The Rolling Stones - Between The Buttons + 2 {Orig. UK Mono}
16bit/44.1kHz (Redbook Audio for CD Burning)
01. Yesterday's Papers
02. My Obsession
03. Back Street Girl
04. Connection
05. She Smiled Sweetly
06. Cool, Calm And Collected
07. All Sold Out
08. Please Go Home
09. Who's Been Sleeping Here
10. Complicated
11. Miss Amanda Jones
12. Something Happened To Me Yesterday
Bonus:
13. Ruby Tuesday
14. Let's Spend The Night Together
All tracks Mono
All of these mixes are officially unavailable on CD except Tr. 13 & 14.
Produced: Andrew Oldham
Engineer: Glyn Johns (Olympic) & Dave Hassinger (RCA)
Recorded: Olympic Sound Studios, Barnes, London. November 8-26, 1966 & RCA Studio's, Holywood, CA. August 3-11, 1966
Hardware:
- Technics 1210mk2
- Jelco SA-750D Tonearm (w/ JAC 501 cable)
- Audio Technica AT33PTG MC
- Pro-Ject Tube Box SE-2
- Yamaha CA-1010
- RME ADI-2 A/D Interface
Software:
- Audition 3.0 used for adjusting DC bias, editing, (incl. manual removal of clicks
and pops), adding gain and making the cue points.
- Click Repair 3.4.1 used with setting Cl: 15, Cr: 0
- CueListTool v1.7 & Mediaval CueSplitter used for generating the .cue's & .m3u's.
- MBit+ dithering and Sox Resampler used for converting to standard wav format.
Transfer & Restoration by Prof. Stoned
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Prof. sez:
Another one in the series "essential Stones in mono but not available on cd".
I have released this one before in 2008 but this new rip reproduces the sound closer to what
the actual LP master sounded like (from a NM original UK copy) and this time there are also
two extra tracks.
The mono mix of this album differs substantially at times from the well-known stereo version.
Some tracks sound significantly better, while others do not. One thing that sticks out on the
mono mix is the extra chorus at the end of 'Yesterday's Papers', which was edited out of the stereo.
While not as essential as the mono version of Aftermath, it is an interesting oddity that hasn't
been available officially since the late 60's and it deserves a reissue -certainly with all the mono
reappraisal going on right now. When or if this is gonna happen remains unclear.
Between the Buttons is somewhat of an overlooked album amongst the Stones 60's catalogue and
also one that has been dismissed by the band themselves, especially Mick Jagger.
I would rate it as a fine album but probably not among the greatest Stones albums. The 2 bonustracks
tacked at the end -in my opinion- would have lifted the overall quality of the UK album considerately
and were rightly added on the US version. Ruby Tuesday shows us a softer, more poetic side
to Keith Richards as opposed to his drugged-out macho image. The song refers to the break-up with his
then-girlfriend Linda Keith. Let's Spent the Night together -on the other hand- seems to be an explicit
invitation from Mick Jagger to Marianne Faithful to step inside his love den...
As a bonus, we have the true mono mix of Tr. 13 (transferred from an unworn original UK 45).
It appears on the 80's version of the Singles Collection 3CD but in a horrible muffled sound quality.
The remastered versions of that compilation (with which I mean both the 3CD and the 1965-1967 boxset)
use a folddown from an alternative stereo mix which misses one of the three vocals in the chorus.
It's incredible to think that this goof was okay'd through quality control, especially since the
same mistake was made with the stereo version.
Did anybody who worked on those remasters even know or care about the music?
Tr. 14 appears in similar sound quality on the remastered Singles Collection, but you get it here minus
the brickwalled mastering. The mastertape of this song has a tape warble which has been repaired on the
remastered CD's and I felt inclined to do the same thing, only slightly more precise.
Some thoughts on the sound... My 2008 rip of this had some EQ'ing on a few tracks (actually a high-pass
filter) because I felt the sound of those tracks was too bright. Part of that had to do with the
cartridge I was using at the time, which boosted the top-end considerably. I'm now using a setup that has
a near flat response (as far as that goes with vinyl) but I am still of the opinion that this album is
a mixed-bag productionwise. Some tracks are really dark sounding, while others quite bright.
The worst offender is All Sold Out. Unlike the much better stereo mix, it has the drumchannel mixed way
up and with that comes a really aggressive sounding high-hat. The high-end on that track was toned down
considerably on my last rip and while I still don't think of that as a bad idea, I've now decided to
present the 4A/4A pressing pretty much as-is, with all its volume and tonal differences intact.
It is a definite improvement over the old one and a more accurate picture of the masters sound like.
I've also used an even cleaner vinyl copy this time around, which may be especially noticeable during
a couple soft passages.
The records were professionally and carefully cleaned in three steps using Audio Intelligent’s
Enzymantic formula, Super Cleaner Formula, and Ultra pure water on a VPI 16.5
(using VPI brushes) and Nitty Gritty mini-pro 2.
I spent a lot of time manually declicking the wave file (after Click Repair had already been
applied with a medium setting) to make sure the cleanest and most natural sounding result
possible was achieved.
Enjoy!