Tommy Noises/Quad Multi's

["David C. Olstein" <born2run@pipeline.com>]

>But these are little clicks!  We are talking about little clicks, little 
>noises, slight imperfections! . . .  Little clicks. Made by Pete's pick
striking a 
>string, his fingers sliding across the neck.... sounds that make it
uniquely 
>Who, and uniquely guitar. I can't seem to understand why anyone would make

>such a fuss about that. Just a thought. 
 
Actually, the noises I hear on We're Not Gonna Take It don't sound like
noises from Pete's pick, fingers, etc (and I think I can tell the
difference).  As for making a fuss, I'm not, at least if the sounds are
inherent in the recordings themselves (although even then its not
impossible to remove them, case in point being the crackling noises on Live
at Leeds).  But if they were due to faulty mixing or mastering, then I
think some complaining is certainly justified.  Don't get me wrong -- I
certainly commend Astley & Co. for going through all the trouble of
tracking down the original multitracks and remixing the album from scratch.
  And it certainly seems a little unfair that by raising the standards of
reissues so high, Astley & Co. have attracted the attention (and
occasionally the criticism) of audiophiles and collectors alike (many of
whom, admittedly, will never be completely satisfied until every note
recorded by the Who is released in pristine quality).   But seriously, as
long as you're going the extra mile, why not take care of all the little
details?  By the way, what was the final verdict on those noises in
"Relax"? 
 
>a confirmation about "Quadrophenia"--2 discs, bonus tracks,
>but--surprisingly---again, the original multis are GONE.  
What, did they catch the first train to Chicago?  Seriously, I'm getting a
little frustrated with the vagaries of the English language.  By gone, do
you mean (a) missing, (b) deteriorated (the tapes are, after all, more than
20 years old), or (c) damaged or destroyed as a result of human error
(oops! forgot to clean the tape heads).  And please tell me I'm not
hallucinating, but I distinctly remember reading in a recent issue of ICE
that the Quadrophenia album was recently remixed for CD release, which
would appear to be impossible if the multitracks were gone.  If, on the
other hand, the mutlitracks acquired this certain quality of "goneness"
after the new mixes were prepared, well I suppose it's not the biggest
loss, although it strikes me as pretty careless to remix the album without
first transferring the multitracks to digital.  Indeed, I thought the Who
CDs have been remixed digitally (as opposed to the material onthe Beatles
Anthology sets, which has been remixed on analog equipment), so if the same
thing was done with Quad, the multitracks were transferred to some digital
tape or disk format (which, admittedly, could have been lost too, but this
seems unlikely).