Pink Floyd: The Best CD Masterings

I have to admit that I did not become a fan of Pink Floyd's "The Wall" until recently. In fact, I wasn't a Pink Floyd fan at all. "Dark Side of the Moon" came out in 1973 before I was really paying attention to Rock. "The Wall" came out in 1979 just after I graduated from High School when I was into artists like Queen, ELO, The Steve Miller Band, Foreigner, Supertramp, Boston, and Fleetwood Mac. The more "popular" music of the time.

Fast forward to modern times and I am looking for "the best" mastering for a CD release of "The Wall". I want this to be the "catch all" thread for discussion on all Pink Floyd album CD masterings instead of just for one album. That seems more in line with the SBAF philosophy for threads.

Before I bought my first "The Wall" CD set, I knew that most CD releases available retail today are not usually the best mastering as they are often overly compressed to win the loudness war. So I did some research and found that the Canadian "C2K-36183" release made in Canada by Cinram with black label CDs was a quality master. So, I bought a set on eBay for a good price. My search should have ended there.

But, alas, this CD mastering has something called "pre-emphasis". I knew what pre-emphasis was before I bought this set on eBay. I looked on the Pink Floyd Archives to see if this set has pre-emphasis. It was not noted which means it is not supposed to. But the site is wrong base on what the app EAC says and how it sounds to my ears.

So, this prompted me to do some more research and I found that there is very little consensus out there on this topic but tons of opinions. Based on what I found, it seems the a West German release made by Sonopress is a very good mastering. Some people really like the MSFL mastering and some really hate it. Then there is the mastering that came with the "Shine On" boxed set. I bought all three at very reasonable prices and will listen to all of them. I will post my thoughts on each master here.

I can't compare these to any vinyl recordings. Does any one here have vinyl and CDs they can compare and comment? If you don't know what masterings you have, I would certainly be willing to help figure that out. Although, the Pink Floyd Archives should make that fairly straightforward.

 

Wow. It seems that either we have no Pink Floyd fans here or members use music to listen to their equipment. It couldn't be the later, could it?

Anyway, I have been listening to the MFSL release of "The Wall" and I certainly am enjoying it. Some people suggest that it has a smile EQ applied to it compared to other masterings. The bass is boosted a bit but I don't get a sense that the high end is boosted or at least not boosted much. The "C2K-36183" mastering I have has pre-emphasis which means the high end is boosted and now, after listening to the MFSL release, it is obvious.

I did some hunting around to find what I could find regarding the MFSL EQ and found some charts that show what I thought I heard. The bass is boosted by about 2.5dB while the treble does not look boosted.

The MFSL mastering does not have clicks in the track "Comfortably Numb" that the "C2K-36183" mastering has.

I should be getting the "Shine On" mastering today. The West German Mastering is coming from Macedonia so who knows when it will get here. I did not realize that getting items from there could take a month. I would have ordered from a Western European country and paid a bit more if I had known that.

 

These comparisons are very interesting to me, but I admit that I've been focusing more on obtaining a setup I'm happy enough with that I'm not always looking at upgrades. I think I'm just about there. After that I am more likely to be interested in acquiring the best masters for some favorite albums of mine which definitely include The Wall. Currently I mostly listen to whatever masters are available via Apple Music.

 

I just listen to the Floyd CD's I've ripped to WAV on my PC. I know there are other masters out there, but I try not to obsess about it. If I find a master that is far better than what I have, I might go out of my way, but CD releases are what I listen to mostly.

Writing this while listening to Wish You Were Here, coincidentally.

 

I am curious what you'll figure out here @winders. The Wall has been on my top 10 albums for over 20 years, but I've never been preoccupied with finding the best version/pressing/master. Interested to hear your thoughts and others.

Incidentally I had pretty much ignored "The Final Cut" up until a couple years ago, but it is really a fantastic album as well, and somewhat a continuation of The Wall, focused on the war themes and Roger Waters' father and mother. A song or two was lifted from that album and used on the film of The Wall. I think it's maybe a bit more of an acquired taste than The Wall, with less obvious "hits", but still a fantastic album nonetheless.

 

Pink Floyd's entire catalog is mastered well across the board, I've never heard a bad Pink Floyd master. I only tend to seek out better masters when I find what I own now (or have access to with TIdal) is lacking.

 

I didn't care much about CD masterings until recently. I have a Boston "Boston" CD I bought sometime in the late 80's early 90's that I thought was pretty good. It wasn't a victim of the loudness wars and sounded great. Then, I had a friend that was getting rid of some CDs and I noticed he had a Boston "Boston" CD that was a US release but made in Japan. I knew it was an early CD as only the first pressing for the US was made in Japan. So I traded something inconsequential for it. I ripped it and played it on my 2 channel setup. I immediately liked it better than the later US release. I didn't do any A/B listening so I can't tell you in detail why I like it better. It just sounds better to my ear. More like the original vinyl album I wore out back in high school. Well, at least how I remember it it.

So, when I got finally decided to listen to what it was so many of my friends liked about Pink Floyd, I got it. I knew that I wanted to add some of their albums to my collection. Thus the hunt for the best masters.

 

Since I am buying for the first time, I figured it would be useful to get the best mastering I could. I use Tidal to explore music I have not heard or do not own. I still seem to end up buying the music I really like.

