2021 remastered "Escape" vinyl.....

[Loneman1]

Has anyone else picked this up yet? I got it in the mail from Amazon yesterday but haven't had a chance to sit down and spin it yet. According to a buddy of mine this is the same remaster that came out as a Walmart exclusive last year (?) done by Steve Perry and John Jackson, only this physical vinyl is better quality pressed on 180 gram and not colored/translucent. I guess I missed the boat on that Walmart release, so I'm looking forward to hearing this! The whole "Escape" album has been uploaded to Journey's YouTube channel as remastered in the last several days and the songs I've listened to sound pretty great!

[efrasjourney]

Has anyone else picked this up yet? I got it in the mail from Amazon yesterday but haven't had a chance to sit down and spin it yet. According to a buddy of mine this is the same remaster that came out as a Walmart exclusive last year (?) done by Steve Perry and John Jackson, only this physical vinyl is better quality pressed on 180 gram and not colored/translucent. I guess I missed the boat on that Walmart release, so I'm looking forward to hearing this! The whole "Escape" album has been uploaded to Journey's YouTube channel as remastered in the last several days and the songs I've listened to sound pretty great!

I too missed the boat with that Walmart release. Also saw the vinyl on Amazon but haven't pulled the trigger yet. Let me know how's that pressing.

[UrbanCoyote]

I have the Walmart pressing. It sounds pretty good. I saw the new 180g pressing this weekend at the record store. I suspect it's the same remaster as the Walmart release. Hoping for their 50th anniversary they do some nice vinyl releases.

[efrasjourney]

I have the Walmart pressing. It sounds pretty good. I saw the new 180g pressing this weekend at the record store. I suspect it's the same remaster as the Walmart release. Hoping for their 50th anniversary they do some nice vinyl releases.

Right?!?!?!? I'm waiting if they do Box sets like Def Leppard did (I have them all) and they're awesome! They could do box sets by periods, like Pre-Perry, Perry-era, and Post-Perry. I don't know what they are waiting for to take my money

[ebake02]

I have the Walmart pressing. It sounds pretty good. I saw the new 180g pressing this weekend at the record store. I suspect it's the same remaster as the Walmart release. Hoping for their 50th anniversary they do some nice vinyl releases.

Right?!?!?!? I'm waiting if they do Box sets like Def Leppard did (I have them all) and they're awesome! They could do box sets by periods, like Pre-Perry, Perry-era, and Post-Perry. I don't know what they are waiting for to take my money

They can take my money too, I would be all over a box set.

[UrbanCoyote]

Exactly!! The Def Leppard boxes are hella nice. The Doors did some good box sets for their 40th. IDK why Journey is missing out on this. I'd drop a fat nut on some killer Journey boxes.

[Journey/Survivor]

They definitely need to do another box set with as many previously unreleased songs on it as possible!

This same type of discussion is going on right now about Survivor in the Survivor forum here on MR.

[UrbanCoyote]

Something like this would be dope. It'll never happen with Journey tho.

https://ultimateclassicrock.com/kiss-cr ... t-details/

Fun fact, I used to live around the corner from Jimi Jamison (RIP) back in the 80's, early 90's in Memphis. I used to work at a video store. He & his son would come in frequently to rent movies & games. He was super cool. Gave me a copy of his first solo album when it was first released.

[Journey/Survivor]

Something like this would be dope. It'll never happen with Journey tho.

https://ultimateclassicrock.com/kiss-cr ... t-details/

Fun fact, I used to live around the corner from Jimi Jamison (RIP) back in the 80's, early 90's in Memphis. I used to work at a video store. He & his son would come in frequently to rent movies & games. He was super cool. Gave me a copy of his first solo album when it was first released.

I just received my copy of Jimi Jamison's previously unreleased "Rock Hard" CD today. I'm listening to it for the first time right now.

It's awesome to finally have this album after all of these years!

Jimi Jamison was the nicest most fan friendly of all of the musicians that I've ever met, and I've been fortunate to get to meet a lot of big time Melodic Rock musicians.

Jim Peterik is probably the second friendliest that I've met?

Jamison used to give me backstage passes to hangout with him and his band whenever I would see his band in concert.

[Jeremey]

Came here looking for any vinyl posts from the recent releases and here it is!

I got back into vinyl earlier this year and although I rarely if ever listened to Journey streaming over the past 10 years or so, I have picked up a few of their original LPs in great shape from used record stores.

