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Scatterplot Group: Members Posts: 1980 Joined: Dec. 2007 Posted: Dec. 23 2007, 05:49 The original 1974 "Hergest Ridge" has been made available digitally by your's truly with no original tracks buried or otherwise F*&^ed up . Thanks to George "Porky" Peckham, and me 33 years later. I'd love to have a beer with him. On me! This was the guy who mastered the templates to press english recordings from the Beatles to Mike Oldfield and onwards. I bought USA copies of HR out the butt in the mid '70s. All of them sucked as far as sound quality but as it was all I had, I filtered out the noise in my head. I searched for a way to get myself a CD and that happened in 1999. Trouble was it was altered. By MO himself. All artists make bad judgement calls sometimes, it happens. The "post 1976 HR" was bad. Fine guitar work was buried under tracks of keys. Vocals that were not supposed to be there, buried other original tracks. I finally figured out why the USA 1974 pressings of HR sucked. It was that the signal strenght sent to the record was so low that the NOISE level rose high. The same way as if you recorded to a tape deck but set the recording level too low. This is why all the USA LP's were inferior to UK LP's.  Well, 33 years later I got my unaltered LP. A record made in the UK came my way. Great sound, low noise. When I digitalized it I thought.....no don't add noise reduction.  But since the end of side 2 had some minor noise, I washed it through the -minimal- de-click setting on my software. The absolute minimum. No EQ. Enjoy!! The attack and decay of guitar strings is brilliant, you can hear fingers sliding across frets. As well as the vibrato of the organs.  This is the 1974 original in digital form. With very little noise and great dynamic range.  Those of you who don't feel bad about P2P file sharing......look for: Mike Oldfield-Hergest Ridge-1974 Orig.-No Remix.  I will keep it availabe for one week. What a great present this was for me.....Enjoy....This was a 33 year labor of frustration, but ultimately Joy. Merry Christmas, Jim -------------- We raise our voices in the night Crying to heaven And will our voices be heard Or will they break Like the wind Back to top

Scatterplot Group: Members Posts: 1980 Joined: Dec. 2007 Posted: Dec. 23 2007, 06:20 And yes I did cry when I did this tonight, so long since I listened to it so WELL. HR is in my top ten. Tried to get this recording "just right" for decades. Thanks Porky....and the dude in New Mexico who shipped this "miracle" copy to me. Jim -------------- We raise our voices in the night Crying to heaven And will our voices be heard Or will they break Like the wind Back to top

Nacho Group: Members Posts: 230 Joined: Feb. 2000 Posted: Dec. 24 2007, 11:52 And where can we find this HR'74? :-) Back to top

Scatterplot Group: Members Posts: 1980 Joined: Dec. 2007 Posted: Dec. 24 2007, 14:22 If you can access limewire, edonkey etc.....you'll find it. it's about 88-90MB, 320Kbs mp3. Jim -------------- We raise our voices in the night Crying to heaven And will our voices be heard Or will they break Like the wind Back to top

olracUK Group: Members Posts: 1683 Joined: June 2003 Posted: Dec. 24 2007, 20:13 Hmm... e-mule didn't find it. Just the usual Boxed rips. -------------- The answer is 42 - but what is the question? Back to top

Scatterplot Group: Members Posts: 1980 Joined: Dec. 2007 Posted: Dec. 24 2007, 20:15 Download-Link #1: http://rapidshare.com/files....p3.html Just found out about this today. Rapidshare. Folow the link and merry Christmas. Let me know how you like the quality of the music. Jim -------------- We raise our voices in the night Crying to heaven And will our voices be heard Or will they break Like the wind Back to top

Tommy139 Group: Members Posts: 22 Joined: Oct. 2007 Posted: Dec. 27 2007, 14:11 Many thanks for this, one of my all time MO albums... All i need now is the orchestral version if anyone has it   Back to top

Scatterplot Group: Members Posts: 1980 Joined: Dec. 2007 Posted: Dec. 27 2007, 19:03 Believe me it was my pleasure. I still listen to parts of it every day, I missed it a lot. Jim -------------- We raise our voices in the night Crying to heaven And will our voices be heard Or will they break Like the wind Back to top

Pendragon Group: Members Posts: 30 Joined: May 2006 Posted: Dec. 27 2007, 19:33 Thanks sooooo much! Hergest Ridge was my least favourite MO recording.  Now I realize that's because I've never really heard it before. Back to top

Ebony Group: Members Posts: 172 Joined: June 2007 Posted: Dec. 28 2007, 18:09 Wow.  Thanks for this.  I did like HR a lot after hearing the version on my remastered cd, but this is something else.  There's just so much more to it.  It's richer somehow.  And the other version seems flat compared to it.  So now I'm falling in love with Hergest Ridge all over again! Back to top

