CD quality surprise

[davedotco]

Another example presented itself last evening, the 2009 remastered version of Autobahn. In this instance the recording was ruined by 'excessive' clarity, strands of music and 'effects' that were originally quite deep in the mix were lifted to really annoying levels, the mesmeric, rhythmic quality of the piece completely lost.

Conversely I was listening to the Computer World album from the same re-mastering sessions and I was very disappointed to find that the engineer doesn't seem to have taken the time to align the playback EQ correctly, with the result that NR pumping is very evident in places dulling and damping the sound, which they've then tried to correct during mastering by brightening it. Very shoddy remasters IMO. Give me a tape machine and the master tapes and I reckon I could have done a better job.

There are so many ways to f**k up a recorded musical performance that worrying about one aspect of the recording is quite futile.

 

[Al ears]

Another example presented itself last evening, the 2009 remastered version of Autobahn. In this instance the recording was ruined by 'excessive' clarity, strands of music and 'effects' that were originally quite deep in the mix were lifted to really annoying levels, the mesmeric, rhythmic quality of the piece completely lost.

Conversely I was listening to the Computer World album from the same re-mastering sessions and I was very disappointed to find that the engineer doesn't seem to have taken the time to align the playback EQ correctly, with the result that NR pumping is very evident in places dulling and damping the sound, which they've then tried to correct during mastering by brightening it. Very shoddy remasters IMO. Give me a tape machine and the master tapes and I reckon I could have done a better job.

There are so many ways to f**k up a recorded musical performance that worrying about one aspect of the recording is quite futile.

It's about time somebody said it...

 

[Frank Harvey]

There are so many ways to f**k up a recorded musical performance that worrying about one aspect of the recording is quite futile.

Whilst I appreciate what you're saying, as with anything, it's a case of getting the basics right first.

 

[davedotco]

There are so many ways to f**k up a recorded musical performance that worrying about one aspect of the recording is quite futile.

Whilst I appreciate what you're saying, as with anything, it's a case of getting the basics right first.

Recording technology has been capable of "the basics" for more than 50 years.

Go and play, on a good system of course, an original pressing of Time Out, recorded in 1959 the sound quality is exceptional. The stereo version throws a 3D soundstage most modern releases can only dream of, the unusual time signatures are easy to follow, it just sounds so real.

Modern pop music is produced to suit modern tastes, the less said about that the better.

It is the deliberate destruction of great recordings that I find most dissapointing, particularly as it is so un-necessary. The 'remastered to make everything sound as loud as possible' culture is the problem, as I have said elsewhere, a little extra compression to suit modern listening habits does not bother me that much, but some of the other techniques used are, to my ears, objectional in the extreme.

 

[TrevC]

But don't you find that the more compressed albums tend to have more clipping as well?

No reason why they should.

It's possible that in transferring from the original master to the CD master, the engineer in charge did not pass it through a compression machine. They simply whacked up the gain too much during the transfer. Resulting in CD's that have clipping and are also therefore dynamically compressed.

Then you aren't really talking about compression at all. A compressed sound is one where the peaks are gain reduced and the quiet parts boosted to give a sound where everything is the same volume, like an Optimod as used in broadcasting. There is no clipping. A recording with the gain increased will retain its dynamic range right up to the point of clipping.

 

[TrevC]

Another example presented itself last evening, the 2009 remastered version of Autobahn. In this instance the recording was ruined by 'excessive' clarity, strands of music and 'effects' that were originally quite deep in the mix were lifted to really annoying levels, the mesmeric, rhythmic quality of the piece completely lost.

Conversely I was listening to the Computer World album from the same re-mastering sessions and I was very disappointed to find that the engineer doesn't seem to have taken the time to align the playback EQ correctly, with the result that NR pumping is very evident in places dulling and damping the sound, which they've then tried to correct during mastering by brightening it. Very shoddy remasters IMO. Give me a tape machine and the master tapes and I reckon I could have done a better job.

I have an 80s LP pressing of American Beauty by the Grateful Dead with the same problem, but thankfully all is well on the CD.