Okay, I'm beginning to get worried now.
The French cartoon site Planete Jeunesse has a forum thread dedicated to the Télé 80 CDs; and on the second page of the thread, a user named Virocha has posted short reviews of some of the first 8 CDs. Here are the very short notes Virocha had about the "Inspecteur Gadget" CD that's coming out today (again brought to you in English by Google Translate):
"On Gadget:
- We hear some crackling of vinyl on some tracks.
- There is only half of the original 33rpm [LP], but it is possible that such a result to another volume because they have not had time to find a 33t completely usable.
If this opening batch [of Télé 80 CDs] suffered from a lack of time and reliable sources, it is hoped that for the future, they will take advice from the experts. In any case, they are listening to requests for releases that can be done on their site."
I have to admit... the more I read about the first batch of Télé 80 CDs, the more it feels like the project has simply lacked the time and money to become perfect. The mentioning of "crackling vinyl on some tracks" reaffirms my suspicion that (at least part of) the Gadget CD is indeed ripped directly from the original, French LP... but they apparently didn't have the time to locate a mint copy of that LP before releasing the CD. Now, I can understand that Télé 80 wanted to start off the label with some of the most commercially popular titles... and Inspector Gadget (like Ulysses 31 and Mysterious Cities of Gold) is a big cult series in France. So it makes sense from a monetary perspective to rush the soundtrack of Gadget into production. But honestly... if all Télé 80 needed to make a better product was time to locate a mint copy of the "Bande originale" LP... then I'm beginning to think it would have been better to put Inspecteur Gadget on hold until the second or third batch of CDs. After all... it is a bit frustrating if some tracks on the new CD could easily have been in better quality, had they only waited a few months with releasing the CD.
Anyhow, I hope that Télé 80 plans to really make up for it with their next "Inspecteur Gadget" CD. The best solution, I think, would be not to do a direct "Volume 2", but rather an "Extended Edition" CD which contains all tracks from the original LPs in the best quality possible. This extended CD would, of course, ideally be released after Télé 80 has taken the time to locate mint-quality copies of both the French and Australian LPs. (Gee, I think I just thought of yet another thing to suggest to Télé 80.)
Other than that, I'm hoping that the "crackling vinyl" mentioned by Virocha is not very noticeable. I still hope to enjoy the first CD volume. But I think I'm gonna wait with ordering a little longer... just until I've read a few more reviews...
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