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Topic: What is the oldest CD that you have ? (Read 23311 times) previous topic - next topic
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What is the oldest CD that you have ?

Hi !
I was wondering if there are people here that own very old CDs...
The oldest you can find is 25 year old.
How were they mastered back in the day ?
I guess there was a lot more dynamics that today's CDs  (no loudness war back in the eighties) ?
How do they sound ?

What is the oldest CD that you have ?

Reply #1 –
Quote from: abducted on
Hi !
I was wondering if there are people here that own very old CDs...
The oldest you can find is 25 year old.
How were they mastered back in the day ?
I guess there was a lot more dynamics that today's CDs  (no loudness war back in the eighties) ?
How do they sound ?


The loudness wars in the 80s were fought on vinyl.

Actually, the early CDs sounded terrible. Nobody knew how to properly master for CD, so you got all the mastering engineers applying their tried-and-true vinyl mastering methods (particularly EQing) to CD, nobody knew about proper dithering, equipment was 1st generation with crude filters, bad ADCs, etc. Most of the CD's of the 80s suffer from very lifeless, dull sound. But even that was a huge improvement over old crackling, S/N crippled LPs.

Only by the early 90s people got to know the format well enough to get the most out of it. And by the late 90s, they knew the format too well, pushing it to its limits in yet another round of the loudness wars.

What is the oldest CD that you have ?

Reply #2 –
Funny you bring this up. I got a CD back from 1982 right in front of me: Van Halen's "Diver Down"

It's the first album of my life I remember - I was 4 or 5 years old riding along in dad's car. It's still one of my favourite albums. Anyway, the CD is the one from the car, a few scratches but nothing serious. And I still pronounce the album title wrong because back then I didn't know any English. For me it's called "Divvver Down" (with a very short "i"). But that doesn't matter much as I don't know anybody else personally who'd listen to it so there's no sense talking about it

@abducted: Btw what _is_ your oldest CD? You kinda forgot to write that down

What is the oldest CD that you have ?

Reply #3 –
I have a Decca classical CD from 1983 somewhere. I'll have to dig it out. My recollection is that it sounds very nice.

Cheers,
David.

What is the oldest CD that you have ?

Reply #4 –
I'll have to wait until I get home before I can say.  I think the first one I bought was Talkiing Heads' Stop Making Sense.

I do remember looking at the back of the cases and marvelling when I got a DDD (as opposed to AAD or ADD) disc - the first was Tracy Chapman's self-titled album IIRC.
I'm on a horse.

What is the oldest CD that you have ?

Reply #5 –
Quote from: abducted on
I was wondering if there are people here that own very old CDs...


I know the first CD I bought: it was an EMI recording of Jacqueline du Pre playing the Elgar Cello concerto.  I'm looking at the box: it says:

Quote
(P) 1965 ... Digital remastering (P) 1997 by EMI records Ltd © 1998/1999 EMI Records Ltd


I can only conclude that either I was very late to the game, or they've digitized this more than once, and I've replaced the first copy but forgotten I have.

They say historians find oral testimony is a hit-and-miss affair: I think I've just confirmed that.   

What is the oldest CD that you have ?

Reply #6 –
Don't have it in front of me, but I know my oldest CD is Bonnie Raitt's "Nick of Time" released in 1989 according to AMG. I remember finally buying a CD changer at that time and immediately buying that CD. I never bought vinyl again.

All of my 600+ CDs are boxed up in a storage closet since everything I listen to now is in the form of computer files.

What is the oldest CD that you have ?

Reply #7 –
The oldest I have is from 1985. It's Everyman Band album Without Warning. It sounds very good and it's AAD.
If age or weaknes doe prohibyte bloudletting you must use boxing

What is the oldest CD that you have ?

Reply #8 –
late in the game ...

"Prodigy - Music for the Jilted Generation" (1994)
(Reason: The 5th track "Voodoo People" kicks ass.)

Dunno about volume / RG values

Cheers!
SG

What is the oldest CD that you have ?

Reply #9 –
I've got 'Script for a Jesters Tear' by Marillion, which was released in 1983.
Dan

What is the oldest CD that you have ?

Reply #10 –
A Decade of Steely Dan (1985)

What is the oldest CD that you have ?

