Customer Reviews

Makin Magic

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I too am disappointed in the big lie about this CD being
remastered. My CD copy made on my Phillips CD recorder from
the old Makin' Magic Vinyl LP sounds better than this CD from
Holland. My CD copy from LP has a couple of pops but the
clarity is much superior to this Dutch garbage! I know Pat
is selling some of his back catalog at his shows on CD and I
sincerely hope he's selling homemade versions of his early
masterpieces like Makin' Magic, Black Pearl, Hot Shot and
the ones that have been available on domestic and/or import
CDs for years such as Putting It Straight, Heat In The Street,
Go For What You Know and Crash and Burn. I feel ripped off
that my amazon arrival of Makin' Magic sounded so flat!

Hello Music Lovers,

Allow me to say from the onset, I have always felt this is P.T's best effort. I would rate Makin Magic a 5. However, my low rating specifically relates to the sound quality of this release. If you're a Pat Travers fan, then you're probably just happy to have this album in CD format and are most likely not too concerned about the sound quality.

At the same time, if you are serious about your music and the quality of the recordings you purchase, you will be disappointed to know, this CD was not cut from the master tapes. While I'm sure the record label did their best to cleanup the sound source, there is very noticeable static and noise on the recordings. You can draw your own conclusions as to what actual source was used to "remaster" this CD.

A Pat Travers fan thru thick and thin, but most disappointed with the sound quality of this "Makin Magic" release.

This is one of Pat's best albums.It's a shame that the people who've tried to remaster this album, dont have capacity to do so. The highpitched crackling noise is unbearable to me(even with a hearing loss of 25 %). The people who have remastered this gem must have been deaf altogether.
If you can get your hands on a vinylalbum, get that one.
It can't possibly sound any worse.

I will be the second here to note the lacklustre sound quality of this 'remastered' release of the awesome 'Makin' Magic'. The quality of the material here is not in question; this is a fine PT album whose material holds up as well today as it did when it came out. I am an audio buff however, and have to warn you all that there is no way this is from master tapes. I would rate the sound as a 6/10 at best, especially in light of the great remastering jobs that have been flooding the Hard Rock and Metal market(s) for the past few years now. Very disappointing as it has been a long wait for this, and I am heavily considering returning this to Amazon, in hopes that one day it will be done properly. Also of note, the liner notes are chock full of very poor grammer(seriously), and I am just as surprised that a quality proofreader was not employed by the label prior to release. I am really surprised that PT would not have had a greater involvement in overseeing the re-releases of his finest works to ensure a definitive product finally reached the hands of his fans. :(

What a revelation "Making Magic" was after Pat's first sincere, but pedestrian & hurried (Ten days) effort "Pat Travers". No one could have expected the wonderful music that was to come from this visionary Canadian guitarist. "Making Magic" just jumped off the vinyl through the speakers into my head like some sort of sonic train that I could ride on the rest of my life! The album starts off with the funky intense namesake song filled with snaking snarling leads & intricate time changes that were to become a Pat Travers signature. Next came "Rock'N'Roll Susie" & "You Don't Love Me," showing PT's roots in the blues, but faster & more high energy than most artist have ever dreamed of at that time or since. "Stevie" is a moving song dedicated to PT's little brother that shows what a sense of beautiful melody PT has & how he could sonicly build a song structure to epic purportion. "Statesoro Blues," retools the old blues tune in everyway made famous by The Allman Brothers. "Need Love" & Hooked on Music" are the real crown jewls of this album for me. Killer, killer, fast funky rock that would inspire later bands like Extreme. "Need Love" starts with funk that is just pure groove & seamlessly runs into the fast & furious metal tinged funk of "Hooked on Music"! The all instrumental ending tune "What You Mean to Me" is another prime example of Pat's melodic sense, & serves as a taste of even better songs to come on the next album, "Putting it Straight."

5/5

A little addendum to my review:

Other reviewers have complained about the sound quality of this CD. There is static noise on this disc & I agree that it would be better without the noise, but....There is no alternative version out & the sound quality is really not hampered that much (you can still hear everything fine) unless you are totally preoccupied with the static, this CD still beats having an old snarfed up vinyl copy anyday. So if you love this album don't let the noise hold you back, it's still a masterpiece! :)

save your money!!!!, dont support ANY business people that release products without providing a decent return policy.
The Riaa is suing children , but an honest consumer trys to return an opened product (which was sealed, and carrys NO gurantee of quality)in a local Record store and cant, because the labels dont allow them to return it. Where is the consumers rights going to be recognized in the cd trade?

After almost giving up hope on ever listening to the studio versions of "Makin Magic" and "Need Love" other than hearing them on an album or cassette, its about time that I can listen to these, plus the whole album in CD quality. If you like hard rock guitarists such as Jimi Hendrix, Robin Trower, Tony Iommi and Ritchie Blackmore, Pat Travers is written in the books with these rock guitar gods.

This was my first Pat Travers Album and I love it still to this day. However,
I think the best of his older stuff would have to be the Black Pearl Album.

I totally agree with some of the other reviews about the lousy quality on all of the first four releases by Pat Travers by Majestic Records,the music itself is great and the actual mix is not too bad but it's the annoying distorted static sound throughout that ruins the listening pleasure,at first I thought there was somthing wrong with my headphones or speakers,on Pat's website there are numerous comments posted about this,possibly they might have tried to run the recordings too "hot" resulting in distortion or they're tape machines might have been magnetized,there was one comment where Majestic was supposed to fix this and offer refunds to buyers that had the bad quality ones, I seriously doubt it though, but good news his 80's releases Radio Active,Black Pearl and Hot Shot are finally being released in the UK in Sept and the US in Oct. by a UK company called Lemon Records, hopefully they got it right where Majestic screwed up.

i saw pat travers supporting the sensational alex harvey band in the early 70's and they were better than the main act, this guy can play a guitar, if you like your blues with a slice of rock then pat is your man. if you can get the pat travers album , then that is well worth it to.