Styx - Paradise Theater Album Question

[EJD1984]

I have a quick question that's been bugging me for decades. Was there a slightly different mix for the Paradise Theater album between the vinyl and cassette?

I bought the vinyl album when it came out January 1981, and vividly remember hearing the cassette version over that summer that someone else had. And it seemed like there was a subtle stereo enhancement to cassette.

I know that later in the decade, a lot of artist were doing this (ZZ Top's Eliminator cassette is a good example - it had the single mix of Legs), but I didn't think/know it was done that early.

Or was it my imagination at the time?

 

[LG]

Love to help you out EJD, but I never owned a cassette of Paradise Theater just the original vinyl pressing.

I honestly didn't know there was a difference, all my other cassettes were usually a step below the vinyl for quality.

 

[EJD1984]

Love to help you out EJD, but I never owned a cassette of Paradise Theater just the original vinyl pressing.

I honestly didn't know there was a difference, all my other cassettes were usually a step below the vinyl for quality.

I had always bought vinyl, and would then record them myself onto cassette for walkman & boombox use - one song at a time to eliminate any vinyl noises. I was a quasi teenage audiophile back then........lol

Maybe because of the poorer fidelity cassette they "enhanced" it to make up the difference.

PS - I still have ALL of my original albums and 45s.

 

[LG]

Could be, I did buy a couple of the CBS "Mastersound" cassettes back in the day, they at least were on CrO2 instead of regular tape and did sound better, but they never caught on and CD's were just around the corner.

I still own two nice cassette decks and the tape quality was so much better in the 90's than what we had in the 80's my tapes sounded great, almost as good as vinyl.

 

[EJD1984]

Could be, I did buy a couple of the CBS "Mastersound" cassettes back in the day, they at least were on CrO2 instead of regular tape and did sound better, but they never caught on and CD's were just around the corner.

The only factory cassette tape I ever bought was the Grease soundtrack. The only reason why was that the little mom-n-pop record store I usually went to didn't have the vinyl in stock. Though within a few months my cousin "borrowed' it. I'm still waiting for her to return the tape, 30+ years later.................

 

[stepcousin]

Could be, I did buy a couple of the CBS "Mastersound" cassettes back in the day, they at least were on CrO2 instead of regular tape and did sound better, but they never caught on and CD's were just around the corner.

I still own two nice cassette decks and the tape quality was so much better in the 90's than what we had in the 80's my tapes sounded great, almost as good as vinyl.

I remember those Cr02 cassettes from the mid to late 80's, they did sound great but like you said by then cd's were all the rage.

 

[LG]

The only factory cassette tape I ever bought was the Grease soundtrack. The only reason why was that the little mom-n-pop record store I usually went to didn't have the vinyl in stock. Though within a few months my cousin "borrowed' it. I'm still waiting for her to return the tape, 30+ years later.................

I'd say that bird has flown a long time ago EJD... I hated lending albums or books to friends...not that I'm overly fussy but I treat my stuff with respect but not everyone else does.

I remember those Cr02 cassettes from the mid to late 80's, they did sound great but like you said by then cd's were all the rage.

It was a shame, the regular cassettes were on the verge of being replaced with "DATS" machines, the first Digital capable technology available to the public, but it suffered from lack of support from the music labels. Tape was almost impossible to find and within 3 years(rough guess on my part) of it being released Philips had perfected the CD technology. I see them once in a while on ebay, but without tape they are useless except as a conversation piece and I only keep working pieces in the collection.