Supernova Heights: An Oasis Anthology - Project

[noelsoasis]

The Anthology project has been mentioned again, so i thought it would be good for us to compile a new one. What we will need to decide on is a tracklisting and what each volume would contain. Now we won't be able to put on stuff officially released so we have to be careful there. It would be also great to have a DVD to accompany each volume, with live performances and interviews from the same era. Any other suggestions feel free to post them. Lets get this thing done!!

[shining stars]

I think one way of doing it would be to follow the 'drummers' thread a little - ie the first one could cover up to the point Tony left just before Alan joined, especially as there's so much early material that has even come to light fairly recently with the Whitfield Street masters and the Boardwalk Basement/Real Peoples tape.

The second could be everything up to the real start of Gem and Andy being involved, and so would cover Morning Glory/Be Here Now and Giants. The third kick off with Heathen Chemistry era stuff onwards to the end...

The whole 'mastering' thing which seemed to derail previous attempts is a bit of a mis-nomer. Unless you've got access to versions with lots of headroom in terms of dbs you can't really do that much to the material. A case of simply eqing each batch of tracks to birghten/loss hiss/clean up bottom end isn't mastering really and shouldn't take much effort or time. The main thing would be getting everything up to simliar volume levels without compressing it to fuck and losing the dynamics.

[noelsoasis]

I have pretty much everything in the best quality possible so i have alot of material to work with. I would like to keep each volume to 2 cds + dvd. How bout
For

Volume 1.

Disc 1- Pre Oasis
Disc 2 - Def Maybe Era

Volume 2

Disc 1 - MG Era
Disc 2 - BHN Era

And so on...

[noelsoasis]

If anyone has any other suggestions feel free to share them.

[davidjay]

Sept 11, 2013 18:49:28 GMT 9.5 shining stars said:

The whole 'mastering' thing which seemed to derail previous attempts is a bit of a mis-nomer. Unless you've got access to versions with lots of headroom in terms of dbs you can't really do that much to the material. A case of simply eqing each batch of tracks to birghten/loss hiss/clean up bottom end isn't mastering really and shouldn't take much effort or time. The main thing would be getting everything up to simliar volume levels without compressing it to fuck and losing the dynamics.

Agreed. Very good point! 

With regard to the Whitfield Street safety copy of the Definitely Maybe masters, I understand that these are mainly flat, 1:1 transfers of the first (Eden Studios) mixes of the Sawmills sessions, and they have incredible dynamics. There's an openness and immediacy to these mixes, helped by the unrestrained dynamics, that stands in contrast to the dense, Phil Spector-inspired wall of sound that was characteristic of Owen Morris's definitive final mix. I agree wholeheartedly with your idea to go lightly on compression where it's deemed necessary, so as to preserve the dynamics that are a unique feature of these early recordings.

Safety Masters on the Dynamic Range Database (click the 'I' icon to open each report): 
www.dr.loudness-war.info/index.php?search_artist=&search_album=Safety+copy

[JitKenson]

I was not around earlier for all this discussion but here are my two cents. . .

For me the way to go is to narrow down the tracklistings to fit one disc per Volume. My main reasoning is that whenever you get too much on there it really over blows the whole project. We want an Anthology, not a full on Encyclopedia here. Obviously there is only space for some 80 minutes per disc, but that should be plenty to make a quality set. If there is too much say "Pre-DM" stuff, then maybe bleed a couple of tracks over to the MG era. Let's keep it strictly rare-demo/different edit type stuff. There is no need for 10 versions of Columbia in which there are subtle differences in mixing. Slap one version on there that is different from the album and call it good.

I would be open to producing some artwork for this like before. Maybe Magpie and I can collaborate on something.

NoelOasis - Could you compile a tracklisting for the first Volume, and then present that for feedback. Let's not over do it here. I know there is tons of quality stuff out there, but lets keep it to the better stuff. The alst attempt to this got really muddy with too much stuff.

Any how, there's my opinion for what its worth.

[Edit]Just read the previous posts. The two disc Volumes might work okay. Still would prefer to keep it stripped down as much as possible. Maybe split the first Volume and make Pre-Oasis its own Volume, Single Disc. So you'd still have 8 Discs total, but it would be the 7 albums plus Pre-stuff ...

