BootlegZone

The Rolling Stones
Let It Bleed
DSD Remastered issue
Originally released (UK): 28 November 1969

Let It Bleed is an album by English rock band The Rolling Stones, released in December 1969. The follow up to Beggars Banquet (1968), it appeared shortly after the band's 1969 American Tour. [...]
Recorded under trying circumstance owing to the band having reached the final impasse with Jones, the album has been called a great summing up of the dark underbelly of the 1960s. In addition to being one of their all-time classics, Bleed is the second of the Stones' run of four studio LPs that are generally regarded as among their greatest achievements artistically, equalled only by the best of their great 45s from that decade. The other three albums are Beggars Banquet (1968), Sticky Fingers (1971), and Exile on Main Street (1972).
Released in December, Let It Bleed reached #1 in the UK (temporarily knocking The Beatles' Abbey Road out of the top slot) and #3 on the Billboard Top Pop Albums chart in the US, where it eventually went double platinum. The album was also critically well-received. (from Wikipedia)



I guess the question is: "Why do we need this when we have its official CD counterpart?". Honestly this is the same question I asked myself and the answer was I didn't need to acquire the vinyl record. Then one day a friend of mine (the same lad who lent me the U2 singles, God bless him) took his vinyl to my home and said "let's give this a spin". I thought I'd transfer it while it was spinning.

The vinyl was very quiet and sounded very good, these ABKCOs must be nice pressings. As there was no need to work hard on pop/click removal (except for "Love In Vain") I decided to go on.

Some guys at the Steve Hoffman Forums think the vinyl version sounds better than the CD. Honestly I can't detect a big difference. As it often happens the vinyl has a worse noise floor, due to my equipment as well (I left the gaps between the songs intact) and the CD is slightly less warm. Waveforms are very similar in comparison, the spectrum has a drop-off on the CD version around 21kHz, but I wonder if anyone could notice that (I could not).

So if you want to take a ride, you're welcome. I do know it would have been better to get a rip from a mint original UK pressing from 1969 but you know, you can't always get what you want.

Track listing:

1. Gimmie Shelter
2. Love In Vain
3. Country Honk
4. Live With Me
5. Let It Bleed
6. Midnight Rambler
7. You Got the Silver
8. Monkey Man
9. You Can't Always Get What You Want

Total running time: 42:15

Source info:

Label: ABKCO
Catalogue number: 882 332-1
Matrix numbers: 882 332-1 A | 9004-1A (Side 1) // 882 332-1 B | 9004-1B (Side 2)
Condition: new

Quality: 16 Bit / 44.1 kHz (redbook)

Setup and procedure:
ABKCO LP > Pro-ject TT with Ortofon OM cartridge fitted > Denon Integrated Amplifier > Click Repair* > Cool Edit Pro 2.0** > FLAC Frontend 1.7.1 (FLAC encoding level 8) > Trader's Little Helper 2.2.2

* declick: 10, decrackle: 3
** manual operations: adjusting DC bias, manual removing of residual clicks and pops, "tweaking" to reduce some distortion (no re-EQ), normalising, making the cue index points.

Checksum: MD5 and FFP files are included
Cue sheet: a cue sheet file with gaps is included.
Artwork: no artwork included (sorry).

Hope you'll enjoy this.

All the best
---McCannon

P.S. This will be posted in the next few days at the green creature.

Hey mccannon,
Could you let me know whether your copy has the name "Don Grossinger" etched in the deadwax.
My copy didn't, it probably wax a european re-press and had lots of clipping noises that weren' in the CD.

Thanks!
PS

Hello Professor,
the copy I transferred has no "Don Grossinger" etched in the deadwax, it only has the matrix codes "882 332-1 A" and "9004-1A" handwritten on side 1, "882 332-1 B" and "9004-1B" handwritten on side 2.
"Made in EU" is reported on the label.
I can't hear any clipping noises on playback, just some clicks on "Love In Vain". The remaining tracks are clean.
Let me know if you need some more info.

all the best
---McCannon

The torrent is up.

I'd like to add that this is my favourite Stones' album, "Sticky Fingers" and "Beggars Banquet" being close contenders.
Maybe it lacks some diversity in the melodic department (but the Stones are no Beatles after all), but I can't find other flaws. And they didn't even have a lead guitarist back then!

It took more than I expected to clean the audio, and I even had to de-repair "Love In Vain" and the beginning of "You Can't Always Get What You Want", as click-repair had caused some artifacts.
Some clicks are still there but I didn't want to cause any detriment to the actual music. After all you can stick to the CD for a "perfectly clean" listening experience .

As I wrote before, I can't hear a big difference between the CD version and the vinyl version, but it would be great to have other opinions.

all the best
---McCannon

McCannon, did you record this directly at 16/44.1?

Yes. Wish I recorded my transfers at 32/96, but my soundcard unfortunately does not allow that (it loses sync).

Have you tried 24/44.1?

Okay, I'm certain this is easily fixed. Go to your card's control panel and find options for "clock" or "beat clock". My guess is that you will find options there.

If it isn't obvious, find out what the choices are and report back.

Interesting... thanks.
Let's move to viewtopic.php?f=8&t=22973 (so we'll keep this thread on-topic )

I'm listening to this now. Nice mellow sound, better than my UK Decca which is no slouch either.

Your comments about the clicks in Love in vain led me to belive you have the cut that I had.
On my copy there were lots of static little static clicks, these are not inherent to the SACD. They weren't vinyl artficats either.
The intro to LIV was quite noisy because of these, but I guess with click repair you can clean them up nicely.
I still hope to find a Don Grossinger cut once, but for now your rip and my Decca will do.

Thanks for your feedback prof.
I tend to believe we have the same pressing too.

By the way, I prepared an upgraded version that I will upload at P's in some days (thanks to pbthal who invited me).
I manually removed some clicks that were still annoying to me. Using click-repair on LIV had caused a lot of distortion on vocals (even at very low settings) so I patiently went the manual route and now it sounds better imo.

Yesterday I compared again these tracks to the CD tracks. I realised the vinyl tracks have slightly less compression and a wider stereo image. The tonal balance is very similar, but in the end I think these DSD remasters on vinyl (if it's safe to generalize) are worth transferring because of their better dynamics (although I sure prefer an original UK release).

For those who are interested: there's a little upgrade of this (some click/pop removal and artwork included) which is available only at P's at the moment.

Can someone get me into P's?

Me too pls.

I would also love an invite. I think that most of the people who come to this forum have a lot of rips that they can contribute. While private trackers were developed to weed out leechers from piratebay, it seems counter-intuitive to exclude hobbyists who have something to offer.

Sorry I can't invite anyone as I'm not a long-time member there.
I'd suggest a new thread to discuss about that, anyway

It just so happens that I was listening to this last night during a road trip. I was very impressed by the sound. My wife commented that it sounded different than she remembered and then I explained that it was sourced from the LP. She wasn't impressed by that. Oh, well.

thank you for your feedback

The upgrade is available at the green imp too.
I don't want to penalize anyone, so each upload of mine will be done at the green imp as well (after some days).

Now, I'm not an audiophile by ANY means whatsoever. But I recently reached back in my CD archive and brought out The Rolling Stones-Got Live If You Want It! I listened to this with growing horror, and I could swear that my ears were going to start bleeding at any moment. I know the stones early work could be rough in places, but I'm not supposed to really notice this, as I'm NOT an audiophile! But notice it I did. And I was wondering if this is an album that could be improved upon sound wise by doing a vinyl rip. I'm positive it would be no worse than the CD that is out there now. Just thought I would mention this, and if you think another ripper would have more interest, please PM me. Thanks for listening.