Re-record which album?

Tommy wrote: If you could pick an album that could be re-recorded by original band members using today's state of the art technology which would you choose? Do you think an album could be improved by doing so? Personally I would choose ELP's debut & Foxtrot! Great albums but the production lets them down and they sound very dated now IMO!

This thread should belong to the tech talk section IMO.
Remastered CDs MAY sound better than former versions whereas it can be worst –especially when they bumped the low which results in a dribbling low-.
No absolute rule.

Some are great, like the Caravan and the Camel DERAM remasters.

valravennz wrote: Only one album I wanted to see remastered was Steve Hackett's "Voyage of The Acolyte". I have two copies on vinyl and one on CD. The vinyl original mastering was not very good imo. My CD copy is also the non-remastered version. It sounds slightly better than the vinyl but still lacks bass and sounds "tinny" to me. If anyone has the new remastered version, I would love to know if there is a noticeable difference in sound quality as compared to the original masters.

Oh yes, so much good music in the 70's that would sound so much better with better recording equipment. Then of course, who ever is at the helm of the recording equipment can still mess it up. I have some recordings from the 50's that are very very good. All jazz and classical. Proof that it could be done. Most pop and rock is very badly recorded.  Some jazz and classical recordings in the here and now are incredible sounding.

My Fruit Psychobells... A Seed Combustible definitely.

 -- Ivan

Kansas' In the spirit of things. Too many 80's Miami Vice/Flock of Seagulls synth production elements, which is unfortunate because the songwriting and performance is excelllent.

The same goes for albums made by Caravan, Strawbs and Rennaisance to name a few in the late 70's/early 80's that suffered from New Wave production.

As for Kansas, they should have changed the vocalist about 10 years ago as Steve Walsh lost it. Their comeback: Somewhere to Nowhere on Magna Carta reveals this

stechell wrote: I'm not keen on re-recordings. There's one terrible example on how new technologies and their abuse when it reaches old musicians' hands may produce. CARAVAN "Travelling Ways". I almost cried when listened to the new versions of their classics. What a terrible experience!!! Please, keep the originals as they are. Remasters are fine!!! HMMMM...now thinking about it, maybe Rush are good candidates...Instrumentals or a good new vocalist, leaving The Witch as a bass player and not destroying their great music!!.

i agree. i think trying to rerecord the past & put a contemporary stamp on old records is wrong. just leave the records to themselves.I find the rerecording of records takes away a level of humanity & fragility that makes them somehow.....real.

I'm not keen on re-recordings. There's one terrible example on how new technologies and their abuse when it reaches old musicians' hands may produce. CARAVAN "Travelling Ways". I almost cried when listened to the new versions of their classics. What a terrible experience!!! Please, keep the originals as they are. Remasters are fine!!!

HMMMM...now thinking about it, maybe Rush are good candidates...Instrumentals or a good new vocalist, leaving The Witch as a bass player and not destroying their great music!!.

SaintVitus wrote: ELP's re-recording of Pictures at an Exhibition (i think it's from 1993) shows how much you can improve an old record by using state of the art technology....IMO the new recording is so much better.

 

Ouch, I would love to listen to that but I never listen to ELP's Pictures, so I can listen to the original without hearing, born in lifes fire in the back of my head. It took me years to get there.  I used to listen to it religiously, everyday after school.

MikeEnRegalia wrote: There are some albums that I'd love to see re-recorded: Shadow Gallery - Shadow Gallery Ayreon - Actual Fantasy (has already been done - sounds AWESOME!) Porcupine Tree - Voyage 34 Symphony X - Symphony X (The re-recorded version of Masquerade shows the potential!) Dream Theater - WDADU

I completely agree

FragileDT wrote: Empathy wrote: Blacksword wrote: I would like to see the following albums re-recorded, with whatever technique... A farewell to Kings - Rush Really? What's your issue with this one? Yeah I've always found the production on Rush albums from 2112 and on sound great.

There are number of issues with this album, and not all relate to its production. I did think the production was inferior to both 2112 and Hemispheres, it seemed to dry, and the top end can disort badly when played a volume. The vinyl was especially bad for this.

Apart from that, although the songs are gerat - in some cases some of Rush's best ever - some of Alex's guitar playing seems rough and hurried. I think he was trying to perfect a less typical rock guitar sound at the time - almost a punk rhythim guitar sound - but his playing just doesn't seem as sharp and accurate as it was on 2112 and Hemispheres. Geddy's keyboards are also badly out of tune, especially on Cygnus X-1.

I've always thought that Genesis Trespass contained their most sincere music --- this was a time when their compositions were not contaminated by the whims of producers (or demanding fans for that matter...they didn't really have any fans then). Trespass was them just playing what they wrote. But the music on this album was not done much justice by the primitive recording of it.

I like to imagine what Trespass would have sounded like, if the band would have re-recorded it  at later time, say during the Selling England [..] period when their technical capabilites were better advanced. But we'll never know...