Disc one: In the Studio
1. White Room
2. Sitting on Top of the World
3. Passing the Time
4. As You Said
5. Pressed Rat and Warthog
6. Politician
7. Those Were the Days
8. Born Under a Bad Sign
9. Deserted Cities of the Heart
10. Anyone for Tennis
11. Sitting on Top of the World (alt. mix)
12. As You Said (alt. mix)
13. Passing the Time (alt. mix)
Disc two: Live at the Fillmore
1. Crossroads - 10 March 1968 at Winterland, San Francisco, CA. (1st show)
2. Spoonful - 10 March 1968 at Winterland, San Francisco, CA. (1st show)
3. Traintime - 8 March 1968 at Winterland, San Francisco, CA. (1st show)
4. Toad - 7 March 1968 at The Fillmore, San Francisco, CA. (2nd show)
Side 1 tracks 1 and 3 and Side 2 tracks 2, 3, 4 and 5 of the studio album were processed with the Haeco-CSG system. Also processed was "Anyone For Tennis", which was recorded at the same sessions and appears on some versions of the album. Haeco-CSG was intended to make stereo recordings that were fully compatible with mono playback equipment. The unfortunate side effect is that it "blurs" the stereo imaging of musical parts mixed to the phantom center channel. Using modern digital audio processing software it is possible to reverse the Haeco-CSG effect and restore the original intended sound quality.
Here's the real reason why those tracks were processed with CSG. Take a look at the recording info and location for the CSG songs, and then take a look at the info for the non-CSG songs. Remember this fact: Haeco-CSG was used almost extensively by Atlantic (and A&M, the creators) in 1968. The CSG ones were recorded at Atlantic Studios, and during the final mixing stage, Tom Dowd (the producer) mixed them straight through the Haeco-CSG machine. The non-CSG tracks, "Sitting on Top of the World" (Tr02); "As You Said" (Tr04); and "Pressed Rat and Warthog" (Tr05); were recorded and produced at IBC Studios in London; the only reason I can give for Disc 2 escaping the CSG process is that there was a different mixing engineer taking care of the mixing for the second LP and it wasn't recorded at Atlantic Studios, where it would have surely faced the fate of the CSG process.
And no, Steve Hoffman did NOT fix the CSG process, all he did was give the midrange a boost (my guess) to make the vocals stand out and he tried to make the bass less muddy and stand out more, which he succeeded in doing. All the other flaws like crackles and pops and CSG were kept in, however. Indeed, he "fixed what was not broken" and left in plain view what WAS broken. The improved results speak for themselves immensely, IMO.
Code: Select all
https://we.tl/t-pv5PFkmlxv