Linkin Park "Studio Collection" / Deluxe Editions

[gorast]

What was the HDtracks series?

[[AndOne]]

https://www.hdtracks.com/index.php?file=art...il&id=10140

 

You can't see the releases outside the US.

[SergSlim]

I did some screenshots of different versions of some songs in Adobe Audition (Spectral Frequency and Waveform).

 

Songs are:

SOTD (iTunes, DVD, HDTracks, Tour Edition CD)

PTS.OF.ATHRTY (Crystal Method) (iTunes, LPU2)

NRL (iTunes, Tour Edition CD)

MyDecember (iTunes, LPU2)

ATL (iTunes, LPU9, Acetate)

 

http://lplive.net/personal/SergSlim/SF.WF.rar

 

I did not cut those extra silence before/after to fit them perfectly to the same length, as that would've taken much more time.

 

Now that is interesting! So whoever prepared the tracks and supplied them for the HDtracks series screwed things up and we didn't notice it until now.

I did not even download them, as I thought that they were exactly the same as DVD version.

[wiiesel]

Don't like that NRL version. That additional sound sounds out of place to me.

Maybe I just heard the original verison too much ^^

[tfae]

These "new" versions of SOTD and NRL are demos, definitely.

The strings on SOTD aren't really strings, they're done with a keyboard, as written in the booklet of MTM:

 

"The keyboard loop in Shadow Of The Day went through many different changes during the song's creation. Dozens of options were created on piano, acoustic guitar, marimba, xylophone, and even electric banjo before finally writing the reversed/edited keyboard version that appears here.".

 

And they really sound to me as unfinished strings.

 

The drum loop on NRL make it sound as a "work in progress" version of the song. The drum loop was later removed to make the song more "progressive" - the version we already have from MTM Tour Edition.

 

EDIT: on the other hand, I hated the previews of these songs on itunes. Now that I listened to the full versions, I even like them, specially NRL.

Edited January 19, 2013 by tfae

[[AndOne]]

The editing is pretty bad so they never seemed like intentional "new versions", more like unfinished versions, wouldn't say demos but something before the final versions.

 

MyDecember (iTunes, LPU2)

My December is also on other editions, like the One Step Closer single. The quality of the LPU2 CD is pretty bad so that's not hard to beat.

[hahninator]

I think calling them demos is pretty accurate.

[Astat]

WTF. The "new" version of Shadow of the Day is actually the same as the one that was released in Rock Band 3 last year too!

 

That makes THREE separate instances of this version of the song being used in favor of the original - the Studio Collection release, the HDTracks release, and Rock Band. This is obviously NOT a demo or some kind of mistake, it's pretty clear now that at some point within the last couple of years a new master of Minutes to Midnight was made that would serve as the basis for all future releases, and it included a few small differences.

 

Now I See is a demo because it actually includes musical elements that were changed in the final version of the song, not just moved around or removed altogether. Same with Plaster. Those are things that I couldn't recreate by just playing around with the multitrack files from the final album version recording. These new versions of SOTD, ATL, and NRL are. If these are "demos," then I guess I can create an endless number of "demos" with existing multitrack files. Maybe I'll go pull the scratching out of Lost in the Echo and upload that to Youtube as a demo, since apparently that would meet the criteria of one according to you guys.

Edited January 19, 2013 by Astat

[sublimeric]

For the sake of Astat's ever increasing blood pressure and/or sanity, we should just call these "demos" (ATL, NRL, SOTD) "alternate versions" or "alternate mix". Yeah?

 

I downloaded "Blackbirds" to replace the 8-Bit Rebellion rip I had, and love the quality.

[Geki]

They aren't demos, they're alternate mixes just like The Catalyst (MOH Mix), COG (COD Mix) and Blackout (Fifa 11 Mix) were. Nothing more.

[[AndOne]]

The numbers of releases that include the changed SOTD still doesn't explain why it was changed. It all seems to come down to a change in the master that served for all these releases. It's still odd to me. They spend a lot of time mixing songs for an album and they are done with that well ahead of the release. The changes in SOTD and NRL are not even really well done in my opinion, they seem sloppy. To me it's not a needed change that makes the song better, also there was never an announcement about it.

The change in Breaking The Habit is odd too, once you notice it you feel that there's something missing and that IS still in the Rock Band 3 version. The mix is odd but you can hear it better than in the new studio version.

[andydlp]

WTF. The "new" version of Shadow of the Day is actually the same as the one that was released in Rock Band 3 last year too!

That makes THREE separate instances of this version of the song being used in favor of the original

Hearing more of the song that just the itunes sample....I don't like it and much prefer the original (if I can even call it that anymore).

Also, why is Walter White playing the drums in that video??

[MrSAI]

It's definitely strange, but it has certainly been known to happen. Labels have different "final mixes" floating around and perhaps sometimes the one that serves as the album version was a mistake; perhaps the band didn't like the version of SOTD in MTM?

 

There's an alternate version of Weezer's "Say It Ain't So" with a different guitar solo (but everything else identical) for example...

