NO TROLL THREADS! NO SOLICITING FOR BOOTLEGS! Discussion is fine, so long as the bootleg is not being promoted e.g. pre-release; requests/offers to share or copy, and links to download or bootleg sites are not. Posting Prince and associated artist videos from sites such as YouTube is also not allowed. Posts of this nature will be deleted and repeat offenders will be first warned, and then banned. Troll threads, fake tracklists, and attention seeking rumor threads will be also be swiftly dealt with. These rules are strictly enforced! ---- luv4u

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Updating a now-closed thread from spring of 2016, on the various versions of Small Club:

TL;DR version: There are basically 2 different versions of this sonically, at least when it comes to the most well-known CD versions:

Version 1. The original X Records, the 1991 Beech Marten, and the widely circulating, unidentified web version

Version 2. The 1996 Moonraker, the 2000 Thunderball, and the 2002 Sabotage

Version 1 has more mid-bass and arguably a more "vinyl/analogue" type sound. Version 2 has more high end and is clearer and cleaner sounding. I prefer Version 2 on the whole, but YMMV.

Versions 1 and 2 have reversed L and R channels. I have no idea which version is correct. One could assume that Version 1 is correct since it's the earlier version - but that's no guarantee that X Records got it right the first time.

Versions 1 and 2 also are clearly from different digital transfers. They run at slightly different speeds, so Version 2 cannot be a rematered digital clone of Version 1.

Also, Version 1 has small but annoying dropouts in the first track, and in track 5 on the 2nd disc. Version 2 does not have this.

Conversely, Version 2 probably is from a DAT transfer or at least has a DAT copy somewhere in the lineage, as there are a very small number of digital "ticks" in this version. They are not noticeable unless you load this version up in an audio editor and look for them in waveform, and then really listen hard for them. But their presence in the waveform is IMHO a dead giveway of a DAT step in the chain.

The 3 releases I've listed under Version 2, I've been able to confirm are 100% bit-for-bit identical digital clones of each other.

The 3 releases I've listed under Version 1, I am confident but not 100% certain are identical. The web source is described by one of the main people who shared it as "the first version I've heard that sounds as good as the X Records version." Since it sounds "as good as" that version, it's presumably not that version. The only other version I'm aware of that has the same track names and timings as the web version and the X Records version, is the Beech Marten version. So from that I deduce that the web source is the Beech Marten, and therefore that the Beech Marten/web source is a clone of the X.

Hope some folks find this interesting or useful. Cheers!

[Edited 7/31/17 8:34am]

fuck! Calgon take me away. I got mine 20 years ago. There's all these others? damn yall

trying to make people think theyre missing something....and rebuy

luvsexy4all said:

Small Club on VINYL:


anyone of you girls & boys own the 3-LP vinyl??

Why o' why is the tracklist fucked up side 5 and 6?????????????????????????????

Very sad and annoying, the track "Rave" (the encore), this is split up in different "portions", damn, how could they make such a dumb mistake???

Otherwise the recording is Historical... so magic... pure brilliant...

[Edited 7/31/17 16:31pm]

[Edited 7/31/17 16:31pm]

RE the vinyl having the messed up tracklist: The "Version 1" CD/digital versions I discussed above have that same messed up track list, specifically, 6 tracks on CD 2 of each Version 1 release, with the final two tracks being very short. The Version 2 releases correct this, combining the final two tracks into one, as they should be (with the result that CD 2 has 5 tracks listed instead of 6). The Version 2 releasesalso dispense with the silly "R.A.D.E." track title, which clearly was the result of someone mis-hearing the repeated "RAVE" refrain the band does during part of Rave Un2 the Joy Fantastic.

RE making people feel like they're missing something, I just want to be clear that I did not post with the intention of spurring people to feel that way, or to feel that they should obtain another version or anything.

The Version 1 and Version 2 sources do sound different, but both are excellent, and no one's life will be diminished in the least by hearing only one of them instead of both.

Finally, while of course a vinyl version is going to sound different than a digital/CD version, I'm pretty sure the 3-LP version everyone talks about was created from the same base tape source as the "Version 1" CDs.

(P.S. sorry for the smooshed paragraph formatting; I've tried everything I can think of to get carriage returns to show up between paragraphs but nothing has worked.)

[Edited 7/31/17 18:10pm]

tmtomh said:

(P.S. sorry for the smooshed paragraph formatting; I've tried everything I can think of to get carriage returns to show up between paragraphs but nothing has worked.)

Just hold down shift and then enter to get proper line breaks.

No idea why this can't be fixed in this day and age.