Vol.1 Pre-Oasis
Vol.2 DM
Vol.3 MG
Vol.4 BHN . . . and so on.

As we all know, the amount of stuff does twindle as we move through the years. We don't need to include many Officially released items (i.e. Alternate mixed of DOYS tracks, etc.)

[Pashca]

Brilliant! This kind of proyects are thrilling!
I agree with the 4 volume/8 cd + 4 dvd thing. It would mean cutting too much good stuff off if it was made shorter.
This time I'm up for doing some artwork when needed.

Anyway, really hoping to see this getting somewhere!

[mkoasis]

I definitely like this idea. I'll get back to you on some tracklisting ideas. I think choosing bits and pieces of our favourite unreleased materials will be challenging...

...but fun.

[footballdropout]

Just two quick suggestions: I'm up for EQ/mastering the project. Also, if anyone here has any extremely rare recordings, now would be a good time to trot them out, and drum up publicity/interest in the project.

[davidjay]

Excellent, looks like things are taking shape on this already.

Regarding mastering and dynamic range I found a free piece of software that may prove useful, so I thought I'd post the link in case anyone was unaware of it (apologies if I'm sending coal to Newcastle here!).

The TT Dynamic Range Meter is freely available from the following link, and can be useful in monitoring a track's dynamic range through the mastering process. It's available for Windows, Mac OS, and foobar component by clicking the relevant heading under the title "software" on the right hand side of this page. www.dr.loudness-war.info/

Mastering engineer Ian Shepherd has written a very good article on the real-time version of the plug-in in the link below. The free version works off-line and gives you an overall measurement of the track's dynamic range and RMS level. productionadvice.co.uk/how-to-avoid-over-compressing-your-mix/

Hope this may be of some interest.

[noelsoasis]

Thanks footballdropout once we gather a setlist i can send you through the flac files.

[Bruno]

Sept 12, 2013 18:40:07 GMT 9.5 noelsoasis said:

Thanks footballdropout once we gather a setlist i can send you through the flac files.

Great to see people coming forward and things coming together. I think choosing the songs to go on it will be a bit tricky though. What exactly is the criteria for the track listing?

Is it live performances/demos/rarities/alternate versions?

[shining stars]

The Beatles Anthology series has to be the benchmark/style approach. content wise I guess they aimed at enough 'unheard' material to keep fans happy whilst also not making it so obscure as to deter more general listeners.

So for vol 1 surely things like the early 'setting sun' would be a no branier inclusion, a track from The Boardwalk, Manchester 14th January 1992, a few things from the Real People sessions, a couple from the safety masters, a few live tracks of great versions of big tunes that don't have demo's or outakes...

[JitKenson]

Sept 12, 2013 19:35:07 GMT 9.5 shining stars said:

The Beatles Anthology series has to be the benchmark/style approach. content wise I guess they aimed at enough 'unheard' material to keep fans happy whilst also not making it so obscure as to deter more general listeners.

So for vol 1 surely things like the early 'setting sun' would be a no branier inclusion, a track from The Boardwalk, Manchester 14th January 1992, a few things from the Real People sessions, a couple from the safety masters, a few live tracks of great versions of big tunes that don't have demo's or outakes...

The big difference here is this is not being sold to the general public. We are all die-hard fans here. There is no need to pander to the masses, b/c most of them will never know this exists.

[shining stars]

obv it's not for sale, but surely part of the point is for it to make a bit of a statement about this forum, and i think it would be good to make it as accessible as possible to a whole range of levels of Oasis fans.

just like the beatles there will be a hell of a lot of Oasis listeners out there who won't be aware of a lot of stuff, so it doesn't mean it should only be made up of esoteric items. I had most of the beatles anthology tracks in one form or another, but it was still great to get it all in one place.

This idea could pull together a whole load of resources that, if someone stumbles across it or finds out about it, can lead them down a deeper path to 'die hardness'

I reckon there's a good chance of getting a lot of publicity around something like this too if it comes up to a good standard, ie mags like Q and lots of online resources would go for it, which would be great for the forum and for Oasis fans of all types. i don't see the point in doing it if it's for a niche 'market' of die hards to be honest.