Reply #11 –
I've got a classical CD or two from 1983. I can't remember the names right now though, and they're not sitting in front of me. One was made in West Germany IIRC.
There never need be longing in your eyes

What is the oldest CD that you have ?

Reply #12 –
My oldest CD is the album "from luxury to heartache" by culture club.
I got it in 1989 if I remember well.
I also remember that I compared it with the vinyle version
and I immediatly noticed that it sounded very different.
The CD had a very harsh sound. A lot of treble and no bass.
Very disapointing, even if it was fascinating...

What is the oldest CD that you have ?

Reply #13 –
I didn't buy/own my first album until 1994.  I'm not completely sure what my oldest CD is because even when I look them up some of my older ones have the same catalog number for different release dates through time...  I know for sure I have at least one and possibly two from 1988.  However probably the strangest old CD purchase was when I ordered Blind Guardian - Battalions of Fear, and Follow the Blind sometime around 2000 and received the 1991 dutch pressings.    They had already been rereleased a number of times since then I guess my copies were found in some warehouse somewhere.
"Have you ever been with a woman? It's like death. You moan, you scream and then you start to beg for mercy, for salvation"

What is the oldest CD that you have ?

Reply #14 –
Quote from: abducted on
Hi !
I was wondering if there are people here that own very old CDs...
The oldest you can find is 25 year old.
How were they mastered back in the day ?
I guess there was a lot more dynamics that today's CDs  (no loudness war back in the eighties) ?
How do they sound ?


I have a recording of Beethoven's 5th that I bought with my first CD player, a 2020SL from North American Philips, i.e. Maggotbox, err, Magnavox. (there was a long repair history with this player, ending with it being given to a hungry college student with only one channel working. said repair history started with a shorted power supply regulator on the +5 V line...)

It's dry, harsh, undithered (the recording, that is), multimiked, and not very pleasant.  I should bring it in and analyze it, maybe I will some day.

ETA: It was one of the 4 CD's available on the east coast of the USA at the time.
-----
J. D. (jj) Johnston

What is the oldest CD that you have ?

Reply #15 –
My oldest CD is George Harrison's Cloud Nine, from 1987. It sounds pretty lifeless. I have other albums from around the same time that sound decent, though (Pixies' Surfer Rosa and the Beatles' CD reissues).

What is the oldest CD that you have ?

Reply #16 –
Tracey Chapman album sounds great don't it..

Anyway just had a look through some, and i have plenty from the 80's

My tubbular bells is a remaster from the 90's though...i guess i also had the tape version,
remember playing war of the worlds, u2, simple minds and queen a lot back then, my memory of tape and cd's are bluring

but my winner is Meat Loaf - Bat Out Of Hell, it appears to be 1977!!?? can't be right?, i didnt buy it then but it is an old one alright

Ripping it right now see if its damaged as its a bit worse for wear

What is the oldest CD that you have ?

Reply #17 –
Quote from: Synthetic Soul on
I'll have to wait until I get home before I can say.  I think the first one I bought was Talkiing Heads' Stop Making Sense.
It looks like Stop Making Sense was 1984.  Speaking In Tongues appears to be '83.

I can't find the Tracy Chapman album.  I assume it was '88 though, as that appears to be when it was released.
I'm on a horse.

What is the oldest CD that you have ?

Reply #18 –
Kate Bush - The dreaming 1982, Ray Manzarek - Carmina Burana 1983, Chess - Tim Rice 1982
All AAD recordings, but they sound well. Not to forget the first cd I bought: Dire Straits - Brothers in Arms 1985.
It became my all time testdisc    (track 5,  Why worry)

What is the oldest CD that you have ?

Reply #19 –
My oldest CD is a soul compilation from 1992 sounding quite dull due to the way older song material. Quite cheap stuff actually.

I have to agree with SebastianG, "Voodoo People" is one of the best Prodigy tracks ever. This is the one song that got me into electronic music, and I still love it like it's 1994.
Nothing is impossible if you don't need to do it yourself.

What is the oldest CD that you have ?

Reply #20 –
I think some of the "original" Beatles CDs sound awful. There are moments on Please Please Me where it sounds as if the tape is going to fall apart.

Anyway, I've found my two oldest CDs...

