Yes, FLAC if not converted from MP3, should sound the same as the CD. Are you comparing a rip from an original Too Loud bootleg? Because there was a "remastered" one done a few years ago. I haven't heard that one, but it's just going to be someone's reworking of the original. Presenting the best copy available would've been fine, but they didn't. The guy who owns the master tape is still around and not hard to get a hold of. Someone from this forum contacted him and asked if he was contacted about having the tape used for the set. He said he was not. So they didn't present the best quality available, they presented the best copy that was easy to grab. I'll go back and re-compare the 45th and Too Loud boot, but even if they did eq the sound to be more pleasing to some ears, there are inherent issues in the Too Loud boot which could've been avoided with a new fresh transfer. With the tape still available, it should've never even been a consideration to use the bootleg without attempting to secure the tape. It wasn't a secret who has the tape.leamanc wrote:rnranimal, I can't really argue any of your points, if that's the way you want to look at it. But as a response to a few things:
The Columbus show sounds better to me than If It's Too Loud For You..., although I only have the latter as a FLAC rip. A FLAC rip should sound as good as the CD, but the whole show sounds "muddier" to me there, in comparison to the 45th VU&Nico set. If they are one and the same, then what is wrong with making the best version available to the masses? As is the case with many bootlegs, even big fans of the band don't have them all. I personally never had any of the material from the Warhol museum CD. I had never heard "Miss Joanie Lee" at all before this set came out, and I have quite a few VU bootlegs, both downloaded and physical copies.
Yes, it is sketchy that the 3rd album mono is presented as being contemporary to the album's original release. As I mentioned, the only other mono source was the 2012 Sundazed vinyl box set. I vinyl-ripped it at the time, as did quite a few others, and a lot of us enjoyed it. Regardless of its origins, it's nice to have. And I have to think that by 1968/early 1969, most mono issues were fold-downs. It seemed to be the trend in the music business at that time, as bands started recording with stereo in mind, instead of recording in mono and having an engineer rig up a stereo mix later on. The mono Loaded promo is most certainly a fold-down also. If a mono version of the 3rd album actually was prepared in 1969, it likely would have been done the same way.
You point out a few things you did like in the interest of not being negative all the time. So thinking along those lines, what would you have wanted to see instead? A cleaned-up "Sweet Sister Ray" tops my list. Leaving out this song seems to be THE big wasted opportunity in collecting all this Velvets material. Also, there are a few other "alternate Closet Mix" tracks that could have been included; I would have liked those tacked on to the Closet Mix disc of the set too.
Things I would've liked to see...
The "Sweet Sister Ray" omission is odd. Especially since they came up 3 discs short on WL/WH and still charged full price. Seemed like a given.
There are other alternate closet mixes? If so, then yes, that's a shame they didn't include them. There's the 4 song acetate with different mixes, including a "Beginning to See the Light" which didn't fade out. There was also talk in the past that session tapes survive from this album - different takes and mixes, but aside from the alternate closet mix track, we got none of that.
Including the radio ad for the 3rd album seems like that should've been a very obvious choice, but it's not there. Not a big deal, but how do you leave that off?
I think the whole Warhol disc should've appeared in the Nico set. The whole thing is already out on boot in comparable quality, but this would've been great to have it all from the better source.
The 4 song 1969 acetate. The demos that were on the Peel WL/WH disc (including the 2 takes left off Peel). The La Cave show for the 3rd album instead of the Matrix tracks that would be soon made obsolete. The Max's Freeman tape, but maybe they just couldn't get that. I'd have liked them to track down the Scepter acetate instead of just using a bootleg, but maybe that wasn't possible either.
The previously released Max's show should've never been in the Loaded set, but if it must be, then it should've been complete and speed corrected.
There should've been DVDs with the first two. But again, if the Warhol people won't let them, then they can't do anything about that. I just wonder how many of these things were even looked into.
Of course, anything we don't already have. Surely, there was more. It's hard to put together a list without knowing what they actually had available to them. So I stick to complaining about what I'm sure of. Things like leaving off stuff we know they have and things which were on previous releases and I just really have a problem with a lot of the decisions made (or oversights, whichever they were). Also, the main album remasterings started off great with the first set and slowly went downhill.