Remastered CD

I become interested in remastering only if the original recording had a bad mix or was not cleaned up. There are recordings that sounded horrible on LP and horrible on the first cd issue. These are worthwhile to hear if remastered. It' sometimes depends on who originally produced the tape. For example: Most of what Ken Scott produced in the 70's and 80's sounded remarkable on LP. So on cd you could expect a great sound, instead of a 70's prog record that sounded like it was recorded in a cardboard box.

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Remastering seems overated to me in the case of certain titles. Titles that are re-released on digi-pk or gatefold and are remastered such as the first ELP. I still hear the distortion in the bass guitar on several tracks. The same goes for Yes...Close To the Edge, and The Yes Album. However an album like Supertramp's Crisis What Crisis does not need many finishing touches. 10CC'S albums were produced great and the clarity was phenomenal. When I play Billy Cobham's Total Eclipse I have to turn the bass booster on. With the remastering of Jethro Tull's Minstrel In the Gallery, I find myself turning down the bass down for the title track, Cold Wind To Valhalla, and Black Satin Dancer. But I use to do the same thing in the 70's when I played the LP on a technics turntable with JBL Speakers.

Gentle Giant's Octopus always sounded like what I would consider perfect production. With  KC-Larks Tongues In Aspic, I've always hated the sound of that album. The playing is great, the material is great but the production has too much bottom end and the highs distort because of it. And it's depressing because they are one of my favorite bands. The bass is cut back on Starless and Bible Black, if you ever may notice.

Some recordings have been toyed with and I don't appreciate that. Inner Mounting Flame by Mahavishnu Orchestra has a sound overall that reminds me of a band playing in my living room. If someone were to destroy that sound concept by bouncing a reverb effect in and out, it would pretty much ruin things for me. Birds Of Fire featured a reverb sound throughout but it complimented the music. When Fripp remastered Larks for the 30th anniversary, the signature notes that Muir played in the intro for Larks part 1, fade out and other various percussion overshadows that melody line. I keep looking for the original on the EG label just so I can hear it again. You can't trust re-mixing a hundred percent.

I'm happy with remastering half the time, so about 50% I am discouraged with. It's always a hard call to make.

I thought I heard they did it to Pearl Jam's Ten album, and they did it to the Beatles Let It Be (naked) where they removed Spector's 'Wall Of Sound' so that the actual music could be heard. A far better work now that it was done. On the last BSS CD I bought, there was an instrument version of KE9, but only the 1st and 2nd Impressions. That requires a remix of sorts, although they may they have just called up the previous automation and then dropped or muted the vocal faders. In that case it's not really a remix, more of an edit I would think.

The term "Remastered" seems to have different means to some. Mastring is the process of preparing a recording, that has already been recorded, mixed,and edited, for final production. It can include but is not limited to the addition of compression and EQ'ing as well as a few other technologies to the each song as a whole. And while Remastering can help a recording's sound, I'd like to see some "Remixes" get done. And by Remix I mean back to the original multi track tapes, re-EQ the tracks, use current reverb technology, compress the drums for a little more balls in the recordings that sort of thing. Cost prohibitive I'm sure, but that would be really great to hear and I think it could breathe new life into many older recordings.

I'm buying CD's for about two years or more, so most of them are pretty recent remasters. I've never actually been comparing a remaster and to an older CD, so I don't really know the differences... but I assume the remasters are more polished and a more pleasant listen most times (though I have read some reviews where people weren't happy with the quality of the remastered album). I like the bonus tracks on some of my remasters, like on PH's In Camera and JT's Stormwatch, and the bonus track might actually be a reason for me to upgrade an older album to a remaster. The only remaster I'm really aiming for is ITCOTCK, which I don't have yet... In October this year (I believe) the remaster is coming with new material, in the form of a double CD or even a 4CD/DVDA box set! I'm kind of looking forward to hear what the bonus material is.

chopper wrote: I'm willing to buy remasters of favourite CDs. Recent ones such as Paranoid and Trick of the Tail have been worth the money.

Yes A Trick of the Tail has a rare performance of Genesis with Bill Bruford in 1976.

paulwalker71 wrote: With so much new music around, plus music that I'm discovering all the time, there simply aren't the resources to be buying remastered CD's of stuff I already have. Naturally, I'll buy the latest remaster of something I don't have, so I voted for that option

I'm with you Paul. It is challenging enough to keep up with the steady release of great new material. Re-masters are genrally a luxury although exceptions have been made for the likes of Genesis 1970-1975.

With so much new music around, plus music that I'm discovering all the time, there simply aren't the resources to be buying remastered CD's of stuff I already have.

Naturally, I'll buy the latest remaster of something I don't have, so I voted for that option

each remastered CD is another step closer to the original..

If I'm not happy with the edition I have (that is, if I assume the remaster will sound remarkably better), and if I happen to find the remaster for a good price, I will probably buy it. Obviously it also depends on how much I like the album and whether the remaster comes in a cool package or with interesting bonus tracks.

CryoftheCarrots wrote: Really looking forward to the remastered/5.1 mixed King Crimson albums.

Wow! Didn't know that one! Maybe the future of music. Make all album and cd on 5.1!