Even though the new Rattle & Hum vinyl that’s coming out is just a repress of the 2002 European release of the original master, is there any chance that the digital download that comes with it is the 2017 remaster?
Was told no. Have a copy on order will confirm when it arrives.
@Aaron, just curious if you were ever able to confirm whether the download card for the recent Ratttle & Hum vinyl reissue gives the original master or the 2017 remaster?
I got it today and looked at the digital download.
One thing to remember, the "original" release was often mastered in each country for release, and this results in differences in track timing and even volume as you go country to country.
This new digital download is not the MFiT remaster from iTunes. The volume is lower, and it has very different track timings and editing decisions (how much crowd noise to leave attached to Van Diemen's land for instance.)
So I then went back through and compared this new digital download to all of the CD pressings I own, including pressings from Canada, France, Germany, Japan, and the USA. It doesn't look like the versions from Canada, USA or Japan. There's enough little differences to make me say those are different. But two of my pressings pop out as very similar, the French and German CDs, both from Universal and both with the label number 842 299-2, which matches with the label number on the vinyl itself, 842 299-1.
Track timings are very similar (off by ms) and the volume of the tracks, and dynamics of the tracks are very similar to these pressings on CD.
I looked at an earlier version from Germany as well for comparison, that CD was closer to the Canadian / USA mastering for timing and volume. So it looks like when Universal took over in 1999, at some point along the way they released a new set of CDs, likely around 2002 when this vinyl first appeared. The original vinyl at that time (2002) had claimed to be remastered from the original tapes, so there may have been a bit of tweaking, but it is not listed in the credits, and likely wasn't done by the band.
This new download is definitely not the mfit version. It most closely matches CDs from Europe pressed by Universal after 1990, which carry a similar catalog number. The vinyl itself appears to be a faithful replica of the vinyl that was first issued in 2002 as well.
