooky's quote that he was going to be some sort of "Project Manager" on this.

I know what Hooky said once, doesn't mean it happened.

johnny james wrote: I know what Hooky said once, doesn't mean it happened.

sO WHO IS IT THEN?

Have to say I wouldn't blame Claude if he has backed out of this task ! I would imagine the whole thing would have been a nightmare to sort out.

Does anyone know who is overseeing this now?

Adam Tate wrote: Have to say I wouldn't blame Claude if he has backed out of this task ! I would imagine the whole thing would have been a nightmare to sort out.

You're jumping to too many conclusions, which I guess is understandable based on very limited information.

These CDs are only a week or so away from release, just wait and see. Sorry I can't give much away. I don't know if there's any external indication of these being different, however I believe there is a new printed insert with the fixed versions (though I guess that would be shrinkwrapped inside unfortunately).

Yeah OK thanks Johnny.

I was just trying to avoid a mammoth thread again where everyone tries to spot problems with the new versions - but I guess that is fairly inevitable anyway. A statement prior to release might have deflected some of this.

Good news that there only around a week away ! However, I won't be buying them unless I get an indication of what's been fixed or I can wait to see what other purchasers think.

I think they're out, the vinyl remasters are on the schedule for the 29th I believe. The CDs must be out around then too.

I am sure there will be much talk regardless. It'll be interesting to see how these are received.

Yes should be interesting - these mammoth threads are kind of fun in a perverse sort of way !

...at least we now know not to blame Claude anyway if it all goes pear shaped!

Strange how things pan out.For the first TEN years of JOY DIVISION/New Order i NEVER heard anyone COMPLAIN about scratches or blips on my VINYL.Hell of a lot of discussion about DUST particles though.REHAB sorted me out.Don't think that this will WORK for some of you lot....

Rocket, give us a waveform Rocket Rocket, give us a waveform

WOAH!!!

Will the new copies have remastered errors?

michael preda wrote: Will the new copies have remastered errors?

...yes quite so - "louder" surface noise !

Seriously though I am surprised that if the new discs are only a matter of days away then why has the procedure for exchanging the old discs not be announced?

I believe in the US American purchasers of the old discs have been sent emails explaining that they only need photo their old discs and email the Jpegs for an exchange with new discs. I hate to think how many emails they'll get from people who never bought the discs in the first place but have somehow acquired photos of the discs (from the Net?) !!

However, I am not aware that a similar arrangment has been established in Europe.

Adam Tate wrote:

michael preda wrote: Will the new copies have remastered errors?

...yes quite so - "louder" surface noise !

Seriously though I am surprised that if the new discs are only a matter of days away then why has the procedure for exchanging the old discs not be announced?

I believe in the US American purchasers of the old discs have been sent emails explaining that they only need photo their old discs and email the Jpegs for an exchange with new discs. I hate to think how many emails they'll get from people who never bought the discs in the first place but have somehow acquired photos of the discs (from the Net?) !!

However, I am not aware that a similar arrangment has been established in Europe.

This all procedure seems a bit farfetched, doesn't it? In the end, I'm glad I didn't buy the remastered cds in the 1st place, I'm gonna get them as soon as I'll be sure it's the corrected edition they're selling

Adam Tate wrote: I hate to think how many emails they'll get from people who never bought the discs in the first place but have somehow acquired photos of the discs (from the Net?)

All digital cameras add a date/time stamp to photos, along with other information...that's how the person who leaked Harry Potter & The Deathly Hallows got caught. Should be easy enough for them to keep a spreadsheet, and deny any claims with duplicate photo info or photos with all the tags stripped off. I think they're only dealing with (potentially) hundreds of claims, not thousands, as some people won't bother to go through the trouble, and probably half the people who bought them have never even noticed a problem, and London only manufactured one run of discs before they stopped.