Scatterplot Group: Members Posts: 1980 Joined: Dec. 2007 Posted: Dec. 28 2007, 21:18 I think this was one of those cases where something is best left alone. I couldn't accept the HR CD when I heard it around 1998. It seemed like he wanted to give it too much Ommadawn vocal treatment, and it just was not meant to be.....In one part of the CD version, at around 3-4  minutes into pt. 1, the acoustic guitar solo you now hear, is buried. You can hear it in the CD if you concentrate, but on the 1974 original it was supposed to be in the spotlight. Glad you like it. The "100% organic" Hergest Ridge. Jim -------------- We raise our voices in the night Crying to heaven And will our voices be heard Or will they break Like the wind Back to top

Ciderginaspro Group: Members Posts: 90 Joined: Dec. 2007 Posted: Dec. 29 2007, 03:59 thanks a lot for sharing this HR version with us ! I've just dowloaded it and I'm listening to it now. Quality is incredible. Wow ! I'm gonna transfer it on a cd and try on the hifi. Might be great!!! have a nice day     Back to top

olracUK Group: Members Posts: 1683 Joined: June 2003 Posted: Dec. 29 2007, 05:41 As I only ever had the Original vinyl LP and the Boxed version, it is really great to hear the original with this clarity again. Great job Scatterplot -------------- The answer is 42 - but what is the question? Back to top

Bag O'Secrets Group: Members Posts: 11 Joined: Mar. 2006 Posted: Dec. 29 2007, 18:53 Thanks very much for this, Scatterplot. It's stunning how much more is there compared to the re-issued CD, it's so much more ALIVE!!   Brilliant job!   -------------- ...and nothing was ever heard from him again, except for the sound of Chew-bew-lar Bells. Back to top

larstangmark Group: Members Posts: 1759 Joined: Mar. 2005 Posted: Dec. 30 2007, 04:43 Thanks a lot for this. I lost my vinyl copy years ago and it was great to hear it again. Great version too. Sounds better than I remember my old vinyl. -------------- "There are twelve people in the world, the rest are paste" Mark E Smith Back to top

Moz Group: Musicians Posts: 600 Joined: July 2005 Posted: Dec. 30 2007, 04:58 I had only ever heard the CD version, so this was a very interesting listen! -------------- Twitter: @benbarden Back to top

Scatterplot Group: Members Posts: 1980 Joined: Dec. 2007 Posted: Dec. 31 2007, 01:22 My, thank you all. I also had a stroke of luck in the copy I bought. I finally realized products like this.....made by an Englishman would be better made in England.....in 1974. So true. The US copies were so noisy. I actually may have a way to make this Jewel even better.....or you can. When MO recorded this, the equipment used was, well, pretty primitive. If somebody has an Aphex Aural Exciter(analyzes music and synthesizes hi frequency harmonics), or software that does the same, I'd LOVE to hear the results! Just use my file. You won't find a better source, believe me I spent 33 years finding it. And it's already been washed thru very nice software I got just for HR which(my newly acquired UK copy was already SO noise-free),  But I tried it on a noisy 1963 recording. Amazing. And I found out something else interesting in my quest, about this "Porky". This engineer would have lunch with the Beatles, Badfinger, and many others . He was with Abbey Road Studios for some time. Worked closely with Sir George Martin among others. He hand stenciled his name on the end groove of the records he mastered...... Hergest Ridge was one of them. I can see it clearly with a magnifying glass-but not on my US copy. Wonder if he's still alive.....Well, Happy New Year all. I think 2008 should prove interesting. Jim -------------- We raise our voices in the night Crying to heaven And will our voices be heard Or will they break Like the wind Back to top

14al Group: Members Posts: 75 Joined: Mar. 2006 Posted: Jan. 01 2008, 13:41 Thanks. Never expected the two could be so different. Listening to the second part I faintly heard some voices singing, then realised they were the same which are all on top in the re-mastered version, astonishing. Why did they choose to alter it so dramatically. Cheers Ron Back to top

Sir Mustapha Group: Musicians Posts: 2802 Joined: April 2003 Posted: Jan. 01 2008, 18:55 I'm a bigger fan of the "Boxed" mix of Hergest Ridge, though each mix has unique and excellent qualities, so they're both essential. The point is, having a recording with such clarity and fidelity is beyond priceless. This goes into the collection and remains there. I'm listening to it right now, and it's great - and the recording has that thick, vinyl-like quality that is hard to find on CDs. Great job, Scatterplot! Everyone in the forum should have it. -------------- Check out http://ferniecanto.com.br for all my music, including my latest albums: Don't Stay in the City, Making Amends and Builders of Worlds. Also check my Bandcamp page: http://ferniecanto.bandcamp.com Back to top

Sweetpea Group: Members Posts: 1476 Joined: April 2007 Posted: Jan. 01 2008, 22:57 I really enjoyed this original HR - thanks for making it available. I am undecided on which version I prefer. More listenings are required. *grabs iPod, turns off lights, and dons headphones* -------------- "I'm no physicist, but technically couldn't Mike both be with the horse and be flying through space at the same time? (On account of the earth's orbit around the Sun and all that). So it seems he never had to make the choice after all. I bet he's kicking himself now." - clotty Back to top

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