General Music Discussions - The Flower Kings 2022 remasters

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The Flower Kings 2022 remasters

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Forum Name: General Music Discussions
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URL: http://www.progarchives.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=132270
Printed Date: November 26 2024 at 14:43
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Topic: The Flower Kings 2022 remasters

Posted By: hugo1995
Subject: The Flower Kings 2022 remasters
Date Posted: December 20 2023 at 13:01

They've absolutely gutted iconic and loved albums. They've changed the entire album and the epic to be an "alternate track" where they changed pretty much every instrument, solo and vocal track to be something new. The only problem is I love the original and this change is too strange.

Example: One of my highlights is this repeated section throughout the epic that has this weird portamento-style synth slide similar to a ribbon controller

1. (The original remaster, timestamped) https://youtu.be/aOOEewAT7cg?t=159

2. The 2022 remaster, removed the weird synth and made all the instruments sound less impactful and hollow https://youtu.be/u5hXW2GODwI?list=OLAK5uy_l_F1nV5tZIHK99-bRntIx3tkItL_-_bJU&t=161

Just a rant on it, I own every TFK album and Unfold The Future is one of the most unique and certain techniques the engineer has employed on the 2022 remaster feels like an injustice.

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interests: Moon Safari, Gilgamesh, Egg, ELP, Soft Machine, Gong, Opeth (Everything pre watershed), Brighteye Brison, The Flower Kings

Replies:

Posted By: Hrychu
Date Posted: December 20 2023 at 15:48

That's the reason I didn't buy any of the remastered editions. Fortunately I have all the original mixes of TFK's albums up to and including By Royal Decree. The biggest flaw of Roine's odd way of doing these is that on each "remastered" album only some of the songs get a brand new mix/rerecording, while the rest does not. That ruins the sonic consitency of the albums to me.

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“On the day of my creation, I fell in love with education. And overcoming all frustration, a teacher I became.”
— Ernest Vong

Posted By: hugo1995
Date Posted: February 20 2024 at 12:33

It does seem a very Roine thing to do - Transatlantic basically does the same thing on their latest album by side-releasing an altered version (although in this instance it is actually considered a separate album I believe).

I contacted him about this and I felt bad that he might think I didn't enjoy a release, when in fact this is a good release. Unfold the Future (especially the epic The Truth Will Set You Free) is just one of my favorite albums and having autism I know each and every part and instrument to the point I could recreate it, and I HATE changes in most things let alone one of my favorite pieces by one of my favorite bands.

Anyway, I don't want to get sidetracked and I received a very reasonable answer which makes sense now:

Also there is a element of technical difficulties with the older recording -
that were sort of - low budget recordings ; thus certain medias like
Reel to reel - ADAT , early harddrive recording systems .with some of the synths
just locked in with midi - and those synths are no longer in our/my possession.
So we tried to replicare but with some details lost and some new added/different.

Hope that explain som of the sonic surprises.

Kind
Roine

I produce as a career so I can actually understand the difficulties here. Until about 5-6 years ago I was careless at backing up data, not to mention VST's/software goes out of support and doesn't work on modern windows etc. Imagine restoring digital/DAW projects using outdated technology from the late 90s on the modern DAW...

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interests: Moon Safari, Gilgamesh, Egg, ELP, Soft Machine, Gong, Opeth (Everything pre watershed), Brighteye Brison, The Flower Kings

Posted By: Hrychu
Date Posted: February 20 2024 at 13:47

Sad to hear such a remarkable piece of histoy is lost now.

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“On the day of my creation, I fell in love with education. And overcoming all frustration, a teacher I became.”
— Ernest Vong