Oct 10, 2012
Ded Leppard ? They don’t make ‘em like that any more etc…
It’s a tired old cliche that “they don’t make ‘em that any more” in audio – but the retro fetish for vinyl, old consoles and mics gets stronger every day.
It’s not often you get to make a direct comparison like this one. I didn’t make the video above, but it’s an interesting listen !
Def Leppard are re-recording some of their back catalogue as part of a dispute with their record label, and claim the new versions sound just as good as the original:
Elliott said the band pored over the tracks until they got every last detail. [snip] “Trying to find all those sounds . . . like, where am I gonna find a 22-year-old voice?” Elliott added. “I had to sing myself into a certain throat shape to be able to sing that way again. It was really hard work, but it was challenging, and we did have a good laugh over it here and there.”
The new renditions, Elliot noted, have also gotten the seal of approval from original producer Mutt Lange, as reported by guitarist Phil Collen.
“[Phil] played him the re-records and [Lange] couldn’t believe how brilliant they were,” Elliot said to Billboard. “He was like, ‘Wow guys, incredible job!’ Phil was just raving about how much Mutt was raving about them.” Read more
Hm. Unlike the maker of this video, personally I’m not so sure.
Superficially the two versions sound quite close to begin with, but to me the originals quickly begin to sound superior in just about every way. The guitars, drums and bass have more weight and depth – listen from 35 seconds on, for example – and there are some apparent arrangement changes – listen to the guitars at 3’14″, for example.
Having said that, the new vocal performances really do sound pretty good considering the 25-year gap – and the distinctive BV sound is impressively close to the original. (There’s still more air and life in the original lead vocal, though.)
Overall for me it’s a big FAIL for modern recording technology in this case – although given that you might think it was impossible to get even remotely close to a recording like this, it’s an impressive achievement, nonetheless.
Meanwhile fans will be relieved (and non-fans may be astonished ?!) to hear that the band are still writing new material while out on tour.
Which version do you prefer ?
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Great article and video. I’d love to hear some of the same kind of side-by-side review of Journey’s Revelation redo and originals.
Wow, very interesting – an incredible comparison. Early recording is far superior. But so much comes into play…same engineer? Same studio and room environment? Youtube? So much comes into play…but no doubt, the analog world still outshines the digital one in my opinion. It simply has more life and space and breathable air in this example anyways.
Everything (I think) was different (studio, engineer etc) so considering that it’s pretty close – not the same, though. I don’t think it’s an analogue versus digital thing, fwiw. I’m sure they could have got even closer.
I decided to listen to this with my eyes close so my brain wasn’t tricking me into a bias, and I gotta say, while the new record does come incredibly close, the original really stands out as the superior recording. Biggest difference I see was in the drums. The new drums sound like they have much less life to me.
Hats off to Joe Elliot, though, for nailing the vocals.
The video maker commented on how the two songs shared the same 105.xxx tempo. Even without the original stems, this isn’t hard to achieve. I would have to assume that they used the original recording as their scratch track.
Great video and very clever and well-executed comparison.
I must admit Joe Elliot has done well to get anywhere near the sound of the original. Pyromania and High ‘N’ Dry were two of the best albums of their type ever made. Joe’s now and old(ish) man, Steve Clarke died and (crucially)Rick Allen lost an arm in the interim, an event which finished the band for me. The original was made at a time when Mutt Lange ruled the world in Rock album production, so fair play.
Sounds almost like some of the original tracks over a new and quite different drum track and made louder. The levels in the video aren’t too well matched but anyone who can say it’s analogue beats digital is hearing better than me.