Gerry Rafferty - City To City Night Owl 2CD +Album Reviews

Poor dubbing

ken fogelman | Sullivan, Maine USA | 09/10/2008

(2 out of 5 stars)

"Was initially happy to purchase this disc,mostly because it was the first time that "Night Owl" was avaliable on CD. The recordings on "Night Owl" seemed different than the original (vinyl), not as crisp, and slower. I actually timed the title song and compared it to the original. Not surprisingly, it took about 20 seconds longer to play. The dubbing of this disc is not what it should be. If you really want "Night Owl" on CD and don't want to wait, then purchase. Otherwise I would secure an avaliable copy of "City to City" and wait for future releases of "Owl"."

Night Owl Finally on CD... but wait a minute...

Xylon | Houston Texas | 06/03/2008

(3 out of 5 stars)

"..those darn loudness wars even ruined what would be a great 2-fer set. I have not even heard the first disc (City to City) since I immediately went for the second disc (Night Owl).. horrendous mastering, and no, this recording is not remastered... one listen to beginning of "The Tourist" and you hear all the clipping and flutter. I saved the disc on my computer and used a noise shaper to soften the harshness of the tracks and a regain tool to somehow lessen the clipping. It worked! DBpowerAMP is a great tool to use. But back to the CD. You may be disappointed in the mastering as I was, but it beats an old beat up cassette that seemed to be eaten by my tape player more than once.

I can't figure out why re-release of City to City since the prior CD release was nicely remastered. This was the second release I bought on the "Collectibles" record label. The first was a reissue of Barnes and Barnes debut, I expected less that high fidelity on that one, but this one I was expecting more or less a pristine recording without having to do the work myself.

"

Muy Sabrosa (Very Tasty)

HIS BRUSH ENTERPRISEWARREN TIBBS, J | Ashburn Va. | 05/22/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I like most people first heard Gerry Rafferty on the Stateside of the Pond when he was with Steelers Wheel,

I have always liked his basic use of Acoustic Guitar/Bass/Drums/Keyboards & Sax, as well as his double tracked vocals ,Gerry has a great sense of Harmony & Melody ,something that is sorely lacking in the Rock Music scene today .These are Gerry's first 2 Albums and are Dynamite well worth the purchase. Drummer Henri Spinnetti is on these disc's and he has done work with Paul McCartney and others ."

Nearly identical to the DCC CD...

Jamie | Franklin, Tunisia | 08/03/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I just bought a copy of the Collectables 2 CD set of Gerry Rafferty's City to City and Night Owl albums. Both CDs sounded great but City to City was amazing... just like I remembered the DCC sounding (an out of print gold CD mastered by Steve Hoffman that now sells for several hundred dollars). Hmmm, I grabbed my DCC disc and played it. Yep, sounded the same. Quite a compliment as I often use song one (The Ark) as one of my reference tracks when auditioning audio gear and speakers.

I loaded both CDs into Pro Tools to see what was going on. It was obvious EMI/Collectables sourced this CD from the much sought DCC release. The two files didn't stay exactly in sync but they were extremely close and the waveforms were just as similar. One thing I noticed was the Collectables CD had a reversed polarity. If you don't know what any of this means don't spend another second thinking about it. It's more trivial than audible.

I can only assume EMI made an analog transfer of the DCC CD. That would explain the slight sync variations.

Switching between the two I could only detect miniscule differences and most of that was probably my imagination. For all practical purposes these two CDs sound identical so unless you're into minutia this is an inexpensive way to get the sound of the wonderful DCC CD without having to spend a couple hundred dollars.

Night Owl sounds great too. The transfer is from a great source and it sounds like little to no mastering has been done (that's a GOOD thing). It has great clarity/fidelity and dynamics and I don't hear any hint of compression. As was the style of the era the mixes are slightly on the lean side. I'd rather it be presented as is than have some mastering engineer artificially pump up the bass into a bloated mess.

These two CDs were a pleasant surprise. Well done EMI/Collectables!"

A twofer worth getting.

Bt | Parts unknown | 03/17/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Collectables Records is known to transfer these older releases (give them credit for releasing good stuff at least) but they basically give you nothing else. You're left with a tape to cd sound that can destroy a set. My Johnny Cash from this label was like that. One listen & I couldn't take it. I certainly agree with other reviews that state that this release is a straight transfer. However, this one isn't that bad. I really expected it to be worse. I can hold on to this copy as the sound is clear enough to make this a worthwhile purchase. It's not the best, but it's ok. The price is right plus it's 2 of Gerry's best."

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	Gerry Rafferty City To City / Night Owl (2-CD) Genres: Folk, International Music, Pop, Rock
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