Of course, I will end up with several versions of each album I do this with. My hope is that I will be able to sell the versions I don't like for near what I paid for them. Even if I don't, we aren't talking about huge sums of money here. I might even decide to keep multiple masterings just because I like them.

 

sweeet topic
i have to say that most pink Floyd recordings are very good imho. just last month I bought this cd, and thought the remaster was extremely good, better then the one I had here

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Echoes-Best-Pink-Floyd/dp/B00005QDW5

 

The difference between the best master and the second best master can be larger than a $1k amp and a $100 amp(both pretty good value) from my experience, even if they have the same dynamic range rating. I wish there's more discussion about master regarding Cantonese/Japanese song, there's not even a word for master in Chinese

 

That is an awesome price for that disc set! If I didn't have the same mastering coming in the West German CD, I would be considering it. The problem with that release is that some of the levels are at 100% and clipped. The nice thing about the West German release is that none of the levels quite reach 100% so there is no clipping.

I am still evaluating the MFSL release of "The Wall". I will wait until I have heard all four versions before I get to excited one way or the other. I have a pre-emphasis versions and the MFSL version now. Since too much treble offends me, I am not surprised that I like the MFSL version better as of now.

 

I prefer the live version to the studio version. Much better recording.

 

Check out the Steve Hoffman forum for mastering questions, even without looking I'm 99.99% sure that there's more than one thread on P.F. mastering quality. Hopefully you'll check back here with results! Im a little surprised @Dino hasn't said anything, he seems to have a finger on the pulse both of mastering quality from that rock era, and the SH forums.

 

I've only heard one CD masterings of 'The Wall'. That is the original USA CD. Tonally, it didn't sound very different than the original USA LP that I bought prior to the CD. Other than the tonality, I liked the other sonic qualities that LPs do better than CDs. It was one of those albums that I liked to sit down and just listen to, so I preferred my LP to my CD. I bought an early Japanese LP which became the one that I usually played. Those three versions are basically the only ones I have heard. Not much help for winders.

I just spent a bit of time on the Steve Hoffman Forum looking at the opinion of someone I trust. I ended up focusing on Roland (username: rjstauber). I used his opinions to assemble my Black Sabbath (when Ozzy was with them) collection. So I found that his taste in mastering pretty much matches mine - toward the warm side for one thing. I was using Roland's opinion as a guide for Jethro Tull CDs prior to when Steven Wilson started remixing (and usually remastering) most of the Tull catalog. Since I like what Steven Wilson does with older albums, that simplified things. Well, all of that is to try painting a picture why I trust Roland / rjstauber's opinion.

There is a ton of info on 'Pink Floyd - The Wall' best CD mastering(s) on the SHF. (Note: Black Face Harvest has pre-emphasis. At least the ones I have do.) Here is a snippet where I would start for myself (That European mastering that Roland likes, below.):
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http://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threa...f-the-wall-by-pink-floyd.257763/#post-6781446
Blu Falcon said:
I recently acquired the black face Harvest (Japan) pressing and I prefer it over the Columbia "C2K" and MFSL gold disc.


http://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threa...f-the-wall-by-pink-floyd.257763/#post-6781471
rjstauber said:
I would agree with this. In general, I prefer the EMI masterings over the CBS/Columbia masterings. There are quite a few variations for both.

Some of my highly recommended versions:
Blackface WG Harvest
Blackface Japan (for UK) Harvest

And, I really like the European remaster, probably my preferred version although the above two are also very nice. If you just want to have a very nice sounding version without spending an arm and a leg, just get the European remaster. It is different from the US remaster (different peak levels, and also different timings, IIRC).


http://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threa...wall-by-pink-floyd.257763/page-2#post-6782443
moops said:
I have one of these, which I think has been confirmed to also be the current European remaster Roland is talking about, and yeah, it's outstanding !

http://pinkfloydarchives.com/DJaCDPF.htm#Wall10

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Edit: When I was using - Preferred CD's: Black Sabbath - Roland was listing CDs. Now he is listing Needledrops.
(I thought that might cause some confusion.)

 

Well that got me curious. I just put bids in on several different versions I could find on ebay. I'll see if i notice a difference.

 

What do you guys think of the 5.1 mix of Dark Side done by Alan Parsons for the Blu Ray? Even downmixed to stereo you still get a surround effect and the background effects are emphasized quite a bit.

Edit: I think it's actually 4.1, quadrophonic plus a LFE channel.

 

I just found a great deal on the US version of the "Shine On" boxed set. I bought it because I wanted the other 7 albums it has that I don't have yet. This boxed set has all the mastering done by Doug Sax. Most masterings are unique to the set. Here is a list of the albums:

A Saucerful of Secrets
Meddle
The Dark Side of the Moon
Wish You Were Here
Animals
The Wall
A Momentary Lapse of Reason
The Early Singles (bonus CD not available elsewhere)

Anyway, I will end up with a second copy of "The Wall". I will sell the one that I have now for $15 plus shipping if anyone is interested.

 

I second the recommendation of Steve Hoffman Forums as a great resource for this type of info. Some of the users have also posted sound files for blind listening tests of masterings, including Dark Side.