Neon Library Vols. 1-4 (Remastered & Split)

I put all eight Neon Library mixes together some years ago, and I would probably rank the first four among my all-time favorite mixes. As far as library music goes, they are certainly near the top of my most-played list, especially Volumes 2 and 4.

As with most of my mixes, I never shared multitrack versions. Lately, though, I have been in the mood to create and share them, even though they never existed in that form originally. Unfortunately, I did not save playlists or identify every individual track for many of my mixes. That means I often cannot produce multitrack editions—not only because I no longer have the original track lists, but because I cannot identify a great many of the selections by title.

Of course I usually recognize the music immediately when I hear it, but I have never been especially concerned with memorizing track titles. The sheer amount of music I listen to makes it even more difficult to relocate particular pieces and rebuild an album track by track. So, to make a long story short, I would like to share more multitrack versions, but in many cases I simply cannot.

Fortunately, I did save the original playlists for this series. The biggest difference between these editions and the original mixes is the cover art. Back then, I used Patrick Nagel’s artwork, and my designs now look rather dated to me. That is not really a criticism of Nagel’s work so much as of my own implementation of it. These new editions correspond exactly to the originals, but this time the women come alive across the series. It creates a pretty striking effect, and I like the new covers a lot.

The series draws heavily from the catalogues of iconic libraries such as Bruton, Music House, and Sonoton, particularly its later CD-era releases, along with many others. Trevor Bastow and Geoff Bastow feature prominently. Their work is a perfect fit for this kind of music, and they also happen to be two of my all-time favorite library composers. There is also a great deal of underappreciated material from the Amphonic label, including music by Albert Alan Owen, Patrick Wilson and Adam Routh, and others.

I am sharing both FLAC and 320 kbps versions. I do not personally listen to FLAC, so I gathered those files from various sources online. Because of that, I cannot vouch for every FLAC file as being genuinely lossless. I understand the concern over fake FLACs, but I am not especially bothered by one as long as the track sounds good to me. I realize that statement may irritate a few audiophiles.

I listen at 320 kbps, and one advantage of these versions is that the tracks have been volume-matched, so there should not be sudden jumps between unusually quiet and unusually loud selections. Honestly, that bothers me far more than a track sounding slightly below perfect, assuming the difference is even noticeable.

As I have said many times, I usually cannot hear a meaningful difference between FLAC and 320 kbps. That does not mean other people cannot, but I have tested myself several times, and 320 works perfectly well for me. Given the size of my digital collection, it is also far more practical.