On this 2007 edition, the remastering quality is consistent, but mediocre. It's a typical '90s-'00s brickwall job: loud, with no dynamic range and the midrange all jacked up. The album tracks on the 2013 remaster are far superior in tonal balance and have double the dynamic range, like the best '80s CDs. However on the 2013 edition, the bonus tracks sound terrible. So buyer beware; neither of the CDs are perfect.

Please, answer my question: why Tabu records put in the expanded reissues of The SOS Band, material rip from vinyl , not for the original Master Tapes? All the bonus are in poor quality, so bad to listen. What a Shame a company like Tabu are doing this. Many collectors are cancelling their pre-orders after 3 releases reissues that are the same old stories: bonus tracks rips from vinyl in a bad bad quality.It's unbelivable..

I recently purchased the Tabu re-issue of 2 other SOS band titles. Inside was a note regarding the availability - rather the un-availability - of master tapes. Tabu attempted to make extra tracks available where they would have been rare, out of print or simply not accessible. In a greater sense, this is admirable. However, in the recording industry, not every master tape is archived and in the age of conglomerate acquisition, some tapes get lost. Additionally, larger companies who acquire the libraries/tapes of smaller or closed-down labels often put those tapes in a vault and charge massive ransome to unlock the vaults, plus additional licensing charges. These costs are prohibitive to re-releases. In Tabu's case, I suspect the original masters have either simply been lost, or degraded (due to poor storage, natural catastrophe, who knows) to the point of uselessness. This happens even with the best of old recordings - many, many landmark recordings made on tape have suffered at the hand of time. There are tracks that simply can't be re-committed to the digital format. In my estimation, Tabu has done us a service by giving out recordings that may otherwise have disappeared entirely from the world!

I noticed this, too. The bonus tracks have had excessive de-click processing applied. They are sounding like MP3s made with the first encoders in the '90s, especially during the quieter parts.As for why they used vinyl, it is possible the original master tapes are in worse condition. But vinyl should sound excellent, if they took care to properly clean it with a vacuum-powered cleaning machine, and used good equipment for playing it. Sadly, they thought they could just use a plug-in.Amateurs who rip and share their own vinyl in illicit forums take far more care than many professional remastering engineers, it seems. I have all but given up on finding high quality remasters in recent years. It is much more productive to seek out the appearances of the bonus tracks on old compilation CDs, or on original vinyl.One positive thing I can say is that the main album tracks are actually remastered very well on this 2013 edition. They have full dynamic range and have excellent clarity of each instrument and vocal. They sound like '80s CDs, but better EQ'd. In contrast, the 2007 CD has half the dynamic range and just sounds "OK" at best.