1983 - Alicia De Larrocha plays Mozart's 22nd Piano Concerto. "A Digital Recording" from 1981. I wonder if the original digital recording was sampled at 44.1kHz? I believe Decca were using ~50kHz back in the late 1970s.
[attachment=3637:attachment]
Maybe it is multi-miked and could do with a slightly different EQ, but have you ever tried listening to music like this from an LP?

1984 - Bucks Fizz (!) - Greatest Hits (!!!). No AAD marking, but I'm guessing it is.
[attachment=3638:attachment]
Not sure what happens on the first word - maybe a ripping problem, may be on the disc.

Both CDs are exceptionally quiet by modern standards.

I bought these second hand. The first CD I owned was (don't laugh too much) Kylie - the Album (1988). It has CD rot, but being only ~30 minutes long the rot hasn't reached the audio information yet.

I think all you folks who claim your first CD wasn't something embarrassing are either too cool for your own good, lying, or bought all the embarrassing stuff on cassette before getting a CD player late in life!

Cheers,
David.


Quote from: Silversight on
My oldest CD is a soul compilation from 1992 sounding quite dull due to the way older song material. Quite cheap stuff actually.

I have to agree with SebastianG, "Voodoo People" is one of the best Prodigy tracks ever. This is the one song that got me into electronic music, and I still love it like it's 1994.


I hope you both went back and bought The Prodigy Experience too. Quite different, but it sounded amazing in 1992, and I nostalgically believe most of the early rave stuff from back then still sounds great. It's so obviously a bloke in his bedroom making music to take on the world. It's very rough compared with the electronic/sampled music of a few years later, but it was so different and cutting edge at the time.

Heck, I sound old!

Cheers,
David.

What is the oldest CD that you have ?

Reply #21 –
Quote from: 2Bdecided on
I think all you folks who claim your first CD wasn't something embarrassing are either too cool for your own good, lying, or bought all the embarrassing stuff on cassette before getting a CD player late in life!

Buying embarrassing stuf is another topic.    Question was about the oldest cd and I thought that cd should be the first release of the album. Of course one could have embarrassing 'music' from earlier years. I have (rather my wife has..) a copy of The association's Greatest hits. Cd from the 80's rerelease from 1966. Or The Collectors,    a 1991 rerelease from the 1968 album. "Lydia Purple" is nice..
You can start a new topic on this. Older recordings and other media.

What is the oldest CD that you have ?

Reply #22 –
Quote from: collector on
Kate Bush - The dreaming 1982, Ray Manzarek - Carmina Burana 1983, Chess - Tim Rice 1982
All AAD recordings, but they sound well. Not to forget the first cd I bought: Dire Straits - Brothers in Arms 1985.
It became my all time testdisc    (track 5,  Why worry)

Brothers In Arms was a harbinger of mainstream music CDs, supposedly one of the first to be digitally recorded.

I think I bought my first CD player in 1987; might have been 1986.  Among my first CDs (can't remember the absolute first) were Yes' Big Generator, Emerson, Lake & Powell, Rush's Hold Your Fire, and Peter Gabriel's So.

What is the oldest CD that you have ?

Reply #23 –
Quote from: aharden on
Brothers In Arms was a harbinger of mainstream music CDs, supposedly one of the first to be digitally recorded.

As far as I can recall, the very first rock album that got a lot of press due to having been digitally recorded was Ry Cooder's "Bop Till You Drop" (which was recorded in 1979, so it predates Brothers In Arms by 6 years). It was originally released on vinyl, of course. I can remember reading reviews of it in HiFi magazines at the time which made a big thing of how amazing it sounded. And now it's widely regarded as being one of the best examples of how early digital recordings could sound dreadful.

Mind you, not all early digital recordings sound bad. I've got a copy of the Telarc "Pictures at an Exhibition" (Maazel/Cleveland Orch) that was recorded in 1978 and it sounds pretty damn wonderful.

What is the oldest CD that you have ?

Reply #24 –
http://www1.ndr.de/wirtschaft/musikcd2.html

hm,
isn't the first pop CD an ABBA album The Visitors from 17th of August, 1982 ?
And  Claudio Arrau had recorded for the new medium CD some Frederic Chopin valses, the very first CD.

Those were manufactured at PolyGram in Langenhagen near Hannover, Germany, 17th of August, 1982, some days before Sony/Japan started.

Soembody should own Abba - The Visitors , 1982 ?