On my system what I have found sonically is the original pressing of Escape sounds pretty fantastic, Frontiers sounds about average, and Infinity sounds pretty bad. They are all from VG to VG+ so they are quiet and it’s not the physical condition of the media. I have just never thought much of Roy Thomas Baker’s production and hoped that maybe an original pressing would reveal some great sonic blast from the past. But it still sounds very treble-heavy and thin to me no matter what. I always imagined those 1970s Journey records should sound warm and clear but not the case. Escape is the only pressing I’ve gone back to on several listening sessions.

Anyway what brought me here was doing some record shopping yesterday in a big chain store and I found both Freedom and the recently released 180g Live in Houston vinyl. Having heard the mix/production of Freedom from lossless online sources, I figured there was no way the vinyl version was going to be any better, especially with Adam Ayon handling mastering on both. I ended up buying the Live in Houston set.

But then I was pretty disappointed with the Live in Houston LP when I read the liner notes and saw Ayon also handled the mastering on this release as well. To cut to the chase, the LP sounded terrible, just like glass in a garbage disposal. The opening hi hats and cymbals are so hot and distorted… the only thing that sounds good is Steve Perry’s voice and Steve Smith’s drum fills. The kick drum sounds like an empty cardboard box.

Wondering if anyone has picked up either of those 2 new releases on vinyl and if your experience is similar to mine?

As it is, my Journey vinyl listening will probably be limited to spinning the original Escape pressing every few months.

I wish the production was better on Freedom, it would be easier to give the music a fair shake.

[efrasjourney]

Came here looking for any vinyl posts from the recent releases and here it is!

I got back into vinyl earlier this year and although I rarely if ever listened to Journey streaming over the past 10 years or so, I have picked up a few of their original LPs in great shape from used record stores.

On my system what I have found sonically is the original pressing of Escape sounds pretty fantastic, Frontiers sounds about average, and Infinity sounds pretty bad. They are all from VG to VG+ so they are quiet and it’s not the physical condition of the media. I have just never thought much of Roy Thomas Baker’s production and hoped that maybe an original pressing would reveal some great sonic blast from the past. But it still sounds very treble-heavy and thin to me no matter what. I always imagined those 1970s Journey records should sound warm and clear but not the case. Escape is the only pressing I’ve gone back to on several listening sessions.

Anyway what brought me here was doing some record shopping yesterday in a big chain store and I found both Freedom and the recently released 180g Live in Houston vinyl. Having heard the mix/production of Freedom from lossless online sources, I figured there was no way the vinyl version was going to be any better, especially with Adam Ayon handling mastering on both. I ended up buying the Live in Houston set.

But then I was pretty disappointed with the Live in Houston LP when I read the liner notes and saw Ayon also handled the mastering on this release as well. To cut to the chase, the LP sounded terrible, just like glass in a garbage disposal. The opening hi hats and cymbals are so hot and distorted… the only thing that sounds good is Steve Perry’s voice and Steve Smith’s drum fills. The kick drum sounds like an empty cardboard box.

Wondering if anyone has picked up either of those 2 new releases on vinyl and if your experience is similar to mine?

As it is, my Journey vinyl listening will probably be limited to spinning the original Escape pressing every few months.

I wish the production was better on Freedom, it would be easier to give the music a fair shake.

Hey Jeremy, I'm glad someone else here is into vinyl. I got back to records back in 2018 with the release of Styx's The Mission, that album even have a turntable in the freaking cover I remember when it came out the reviews talked that that record was vintage late 70's Styx, which caught my attention.

I too have Freedom and Live In Houston on vinyl and in my opinion they sound fantastic, granted, the production issues in Freedom I chalk it up to artistic freedom (see what I did there ) But in Live I can see what you mean about the hi-hat distortion, I can hear a bit only in Smithy's drum solo. I do have 2 copies of Freedom, one from Europe (orange) and from the US. Europe's pressing is not a very good one, noisy, unlike US pressing which is dead silent.

I know you're aware that audio from vinyl depends on so many variables from the pressing to all the way to the speakers so I'm not going to tell you you're wrong but my copies from Infinity to Freedom sounds good to me (my old ears me). Just in case my rig is:

Rega Planar 3 turntable
Audio Technica LM540VM Stylus
Fosi Audio X4 Tube Pre-amp
Yamaha RX-V683 Receiver
Klipsch 5.1 speakers

Again, man, I'm stoked that you're into vinyl like myself and I hope more people chip in on this subject.

