Remaster of a Remaster of a Remaster...too much of a good thing?

[Magic]

Too much of a good thing.........

The only difference in some of the re-remasters is the addition of bonus material. Usually this bonus material is an outtake that didn't make the cut on a previously released studio album.


IMHO, it would be better for the fans if they would just collect all this bonus material and make an album of that versus all the remaster collections!

 

[Groovy Man]

Keep 'em coming...because, I don't wanna miss out on a good remastering job.

The only thing is, sometimes, a lot of the time, they do a lousy job in the remastering .

So, what I do now is, if something is remastered, I read a review, or wait for word of mouth from friends, or sample them online, before purchasing a remastered CD.

It's a crap shoot, when buying remastered albums. Recently, I just picked up the Hendrix remasters, and they were better than the remastering jobs they did in the 90's, so I was pleased.



LG's right, some of these new remastering jobs are too loud...why is that?

Personally, I find the Japanese do a better job remastering. I have quit a bit of Japanese remasters and they all sound fantastic.

And a lot of those Gold discs, sound great too.

 

[LG]

^^The Japanese are sticklers for quality control and always want the best possible results when they are doing anything with CD's, and before that vinyl.(One thing though, England, Germany, The US and Canada too have always made better speakers for some reason,,,and I am not talking about esoteric models that cost the down payment on a house, simple entry level loudspeakers and mid range and top of the line we have always made better quality ones than Japan.)

Although I understand why you are still excited by new releases of old classic recordings Groovy I just don't like being taken for granted. You cannot just slap a "Newly Remastered" sticker on a new batch and get me running to the store to buy them anymore. I don't think any of the CD's now being pressed have improved on MFSL's analog or digital releases, which were done decades ago.

 

[Fisha]

Umm if they think they ccan make a song better good on them, you don't have to buy it if you don't want it?

 

[b.o.b.]

I buy re-mastered editions only if I don't have the album on Cd yet. It happened with some U2 albums last year when I bought the re-mastered Boy, War, Joshua Tree and Under a Blood Red Sky. Or with some Marillion Fish era albums. I did not buy these albums because they were re-mastered but because I could only found these re-issues cds in stores and these albums were missing from my collection. I must admit that the re-mastered editions are looking great. I agree with the audiophiles re-issues but unfortunately these are very expensive and hard to find for me. So I will stick to the regular editions but if the original issue is out of print, then the re-mastered cd is the only solution.

 

[LG]

Umm if they think they ccan make a song better good on them, you don't have to buy it if you don't want it?

The whole point is they are Not always making a better version, it's about marketing Fisha more than anything else.

I don't know about Australia, but here one laundry detergent company "invents" a "New Improved Tide" every year since I've been a little kid to now.

They have Not surpassed the quality of the labels/specialty companies that I mentioned earlier that confirms my belief the prime motive is just to make money. Add into that the well known fact that the majority of kids today don't buy CD's at all and you are left with the rest of us that still want them and don't buy lossy files off i-tunes or the other DL'd sites.

 

[Riff Raff]

Some albums need remastering as their original quality sounds like shit to me.
Id like to see more albums get remastered or reissued at least.
Chose the wrong poll option, I dont like every album being remastered all the time, in fact not many should get the repeated treatment, thats where I would have voted. Id like some albums to get an update though.

 

[LG]

^^I have examples of both, some first run CD's that sound better than new ones being made right now. But there are some terrible botched transfers of older classic albums, for some reason the engineers did a terrible job and there is no excuse.

Classical music CD's recorded digitally sound magnificent, far better overall quality than rock music. Maybe hire some engineers from those labels to do a proper analog to digital transfer for us.

 

[Riff Raff]

I agree some remasters have in some way compromised the quality of the music.
Albums that could do with a remastering for mine are And Justice for All ( gimme some bloody bass ffs, bad mixing by Metallica not having bass), reduce the volume in Death Magnetic, Louden up Master of Puppets ( hate having to turn my speakers all the way up for it its that quiet)
Far as reissues go, Id love bands to start reissuing albums that dont normally sell often in shops.

 

[LG]

I think they would be better off re-recording And Justice for All, there's only so much doctoring you can do when the master tapes are that poorly done.

Death Magnetic, a perfect example of the "Loudness War" that many older fans hate with a passion. I have a DL'd copy that a sound engineer remixed to get the balance right, it sounds better than the label release.