Immaculate Collection from madonna, how "altered" are the songs?
 

i am a fan of the older 80's dance songs and this seems to have what i'm looking for. thie only thing that concerns me is that allmusic.com states that many of the songs are altered in some way and that there is too much stereo seperation. will someone who just listens to the radio singles and doesn't know them by heart notice these "differnces"

I'm not an audiophile by any means but I do notice that in some songs you will only hear a sound coming from the left or right but not the other, it's a noticable thing but by no means does it ruin the collection. I actually think this was an intentional effect and not a technical error, but on my opinion of the CD, I think it's well worth your money and has Madonna's best songs...and that's to date.

By far, the best Madonna Collection of the 80s hits out there. :up:

I'm a big geek, so take this as you will. I will say I didn't like a lot of the alterations.

"La Isla Bonita" fades out early (IIRC). "Into the Groove" is significantly altered from its original form (more like the re-mix off of "You Can Dance"), "Vogue" has some back-up vocal stuff that wasn't in the original mix (you probably won't realize this unless you really know the song), the version of "Like a Virgin" has some weird ringing sound that wasn't in the original album or single version. "Like A Prayer" is different from the radio version (has a house-y beat and doesn't have the changes in tempo, more like a shortened dance re-mix) and "Express Yourself" is the stripped down version originally on the video, not the lusher version on the "Like A Prayer" album--I actually prefer the Immaculate version of "Express Yourself." In other words, "Express Yourself" doesn't have that (fake?) brass stuff on it.

I prefer the original versions, but will you notice a difference? Probably not for "Vogue" but IMO, "Like a Prayer," "Express Yourself" and especially "Into the Groove" are radically altered. Except in the case of "Express Yourself," I think you're better off getting the originals if possible.

All this, of course, clearly just my opinion.

Live to Tell and Holiday are also cut.

No, you are in no way geek. But if paying close attention to the minute details of a song is being a geek, count me as one also. When I read Rypro's question I immediately started thinking about songs that were altered, ones that faded out early etc.

I know some people have negative opinions about greatest hits (if you're a true fan you should just buy the albums, etc), but I like them and usually there's the one or two singles made only for the hits compliation that you want.

Anyhow, I too notice when songs are cut short or if it sounds different from the actual album. Duran Duran's Greatest takes a whole verse out of Save a Prayer and it drives me nuts to listen to it. Depeche Mode's Singles compilation uses the worst version of Behind the Wheel I know of.

I am an audiophile and I will tell you this...with a good stereo the Immaculate Coll. sounds UNBELIEVEABLE! If you're just looking for run of the mill sound and are willing to pay for individual tracks/albums, go for the originals.

I hate the Imaaculate Collection version of Like A Prayer. It's the only one on there that is really noticeable as a bad remix. The change is not for the better. The others either have subtle changes that don't detract from the songs (although may be mildly distracting depending on your familiarity with the original versions) or have been improved.

p.s. Into the Groove, yeah forgot about that one... I guess I was more familar with the YCD version.

Instead of "Like A Virgin" it's "Like A Hosebag." Dunno what they changed that. ;)

(Actually I do own this disc and it's a guilty pleasure, but I never noticed any changes myself from other versions)

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Originally posted by trunks_cscs
I am an audiophile and I will tell you this...with a good stereo the Immaculate Coll. sounds UNBELIEVEABLE! If you're just looking for run of the mill sound and are willing to pay for individual tracks/albums, go for the originals.

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Well, WB remastered her early discs, stopping at True Blue, dammit.

Never noticed any alterations. The music was remastered in "Q" sound which was suppossed to be the next big thing. I heard it took each insturment and sent their signal to a different speaker. The effect was that you could hear different insturments only coming from one speaker and if you were in the center you would hear all the instruments together.

Yeah, the album was one of the first to receive the "Q-Sound" treatment, which was supposed to give you a nice 3-D effect with two speakers, but I couldn't really sense it, no matter how much I tried. Later I read, the album wasn't the best example of the technology, or whatever it is. I guess other proprietary technolgies have fared better

I did find "Material Girl" and a few other tracks to sound much warmer and richer sounding than its original album versions. The remixes are fine for variation's sake and the album is much easier to sit through than the CD maxi-singles that have multiple mixes of one song.

Still waiting for Like a Prayer et al to receive the remastering treatment....

The version of Like a Prayer on Immaculate pales in comparison to the original. That is all I have to say, other than I think people should embrace their geekiness.

How are these remasters? Worth an upgrade?

The remasters have better sound, slightly better booklet (nothing in the way of liner notes, just album info, maybe a new photo or two, and printed song lyrics), and a couple of bonus tracks. These are cobbled from already existing re-mixes found on domestic or import maxi-singles.

IC is worth getting. I'm not a big audiophile and while there are some changes to the songs, they shouldn't make any noticeable difference to the casual fan.

The Q-sound remixes are pretty different. Not radically to the casual fan...but radical to the intense fan. As someone who has several hundred madonna cd's and remixes...these aren't available anywhere else.

And btw...if you're going to ask about GHV2...that's even worse. They are ALL edits. Horrible.

For some reason I avoid the GHV2. I bought IC even though I owned all of her prior cd's but I couldn't bring myself to do the same with GHV2.

Um... they are? I bought GHV2, but not the original albums, so I'm only familiar with the radio edits, and they sounded the same to me. Do you mean they're editted from their original album versions? Seriously, dude, they sound the same to me, and now I feel like I'm missing something.....

Check the packaging.

It states that they are all edited.

Come on...they even censored Human Nature. lol. How could you miss that???

I will repeat, DUDE, that I have over 300 madonna cd's. Trust me. I know what I'm talking about. They're all radio edits.

Oh yeah, I forgot about that. Yeah, "Human Nature" without the "naughty" words. But what about "Don't Tell Me," for instance, that sounds the same to me. "Music" sounds the same.

didin't gh vol2 get an explicit lyrics tag?

Nope.

Again....CHECK THE BOOKLET. It's possible that both of those were the actual album versions because the album versions were short enough and there wasn't a reason to make a "radio edit." I'm almost positive that DTM had a radio edit but I can't be sure. I think the ending might have been trimmed because I know there was an extended ending with strings on the album.

question on the ic collection, is "borderline" edited? i am listening to the song now on "mtv's 20 years of pop" cd. in the left speaker, there is an annoying ringing that sounds like a cymbal, so just wondering.

You'd have to specify what you mean by "edited."

ALL of the songs on the Immaculate Collection were remixed. None of them are the album version. None of them are "radio edits" like GHV2.