BTW, @Neal, if you're reading this, how about Journey box sets!!!! I would LOVE have Trial By Fire and Arrival on vinyl

[Jeremey]

Hey Jeremy, I'm glad someone else here is into vinyl. I got back to records back in 2018 with the release of Styx's The Mission, that album even have a turntable in the freaking cover I remember when it came out the reviews talked that that record was vintage late 70's Styx, which caught my attention.

I too have Freedom and Live In Houston on vinyl and in my opinion they sound fantastic, granted, the production issues in Freedom I chalk it up to artistic freedom (see what I did there ) But in Live I can see what you mean about the hi-hat distortion, I can hear a bit only in Smithy's drum solo. I do have 2 copies of Freedom, one from Europe (orange) and from the US. Europe's pressing is not a very good one, noisy, unlike US pressing which is dead silent.

I know you're aware that audio from vinyl depends on so many variables from the pressing to all the way to the speakers so I'm not going to tell you you're wrong but my copies from Infinity to Freedom sounds good to me (my old ears me). Just in case my rig is:

Rega Planar 3 turntable
Audio Technica LM540VM Stylus
Fosi Audio X4 Tube Pre-amp
Yamaha RX-V683 Receiver
Klipsch 5.1 speakers

Again, man, I'm stoked that you're into vinyl like myself and I hope more people chip in on this subject.

BTW, @Neal, if you're reading this, how about Journey box sets!!!! I would LOVE have Trial By Fire and Arrival on vinyl

Hey EJ that’s very cool… yes I am late getting back into vinyl after records were replaced by cassettes & CDs in the mid-80s when I was still a kid. So I stopped buying vinyl around the time I was 15 years old, and I had quite a collection back then of Judas Priest, Slayer, Megadeth, Exodus etc at the time haha… So much of my favorite music over the past 40 years I have never heard on vinyl and it’s cool to find first pressings of recordings from the mid/late 80s through 90s when I was buying CDs most of the time.

I have a pretty diverse but small (about 50-60) collection, lots of jazz actually like Chick Corea and Pat Metheny, all the way to singer/songwriters like Joy Williams and Yael Naim… as well as classic rock and metal stuff that I haven’t heard in years like Judas Priest, King Diamond, I really have enjoyed the new Ghost but it sounds better on digital to me.

I only got a turntable in January of this year but I’ve been into critical listening/audiophile stuff since about 2017 or so. When I lost my voice after my surgery in 2012, I was totally away from music entirely for several years and I finally learned how to listen to it rather than trying to view it from a performance standpoint.

I started buying a few of the Journey records again this summer just because I’d never heard them on vinyl, which led me to Escape, Frontiers, and Infinity. I don’t regularly listen to Journey these days but I have thrown on Escape on more than one occasion.

I loved the sound of Live in Houston when it came out on DVD and CD back in the day, but for me the mastering of this new vinyl release is just way too loud and compressed, to the point where it hurts my ears, which does not happen on most of the records I listen to. I think maybe Perry was so excited about ProTools when he remixed it it turned out a little hot on the multitrack, and for whatever reason the new vinyl master didn’t seem to fix any of that. Full disclosure: I bought it because I wanted to hear Steve Smith’s drum solo on vinyl, haha. But his kick drum sounds like it has a hard low pass filter at 100Hz which is to say very boxy without much texture and no “thump” in my system (I have 2 12” JL Audio subwoofers). And the cymbals are way hot, so it’s hard to listen to.

I really wanted to like Freedom but again I just can’t get past the production… With everyone involved in that project from Walden to Bob Clearmountain (who mixed one of the greatest produced albums of all time Tears for Fears Seeds of Love, according to Steven Wilson - EDIT didn’t he also mix Raised on Radio?? Which sounds fantastic from what I remember), I just can’t understand what went wrong. I think maybe with Narada and Neal in one room and everyone else sending in tracks, it may have been difficult for Clearmountain to work with the multitracks. No idea, just speculating. I did hear the recent Jericho podcast where Neal said that he wanted Narada to put a LOT of room mics all over the place to record a “live” drum sound, rather than close-mic’ing. Narada is also one of the most talented producers in the business, but maybe he just felt like this was Neal’s project and he was going to give Neal what he wanted. It sounded like, from recent interviews, Neal’s been enjoying a lot more control over everything lately so it’s possible.

