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Old 21.04.2009, 11:23
Brian Tristan Brian Tristan is offline
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Question Creedence Clearwater Revival: Box vs. 40th Anniversary Edition Reissues

I have been trying to determine, prior to purchase, the difference between the two releases, Creedence Clearwater Revival Box (2001) vs. Creedence Clearwater Revival 40th Anniversary Edition Reissues (2008). My main question involves the remastering, and the sound quality between the two releases.

What I would like to know is:
Is the remastering of the music the same?
And furthermore...
Is the sound quality the same?

I went as far as e-mailing Fantasy Records customer service, and the answer I received to my question was a response that had web links to all the 40th Anniversary Edition Reissues on the companies website. Not an answer to my question. So, I will try here.

From mining the internet for information I have found some information, but nothing definitive. Wikipedia, and other information sites, do not address the issue of all the various versions of release of the Creedence Clearwater Revival catalog, nor do any of them specifically address remastering.

This type of information can be found ad nauseam on The Beatles for sure, and to some extent on the Rolling Stones, and The Who. All of which have confusing 1960s release catalogs, that involve various aspects like US/UK versions, and Mono/Stereo versions, nevermind the various versions of release. Even from information that is out there for The Doors, one can determine that they have ten or more compilation releases, and that the newest box set contains mixes not faithful to the original releases, but "better", "more interesting", "Ray versions including never heard before parts". A very good thing to know before you slap down the kind of money a box set costs, and get something other than you were expecting.

Yet, I have found nothing like this regarding the, in comparison, simple matter of versions of release of Creedence Clearwater Revival catalog. Keep in mind, I am not interested in the various compilations of material that have been released, of which I am sure there are close to as many as The Doors. If The Doors had been on the Fantasy Records label, Ray and Fantasy Records would have released a new compilation yearly.

Anyhow, commercial outlets selling the packages also listed various bits of information, but again, nothing on the same outlet gave information that would let me compare the two offerings with any degree of certainty.

I did obtain, from different retail web outlets, information that suggest that the Box and the 40th Anniversary Edition Reissues are of the same remastering, and included the same liner notes. Both are listed as containing (from different, not the same, retail outlets), "digitally remastered using 20-bit K2 Super Coding technology by Shigeo Miyamoto (JVC Studios) and Joe Tarantino (Fantasy Studios, Berkeley, California)", and "including essays by Ben-Fong Torres and Alec Palao, plus individual album liner notes by Ben-Fong Torres, Joel Selvin, Dave Marsh, Ed Ward, Robert Christgau, Craig Werner and Stanley Booth. In the end, I am not certain this is indeed accurate information, as it appeared to have been cut and pasted from one site to another.

In the end, both releases appear to me, to be the same stuff, just with different packaging. The exception is of course, the Box contains everything that was released properly by Fantasy Records, including "Mardi Gras", "Live in Europe", and "The Concert", which are not part of the 40th Anniversary Edition Reissues (at least not that I can find).

So, is the remastering on the 2001 edition the same job done on the 2008 releases, and is the sound quality the same? Those are my main questions.

Mind you, any input regarding the difference between the two releases would be appreciated, as I am sure in the future someone will look at this site to find out exactly what the difference is between the two.
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