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Ugo Group: Members Posts: 5495 Joined: April 2000 Posted: Sep. 12 2012, 07:46 I've recently managed to buy two vintage copies of the HR vinyl, always on a quest for the "perfect" original mix. They belong to two different pressings. One has the cover with "Hergest Ridge" on top of the grass circle and "Mike Oldfield" on the bottom, while the record label has got the "Two Virgins" hand-drawn logo and a V 2013 code. On the cover of the other copy I have, "Hergest Ridge" and "Mike Oldfield" are both on top of the grass circle, while the record label, which is all in pale yellow, carries a "Virgin International" logo at the top and a VI 2013 code. Also, the V 2013 label says "Side One" and "Side Two", while VI 2013 says "Part One" and "Part Two". As for the music, the V 2013 copy, at the famous "marker point" at 4:15 on Part/Side One, features a very soft snare drum under the trumpet. On VI 2013, at the same point, the snare is much louder. So, I'd like to know from whoever is knowledgeable in this field, what is the original original version. In other words, which came before - V 2013 or VI 2013? If V 2013 came before VI 2013, that would mean that the mix on Disc 2 of the recent HR Deluxe Edition release is really the original original mix of HR, not re-touched in any way, while the other available mix (the one with the louder snare drum) is already a subsequent remix, so not really the original "original mix". What do you think? -------------- Ugo C. - a devoted Amarokian Back to top

manintherain Group: Members. Posts: 545 Joined: Mar. 2004 Posted: Sep. 12 2012, 14:44 This is not an easy question to answer. The "Two Virgin" label with V 2013 belongs to a UK pressing. The very first edition had a black and white label. The coloured label was a later pressing. The pale yellow label with VI 2013 looks like the first American pressing. So my guess would be that the American pressing features the original mix, but I might be proved wrong. You can find more details here: Edited by manintherain on Sep. 12 2012, 14:45 Back to top

Ugo Group: Members Posts: 5495 Joined: April 2000 Posted: Sep. 12 2012, 20:32 Thanks a lot. My "Two Virgins" copy has a coloured label and looks like the UK pressing on the page you linked. The pale yellow copy looks indeed like the American pressing, and I can confirm you that it contains the original mix. The guy who sold it to me, an American, told me he had two copies of VI 2013, but they sounded different. I told him: "Please play the albums, then check out which copy has the trumpet at 4:15 on Side 1 - that's the one I want." He sold that copy to me. VI 2013, to me, sounds much better than V 2013, although the mix is essentially the same on both vinyls - while the Boxed remix, as of course you know well, does omit the trumpet at 4:15 and has many other, subtler changes. -------------- Ugo C. - a devoted Amarokian Back to top

Scatterplot Group: Members Posts: 1980 Joined: Dec. 2007 Posted: Sep. 13 2012, 14:30 The best version is a UK pressing with this man's mark on the blank space near the label: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Peckham -------------- 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

Ugo Group: Members Posts: 5495 Joined: April 2000 Posted: Sep. 13 2012, 18:21 @ Jim: the run-out groove on the B-side of my V 2013 copy (the Two Virgins one) says "Porky". So I guess I have a "Porky cut". By the way, I listened to your HR rip yesterday night. It's still the best vinyl rip of them all. But why did you never make a FLAC / WAV version? All I have is an mp3 file... -------------- Ugo C. - a devoted Amarokian Back to top

Scatterplot Group: Members Posts: 1980 Joined: Dec. 2007 Posted: Sep. 14 2012, 18:01 Yeah, I remember that. Hergest Ridge was my excuse to buy a new turntable and get into digitalizing vinyl which led me to this site. The USA pressings were aweful as was the boxed mix so I got a UK LP off of Amazon, the best one I could find. Peckham had a colorful life. This was a guy who would spend his lunch breaks eating with people like Alan Parsons or Paul Rodgers. Five years ago I never heard of FLAC. Now, looking at FLAC, you might as well just use .wav as the file is not much smaller. I'll go look for the .wav files or better yet, just redo the album. It's been sealed tight since 2007. I won't listen to any other version but the Porky cut since then. Are there still rapidshare sites that work? It's been a while since I looked. -------------- 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

Ugo Group: Members Posts: 5495 Joined: April 2000 Posted: Sep. 14 2012, 18:31 @ Jim: Rapidshare still works, but 4shared is better. -------------- Ugo C. - a devoted Amarokian Back to top

Scatterplot Group: Members Posts: 1980 Joined: Dec. 2007 Posted: Sep. 16 2012, 05:14 https://rapidshare.com/files/2273173119/Mike%20Oldfield-Hergest%20Ridge%201974%20UK%20Porky%20S1.WAV https://rapidshare.com/files....0S2.WAV     This looks like it should work, rapidshare has changed since I used it last, not too easy to use. God I had fun this time with HR. A newer turntable than 2007 and newer computer. I have much better vinyl cleaning methods now. This is the improved version of the most bone chilling and intense work of music(IMO) ever made by anyone. Mike's best(IMO). I could hear harmonics missed before and at least one instrument missed in 1000+ plays. I don't know why Mike screwed this jewel up in 1976 and again in 2011, because this is the ONLY true version. I actually got a couple of chills down my spine, like at about 13 minutes into side 1. Only a minimal amount of tick removal treatment was used, otherwise 100% organic. Enjoy. -------------- 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

Ugo Group: Members Posts: 5495 Joined: April 2000 Posted: Sep. 16 2012, 07:49 @ Jim: thanks an awful lot, your new rip is excellent. So now I have the original Porky cut on vinyl and a cleaned-up version of it. I can say I'm happy. -------------- Ugo C. - a devoted Amarokian Back to top

Sir Mustapha Group: Musicians Posts: 2802 Joined: April 2003 Posted: Sep. 17 2012, 14:45 I downloaded your first rip, and I'm downloading your latest rip, Jim. It's great to see your dedication to this. But don't diss FLACs, Jim! I compressed side 1 on here, and it nearly halved the file size. This may not seem terribly impressive, but the advantage is that the sound quality remains identical, and the file doesn't need to be compressed before playback; in other words, you win disk space and lose practically nothing. But some of the audiophile folks are truly bizarre. I've once read an Internet post by a guy who was convinced that a FLAC file sounded worse than its corresponding WAV file, when both files are digitally identical. Expectation is a fearsome beast. Thanks, Jim! -------------- 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

Scatterplot Group: Members Posts: 1980 Joined: Dec. 2007 Posted: Sep. 18 2012, 10:53 Disk space is cheap now. These days you can run to Walmart and for $79 get a 500gig Seagate HD. For $30 more, 1 terabyte. I never had a problem with MP3 though, as long as it was 320Kbs. That HR lp will never be played again(the holy grail to me of all albums), I'm happy with these .wav's too. I'm more into just dialing up what I want to hear on youtube or elsewhere, so vinyl has kind of started to be a pain. But it's fun for all the rarities, and MO did many. -------------- 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: Oct. 02 2012, 11:06 BTW, I found an easier way to share things. Just go here and you get 2 gigs of storage free. Put your file up and give us your password then change same when your done sharing with us. yuuwaa.com -------------- 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

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