International Record Releases

[kevinsmithr]

I was wondering for someone like myself that will be collecting records what is the best record to get for a particular release? Would it be the first release in the first country or should I focus on the first release for USA only? I'm just confused because one record may be released in a variety of countries. Thanks.

[MonkeyBoy]

Sometimes it depends on who is releasing the album. If you can try to get a first pressing not made in the US unless it is from one of the small boutique companies. They tend to do a far better job than the big music corporations in producing a top notch recording with good dynamics and low noise floor. Japan still has a very good reputation for making excellent records.

[youngdand]

Further to that a lot of albums, have a limited run mastered by masterdisk before the main run. Masterdisks tend to have a better sound especially ones master by robert ludwig. the are some other companies used for such things, quite often batches go to strawberry for mastering for a limited run, also some strawberry mastered records are half speed mastered for better sound quality.

it all depends on the album really. Check deadwax for pressing numbers and mastering house used, sometime `the mastering engineer will signor stam`p the disk.

its all part of the game!

[youngdand]

Also teldec is a german company renowned for better pressings.

[gbmax]

The fun of collecting is searching for a hard to find items. LP collecting is no different than collecting stamps, coins or anything else.
It's always in a search for hard to find...

Import - a magic word.
People in EU looking for US pressings, people in US looking for EU pressings.
Both from US & EU are looking for pressings from Australia, Japan(OBI), etc...etc...

Some record collectors who do collect some particular band, they try to get a copy of the very same album pressed in different countries...

Some albums pressed in different countries have one or more different songs:
I do have Deep Purple - Fireball, both WB(US) and EMI/Harvest(UK) copies.
US copy doesn't have a song that on UK copy and vice verse.
Sweet - Desolation Boulevard, US copy is a "greatest hits" from both UK albums - Sweet Fanny Adamds & Desolation Boulevard. Sweet - Fanny Adams has never been pressed in US, neither was full album of Desolation Boulevard was pressed in US.
Same with Status Quo 2 albums from mid 70's
Nazareth - Hair Of The Dog US LP has "Love Hurts" while UK has instead "Guilty"

I'm still in search of Smokie - Midnight Cafe LP, because one I have - US copy doesn't have best song from that album - "What Can I Do", that it's on UK/German RAK pressing.

Then it comes - White Label Promo LP - who from Led Zeppelin die hard fans wouldn't like to get their hands on US Atlantic LZ II, III, IV wlp lps for cheap?
Years ago, I've seen at record store Deep Purple - Concert For Group And Orchestra on US Tetragrammaton label priced at $25(!!!!), didn't have that much cash in my pocket at that time, even I did know that that copy could be worth as much as $300-$500 at that time...

[jake]

Japan/English/German pressings are all generally better than USA, however Germany has a penchant for issuing fake stereo, double check them when it comes to collectibles. The countries with uniformly worst pressings than USA is a much shorter list-
Italy (Italian DG's were dumped on the US market, where they immediately became shunned)
France (French Blue Notes are crappy in almost every way a record can be)
Jamaica (Practically hand made)
Mexico (Appear to be low tech also)
Many small countries have pressings that sound dim compared to original, but are probably pirates/counterfeits.70's pressing from Korea, Hong Kong, etc, never sound right.