03) Waterloo

Albumtracks:

01) Waterloo (swedish version)
02) Sitting In The Palmtree
03) Kong Kong Song
04) Hasta Manana
05) My Mama Said
06) Dance (While The Music Still Goes On)
07) Honey, Honey
08) Watch Out
09) What About Livingstone
10) Gonna Sing You My Lovesong
11) Suzy-Hang-Around
12) Waterloo (english version)

Bonustracks:

13) Honey, Honey (swedish version)
14) Waterloo (german version)
15) Ring, Ring (single remix 1974)
16) Waterloo (french version)
17) Ring, Ring (US remix 1974)
18) Waterloo (different mix)


The next project was their 1974 album. I used the following sources to create my version:

- Waterloo (Astley / Tretow Remasters, 1997)
- Pa Svenska (Polar Music, 1994)
- Thank You For The Music (Tretow Remasters, 1994)
- Abba International (Polydor, 1983)
- The Complete Studio Recordings (Johnsson Remasters, 2005)

I also could choose the Polydor first pressing, but it doesn't sound not very satisfying to my ears, because it has a lot of hiss and runs a little bit too slow (did you ever recognize that ???), so I decided to use some songs from the 1997 remasters.

In 2011 I deleted "Sitting In The Palmtree", "Hasta Manana" and "Gonna Sing You My Lovesong" from my restored version (very audible noise reduction on quiet parts) and used the following source to replace the missing tracks:

- Waterloo (Polar Music, 1988)

This pressing is highly recommended amongs fans, collectors and audiophiles and includes the best available versions of the three tracks I had to interchange.

It was the nearly the same job as I did on the "Ring Ring" album - just compiling the best sounding versions, a small equalization here and there, checking the final level of each separate track, filtering clicks and pops and restoring small drop-outs. Nothing special at all, but now it sounds great with headphones and everything is clean and nearly perfect !!!

Did you ever realize the very audible stereo channel switch in the fade out of "Honey, Honey" ??? It sounds very strange, but it is no problem to fix that if you find the exact editing point. I checked some versions, included on early pressings and compilations and I recognized that it must be a mistake, included on the original mixdown tape...the 2008 remaster of "More ABBA Gold" (not taken from the CSR remasters !!!) is the only version with the fixed part, all previous versions (including "The Complete Studio Recordings") have the channel switch on it. Here is a sample:

Original Polar CD 1988:
link

ABBAmaniac Restored Version 2008:
link

The only teardrop on the entire album is the US remix of "Ring Ring", included on the bonus section. Besides all other tracks I could choose from different sources, this song was only available on the "Waterloo - 30th Anniversary Edition" and "The Complete Studio Recordings". Both versions suffer from an excessive noise reduction...you can hear it very clearly on the fade-out of the song, when the voices and the sound become drowned in a terrible burbling effect...

In June 2011 I bought a sealed copy of the US pressing of "Waterloo" on vinyl. I decided to transfer the track "Ring Ring" from the original vinyl, but the pressing doesn't sound as good as I expected...

When I did the transfer of the track, I recognized that the entire "Waterloo" album runs too slow on the ATLANTIC-LP. Very interesting fact...would be nice to know more about it...maybe they made a mistake whilst dubbing the master tape or the pressing plant was the reaason for that...

In the end I decided to restore the fade-out only, cause the recording included on the album sounds a little bit distorted. I used a part in the very end to cut and paste the fade from the speed-corrected and filtered vinyl transfer and I am very satisfied with the final result !!! To my ears it sounds much better than the terrible noise reduction and you can't hear any cutting point.

Here are the sound samples. I had to turn up the volume very much for these excerpts here, cause I used the very last seconds on the fade out only:

Original 2004 Version (30th Anniversary Edition):
link

Restored ABBAmaniac Version 2011 (30th Anniversary Edition & Original Atlantic Vinyl, 1974):
link

You may wonder about the strong noise on my restored version, but I added 24 dB for both examples to make it audible. If you listen to the regular and complete version, the noise on my version is not louder as on other tracks.

All in all, the restoration jobs on the first three albums were not too complicated...on some later recordings I spent much more time, but piece by piece...