 

In the LP world, there are alternate masters (which also include the mix, of course) but I'm not sure of their varying states of release:

 

i.e. Somewhere I Belong with additional synth during chorus + Pushing Me Away with additional backing vocals.

 

I know I did hear at the time of Meteora's release that the sound now missing from BTH was never meant for the final mix, and was there as a timing aid for the string section. Could be wrong, as I don't see it written anywhere on the web.

Edited January 19, 2013 by MrSAI

[PizzaPino]

WTF. The "new" version of Shadow of the Day is actually the same as the one that was released in Rock Band 3 last year too!

not exactly. listen closely with headphones on or turn the speakers loud.

in the rock band 3 version, you can hear the 'removed joe sound' slightly, whereas it is completely removed on the itunes deluxe version. but i think it's not the same sound, because it still sounds a little different.

rockband3:

itunes deluxe: http://youtu.be/mdOO9HrfekM?t=55s

 

why don't they play this live if they changed it?

Edited January 19, 2013 by PizzaPino

[MrSAI]

not exactly. listen closely with headphones on or turn the speakers loud.

in the rock band 3 version, you can hear the 'removed joe sound' slightly, whereas it is completely removed on the itunes deluxe version. but i think it's not the same sound, because it still sounds a little different.

rockband3:

itunes deluxe: http://youtu.be/mdOO9HrfekM?t=55s

 

why don't they play this live if they changed it?

Interesting. So there's now THREE versions of this song floating around that we know of...

[Steve]

Interesting. So there's now THREE versions of this song floating around that we know of...

I wrote this in demo topic >> 3 days ago

[Skipees]

so "My December", "Step Up (Live From San Diego 2002)" & "Blackbirds" are EXACTLY like previous releases?

[Geki]

so "My December", "Step Up (Live From San Diego 2002)" & "Blackbirds" are EXACTLY like previous releases?

Step Up sounds the same to me as the version I have from the SIB Single. But Blackbirds sounds WAY better, just the quality in general, because we never had it in this HQ. The highest quality I had of it was from ATS deluxe on iTunes in 2010. Not sure about My December.

[Reflectionist]

You guys are silly quoting the booklet for Shadow of the Day.

 

 

"The keyboard loop in Shadow Of The Day went through many different changes during the song's creation. Dozens of options were created on piano, acoustic guitar, marimba, xylophone, and even electric banjo before finally writing the reversed/edited keyboard version that appears here.".

 

He's talking about the loop that first comes in at measure 3 and plays through the rest of the song. NOT the string / FX arrangement in the chorus. Just clearing that up.

[Skipees]

Linkin Park used the "Strings" version of SOTD much more than we think, watch here - Making Of Shadow Of The Day. those strings again.

 

Edit:

if it's exist on video from 2007 - it mean this version was exist in 2007!! it's definitely not related to "Mastered For iTunes" thing.

 

Edit 2:

this "making of" version is not the 3:00 iTunes Version. it's from PunkTV Site (closed already?), and it's from January 2008. (Source)

Edited January 21, 2013 by Skipees

[sublimeric]

I purchased the "Mastered for iTunes" edition of ATS, just to see if they changed the mastering from the original iTunes release. I've ranted and raved here before over the iTunes version of ATS, since I have found it to be my personal favorite edition, due to it containing less clipping and distortion than other releases (CD rip, AmazonMP3, HDTracks Flac).

 

From comparing the waveforms of the original iTunes version of "Burning in the Skies" to the new "Mastered for ITunes" version, the new version is just like all of the others: blown out and full of clips.

 

In my mind, I hear "Mastered for iTunes" and think "mastered to sound best with headphones", since most users would ideally be listening via iPods or iPhones. Listening with headphones allows you to pick up on things that might get lost when playing music in the car, at home, etc, so I'm surprised they would make the mastering WORSE when something is "Mastered for iTunes".

 

End of rant, and glad I have the original iTunes release of ATS. Will the loudness war end already?!

[[AndOne]]

The whole mastered on itunes purpose failed the moment they based it on the apparently already "ruined" HDtracks edition.

[Aiman]

Just downloaded all of them now. Here's what I noticed:

 

*tracks sound louder

*obvious changes to NRL and SOTD (both of which are worse IMO)

*albums are gapless just like the CD's

*the very beginning of Blackbirds is cut off just a little bit

 

Other than that, I didn't notice anything else. Some of you may be experiencing the placebo effect, where you think there's a difference, when there's not.

 

I will say this though: how No Roads Left and Across the Line didn't make the final cut of Minutes to Midnight is a mystery to me. If they absolutely had to narrow it down to 12 songs (for whatever reason), I can think of a handful of songs that aren't as interesting as those two.

 

I personally would've much rather had POA from MK instead of that awful remix from LPU2. I'm really loving the live version of Papercut though! Intro is awesome as usual and the crowd just gives me goosebumps

Edited January 25, 2013 by Aiman

[[AndOne]]

Anything new about this?

 

I just noticed that the studio collection is gone in the german Amazon store.

[Steve]

SOTD different synth version is on HDtracks too