But yeah, the mix is hard to listen to. On the Jericho podcast Neal said that Sammy Hagar loved the track “Holdin On” so I gave that another listen in my car (streaming) and man, what a monster track… but holy crap it is just so hard to listen to. I couldn’t understand a single word that Arnel was singing - and not because of diction or anything like that - just because he was mixed so far back in the mix… It is a real shame because that kind of jam is what Neal does best, and it would be great to have material like that mixed and produced the way that a modern rock album like Tool is produced. With the level of talent that was behind the scenes on Freedom it should have come out a very different sounding record.

I mentioned that Adam Ayon mastered both the reissue of Live in Houston AND Freedom. I don’t know if that’s a common denominator in the loudness/compression I hear on the mixes or not. I do know I had sent a song up to Gateway Mastering back in 2012 to see if it would be worth the $$ to pay them to master my own record I put together… It was mastered by Adam Ayon and I couldn’t tell that much of a difference between his master and the in-house mastering at the CD duplicators so I just went with the in-house guys at Discmakers or whoever it was.

Anyway it’s all a matter of opinion - I am glad to get into vinyl after so many years and hear so much stuff that I had missed over the years no matter! Any other vinyl afficianados are welcome to chime in as well!

[Journey/Survivor]

Hey Jeremy, I'm glad someone else here is into vinyl. I got back to records back in 2018 with the release of Styx's The Mission, that album even have a turntable in the freaking cover I remember when it came out the reviews talked that that record was vintage late 70's Styx, which caught my attention.

I too have Freedom and Live In Houston on vinyl and in my opinion they sound fantastic, granted, the production issues in Freedom I chalk it up to artistic freedom (see what I did there ) But in Live I can see what you mean about the hi-hat distortion, I can hear a bit only in Smithy's drum solo. I do have 2 copies of Freedom, one from Europe (orange) and from the US. Europe's pressing is not a very good one, noisy, unlike US pressing which is dead silent.

I know you're aware that audio from vinyl depends on so many variables from the pressing to all the way to the speakers so I'm not going to tell you you're wrong but my copies from Infinity to Freedom sounds good to me (my old ears me). Just in case my rig is:

Rega Planar 3 turntable
Audio Technica LM540VM Stylus
Fosi Audio X4 Tube Pre-amp
Yamaha RX-V683 Receiver
Klipsch 5.1 speakers

Again, man, I'm stoked that you're into vinyl like myself and I hope more people chip in on this subject.

BTW, @Neal, if you're reading this, how about Journey box sets!!!! I would LOVE have Trial By Fire and Arrival on vinyl

Hey EJ that’s very cool… yes I am late getting back into vinyl after records were replaced by cassettes & CDs in the mid-80s when I was still a kid. So I stopped buying vinyl around the time I was 15 years old, and I had quite a collection back then of Judas Priest, Slayer, Megadeth, Exodus etc at the time haha… So much of my favorite music over the past 40 years I have never heard on vinyl and it’s cool to find first pressings of recordings from the mid/late 80s through 90s when I was buying CDs most of the time.

I have a pretty diverse but small (about 50-60) collection, lots of jazz actually like Chick Corea and Pat Metheny, all the way to singer/songwriters like Joy Williams and Yael Naim… as well as classic rock and metal stuff that I haven’t heard in years like Judas Priest, King Diamond, I really have enjoyed the new Ghost but it sounds better on digital to me.

I only got a turntable in January of this year but I’ve been into critical listening/audiophile stuff since about 2017 or so. When I lost my voice after my surgery in 2012, I was totally away from music entirely for several years and I finally learned how to listen to it rather than trying to view it from a performance standpoint.

I started buying a few of the Journey records again this summer just because I’d never heard them on vinyl, which led me to Escape, Frontiers, and Infinity. I don’t regularly listen to Journey these days but I have thrown on Escape on more than one occasion.

