The broadest possible category for KISS discussion. Everything to do with KISS and its members, past and present. Posts offering bootleg, pirate, or illegal items, or links to those items, will be deleted. Please refer to the Terms Of Service (TOS) for this site for maximum board experience. Should any post contain material that violates your copyright, please follow the instructions on the DMCA takedown notice page.
So IDK if Best Of Solo Albums was ever released on CD, but I recently came across my cassette from back in the day and decided to make a CD of my own. I had a hard time finding good scans of the vinyl, so I opted to make my own cover. For the front, I took someone's digital rendering and replaced the images by shrinking down some very high quality scans that I had of the actual solo albums and pasting them in. Also, I pasted in a logo from a scan of a vinyl reissue.
The back cover...I just took a decent scan and cleaned it up and pasted in the Phonogram logo from another scan because i thought it was cool. Also I moved a couple things and cropped the edges so that the artwork/tracks end up bigger when printed. Also I numbered each track because it's for CD.
Anyway, I ended up spending some time on these, so I figured I'd share. If you're inclined to make your own Best Of Solo Albums CD, they'll give you a head start.
I guess the problem I kept seeing was the same problem that plagues most solo album scans. Too dark on most, with the color and contrast boosted to "juice things up". But a lot gets compromised when you do things like that. The detail gets lost because there's too much contrast. Eraldo Carugati spent a lot of time on little things which is why those album covers (the 12", in 1978) were so amazing. If you compare the 2nd scan posted with mine you will see what I mean. Especially the hair. And the left side of Gene's face, etc.
PS I have a question. The 2014 KISS vinyl reissues of the solo albums...were they faithful reproductions? or do they look like the 1997 CD remasters (too dark, color and contrast boosted, detail lost)?
I guess the problem I kept seeing was the same problem that plagues most solo album scans. Too dark on most, with the color and contrast boosted to "juice things up". But a lot gets compromised when you do things like that. The detail gets lost because there's too much contrast. Eraldo Carugati spent a lot of time on little things which is why those album covers (the 12", in 1978) were so amazing. If you compare the 2nd scan posted with mine you will see what I mean. Especially the hair. And the left side of Gene's face, etc
I admire your quality control. Don't suppose you'd consider turning your hand to the Australian version?
I guess the problem I kept seeing was the same problem that plagues most solo album scans. Too dark on most, with the color and contrast boosted to "juice things up". But a lot gets compromised when you do things like that. The detail gets lost because there's too much contrast. Eraldo Carugati spent a lot of time on little things which is why those album covers (the 12", in 1978) were so amazing. If you compare the 2nd scan posted with mine you will see what I mean. Especially the hair. And the left side of Gene's face, etc
I admire your quality control. Don't suppose you'd consider turning your hand to the Australian version?
Ask and you [sometimes] shall receive...
There were problems because I had to take the title from the one you posted but that was way too small so I had to enlarge it. The result is that the title is blurred. And it's still undersized, I only enlarged the title at 150% because if I made it full size it would have looked even blurrier
Also, I had to darken eveything to match the title's black background. Much detail is lost, but a lot does remain. Also nothing is in the right place because I had no template of any kind to work with (unlike the red one). I just winged it. I do think it's better than what's on available on Google. Not as good as the red one I did though.
So here it is. I suspect that it might look pretty good when printed at CD size.
There were problems because I had to take the title from the one you posted but that was way too small so I had to enlarge it. The result is that the title is blurred. And it's still undersized, I only enlarged the title at 150% because if I made it full size it would have looked even blurrier
Also, I had to darken eveything to match the title's black background. Much detail is lost, but a lot does remain. Also nothing is in the right place because I had no template of any kind to work with (unlike the red one). I just winged it. I do think it's better than what's on available on Google. Not as good as the red one I did though.
So here it is. I suspect that it might look pretty good when printed at CD size.
There were problems because I had to take the title from the one you posted but that was way too small so I had to enlarge it. The result is that the title is blurred. And it's still undersized, I only enlarged the title at 150% because if I made it full size it would have looked even blurrier
Also, I had to darken eveything to match the title's black background. Much detail is lost, but a lot does remain. Also nothing is in the right place because I had no template of any kind to work with (unlike the red one). I just winged it. I do think it's better than what's on available on Google. Not as good as the red one I did though.
So here it is. I suspect that it might look pretty good when printed at CD size.
Awesome work!! Thank you kindly.
Glad you like it. I took a minute to move things around and change the cropping. The positioning of everything is now really close to the positioning on the one you posted. I figured out that in slideshow mode they would both appear at the exact same size and I could toggle back and forth between the two and really see what's what.
Hopefully the one you posted is the way the actual album is...
I never get tired of looking at those images! Those are such amazing portraits!!
I asked earlier but got no response. What do you guys think about the songs that were chosen for The Best of Solos compilation? I feel like they really missed the mark in terms of choosing the best material from each solo album. If I were doing this compilation I would have chosen the following songs from each...
ACE:
1. Rip It Out
2. Snow Blind
3. New York Groove (this is not my 3rd favorite song from Ace's album but considering the success of the single you can't really leave it off.)
Gene:
1. Radioactive
2. Tunnel of Love
3. See You Tonight
Paul:
1. Tonight You Belong To Me
2. It's Alright
3. Wouldn't You Like To Know Me
Peter:
1. I'm Gonna Love You
2. Hooked On Rock and Roll
3. Easy Thing
I didn’t buy the individual solo albums for literally decades after I got this so I never questioned the Aussie track list.
After hearing Ace’s album I agree there were lots of other strong tracks on there. And yes, See You Tonight is a good ‘un from Gene, but Mr Make Believe is probably my favourite track from all four.
Hopefully the one you posted is the way the actual album is...
Actually I hate to say it, but I just noticed the original release has their portraits bigger/closer together:
But you've done enough! Thanks again
No, mine is way off from the actual album. I suspected that everything was too small, but didn't know what was what.
So I fixed it again. I couldn't leave it the way it was. If you're going to do something, do it right. Everything is real close now, and the titling is almost the correct size.
Anyway, here it is. i think this thing came out pretty good after all.
Okay this really is the final version here, I pasted in new names because they were blurry on mine and because the newest pic you posted had good ones.
(If you search under Germany it even has the alternative logo!)
Glad you like it. I actually printed it last night, put it in the CD I made, I guess as an alt. cover. It prints real nice, the overblown contrast actually translates pretty well to the cardstock. Same with the bright red in the Euro version I did
