I continue to be dissapointed with "Remastered" CD

Fac06 · Post by **Fac06** » Wed Jul 11, 2007 5:04 pm

Yeah I just got a "remastered" copy of Japans album Gentlemen Take Polaroids and am dissapointed...the CD that I have had since the late 80's always sounded pretty good but there was noise that you just know is from the duplication master that the label used. Well this remaster has all that noise still plus now the EQ/compression is all goofy......yes the stereo image is a bit wider and some of the highs are more prevalent but man is there abunch of crap going on from like 150 to 400hz! I purchased the remaster of Japans album Tin Drum when it came out and was pretty pleased with that. What is the deal with these remasters?? The technology is really there to do the job...I know that money can be as issue but I feel that the job to be done with most of these albums should be able to be done decently within a goodly amount of time and money?? IS magnetic tape fromthe 70's and 80's just falling apart or what??

MoreSpaceEcho · Post by **MoreSpaceEcho** » Thu Jul 12, 2007 8:44 am

yeah it sucks that the converters we have now are sooooooo much better than what was available in the 80s, and yet the remasters of records released then seem to be almost invariably worse than the originals....oh well.

apropos of nothing · Post by **apropos of nothing** » Thu Jul 12, 2007 10:13 am

Least its not on Cleopatra who actively screw up what had been really nice recordings. Hell, they'd be better if they captured a pristine copy of the vinyl and normalized it.

My pet peeve ferinstance is Christian Death, "Ashes". There's a transient and synth drone effect at the beginning of the track "Believers of the Unpure" that on the vinyl sounds like a some kind of Cthulhoid borg is sucking your brain out y'r ears with a tentacle. On the Cleopatra reissue it sounds like a lame backmask effect that should have been removed by the mastering engineer.

...Presuming there was one. Some of their crap isn't even redbook and I've heard of car-players rejecting their factory discs. Just stupid.

Another one that really boggles me is the Polygram reissue of X's Los Angeles/Wild Gift. Did they intentionally highpass that at 1000hz? Another case of why not reimage the damn vinyl?

Don't get me started...

trask · Post by **trask** » Mon Jul 16, 2007 12:09 pm

a friend of mine gave me a copy of a Black Sabbath album, digitally remastered, on vinyl!

I was baffled...

also, I just hate remix/remasters in general, because we all know how much artist/engineer work goes into getting it how you wanted it to sound, and then some other dude comes in, brings all this weird shit out, that they maybe didn't want there in the first place, and it just bothers me. ie: Jeff Buckley's Grace. Like Andy Wallace DIDN'T know what he was doing. I have a hard time believing someone else could make something he did BETTER when they weren't there for the original sessions.

And to me, the newer version sounds like crap.

Johnny B · Post by **Johnny B** » Wed Jul 18, 2007 9:02 pm

trask wrote: also, I just hate remix/remasters in general, because we all know how much artist/engineer work goes into getting it how you wanted it to sound, and then some other dude comes in, brings all this weird shit out, that they maybe didn't want there in the first place, and it just bothers me. ie: Jeff Buckley's Grace. Like Andy Wallace DIDN'T know what he was doing. I have a hard time believing someone else could make something he did BETTER when they weren't there for the original sessions.

Good point for some stuff, but in other cases the first CD was butchered and it really needed to be done again. Although by this point, it's getting silly. The first bunch of Stones remasters, sure, better converters, maybe an original master instead of a second gen, whatever. But the remastering every few years is a bit silly. Same with AC/DC. The only reason to redo any of the 1990's Ted Jensen stuff is to fix the speed issue on Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap. The rest of it is unnecessary.

Then there's the ridiculous remix of Who's Next. I have the CD that's half a remix, before they found all of the multi-tracks. And you know what, it doesn't really sound all that different and it doesn't really sound any better, so what the hell is the point of remixing it to sound like the original. At least when they remixed Quadrophenia to sound like Who's Next there was some sort of artistic decision made there.

What was my point? I forget. Oh yeah, I think this has something to do with my recent insistance on buying everything originally released on vinyl on vinyl and not on CD. If I can find and afford it, anyway.

MoreSpaceEcho · Post by **MoreSpaceEcho** » Thu Jul 19, 2007 10:59 am

this kind of makes me think that in the future there will still be vinyl, same as always, but people will be like "CDs? god, what were those things all about?"

darjama · Post by **darjama** » Thu Jul 19, 2007 11:19 am

Didn't I read about this in the Onion, "Area man disappointed with 'remastered' CD"?

Who needs remastered CDs? Just take a snapshot of the original vinyl:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/stor ... d=11851842

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I continue to be dissapointed with "Remastered" CD

I continue to be dissapointed with "Remastered" CD

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