I loved the sound of Live in Houston when it came out on DVD and CD back in the day, but for me the mastering of this new vinyl release is just way too loud and compressed, to the point where it hurts my ears, which does not happen on most of the records I listen to. I think maybe Perry was so excited about ProTools when he remixed it it turned out a little hot on the multitrack, and for whatever reason the new vinyl master didn’t seem to fix any of that. Full disclosure: I bought it because I wanted to hear Steve Smith’s drum solo on vinyl, haha. But his kick drum sounds like it has a hard low pass filter at 100Hz which is to say very boxy without much texture and no “thump” in my system (I have 2 12” JL Audio subwoofers). And the cymbals are way hot, so it’s hard to listen to.

I really wanted to like Freedom but again I just can’t get past the production… With everyone involved in that project from Walden to Bob Clearmountain (who mixed one of the greatest produced albums of all time Tears for Fears Seeds of Love, according to Steven Wilson - EDIT didn’t he also mix Raised on Radio?? Which sounds fantastic from what I remember), I just can’t understand what went wrong. I think maybe with Narada and Neal in one room and everyone else sending in tracks, it may have been difficult for Clearmountain to work with the multitracks. No idea, just speculating. I did hear the recent Jericho podcast where Neal said that he wanted Narada to put a LOT of room mics all over the place to record a “live” drum sound, rather than close-mic’ing. Narada is also one of the most talented producers in the business, but maybe he just felt like this was Neal’s project and he was going to give Neal what he wanted. It sounded like, from recent interviews, Neal’s been enjoying a lot more control over everything lately so it’s possible.

But yeah, the mix is hard to listen to. On the Jericho podcast Neal said that Sammy Hagar loved the track “Holdin On” so I gave that another listen in my car (streaming) and man, what a monster track… but holy crap it is just so hard to listen to. I couldn’t understand a single word that Arnel was singing - and not because of diction or anything like that - just because he was mixed so far back in the mix… It is a real shame because that kind of jam is what Neal does best, and it would be great to have material like that mixed and produced the way that a modern rock album like Tool is produced. With the level of talent that was behind the scenes on Freedom it should have come out a very different sounding record.

I mentioned that Adam Ayon mastered both the reissue of Live in Houston AND Freedom. I don’t know if that’s a common denominator in the loudness/compression I hear on the mixes or not. I do know I had sent a song up to Gateway Mastering back in 2012 to see if it would be worth the $$ to pay them to master my own record I put together… It was mastered by Adam Ayon and I couldn’t tell that much of a difference between his master and the in-house mastering at the CD duplicators so I just went with the in-house guys at Discmakers or whoever it was.

Anyway it’s all a matter of opinion - I am glad to get into vinyl after so many years and hear so much stuff that I had missed over the years no matter! Any other vinyl afficianados are welcome to chime in as well!

As far as the production of Freedom, Schon wanted it to sound like it was being played live in concert in an arena. Which it certainly does sound that way on certain songs. I don't care for the production on Freedom either.
But Schon said inside the liner notes that he thinks that Bob Clearmountain nailed it in terms of the sound that Schon wanted.

Yes, Bob Clearmountain did mix Raised On Radio also.

[Jeremey]

As far as the production of Freedom, Schon wanted it to sound like it was being played live in concert in an arena. Which it certainly does sound that way on certain songs. I don't care for the production on Freedom either.
But Schon said inside the liner notes that he thinks that Bob Clearmountain nailed it in terms of the sound that Schon wanted.

Yes, Bob Clearmountain did mix Raised On Radio also.

I wonder did Neal get a producer credit on Freedom? That may be part of the issue, they got the guy who has spent the past 50 years standing in front of a stack of amplifiers onstage cranked to 11 to give the final stamp of approval on what their album sounded like! Seriously though, it does sound like Neal had a lot of input/control over what the mixes sounded like. I totally get wanting to make the record sound like a live concert, but when Mike Stone and Kevin Elson did that with Escape and Frontiers, they understood the “live” sound was all about leaving space in the music and letting the natural sound of the instruments breathe. Not cranking everything and the kitchen sink to 11 and mic’ing it all with overhead condenser mics.

[ebake02]

Something like this would be dope. It'll never happen with Journey tho.

https://ultimateclassicrock.com/kiss-cr ... t-details/

Fun fact, I used to live around the corner from Jimi Jamison (RIP) back in the 80's, early 90's in Memphis. I used to work at a video store. He & his son would come in frequently to rent movies & games. He was super cool. Gave me a copy of his first solo album when it was first released.

I would love to see this too but I'm not holding my breath given the current dysfunctional state of affairs between Neal, Jon and Steve unless Sony somehow managed to put out something on their own.