Remasters worth buying?

[Peter Larsen]

Since WH's forum does not have a Music topic I will ask here.

Wouldn't it be great if we could make a thread about great remasters worth buying and perhaps warn about those god awful loudness remasters to stay away from.

I suggest people write the artist/album/year of remaster and why it sounds better.

 

[The_Lhc]

Go on then, you first...

 

[Clare Newsome]

Since WH's forum does not have a Music topic I will ask here.

Wouldn't it be great if we could make a thread about great remasters worth buying and perhaps warn about those god awful loudness remasters to stay away from.

I suggest people write the artist/album/year of remaster and why it sounds better.

See you found the music and movie forum, then

Great topic, btw

 

[Anonymous]

Great idea.

i would love to know whats hot and whats not

Matt

 

[chebby]

What about the Queen 2011 re-masters then?

There is a bit of a Queen following amongst the womenfolk in this house.

I was thinking of getting this CD triple set. The feedback looks good (although not many).

Can anyone confirm if they did a good job on it?

 

[matthewpiano]

The Queen remasters are mostly very good. I have the remasters of 'A Night At The Opera, 'Queen II', and 'Greatest Hits I & II', and 'Queen II' is particularly good. It is my favourite Queen album anyway and the remaster is a huge step up from the previous 2004 CD.

The 40th Anniversary of Jethro Tull's 'Aqualung' is a superb example of the remastering art, further aided by a sensitive and very effective remixing job by Steven Wilson. Finally this great album has the sound it deserves and I enjoy listening to it more regularly now.

I have also been very impressed with the recent remaster of my favourite Pink Floyd album - 'Animals'. The earlier CD always sounded a bit opaque and grey to me, but the remaster opens everything out again.

Finally the remasters of the Barclay James Harvest catalogue have been done superbly. The EMI Harvest era albums have been done particularly beautifully, but the classic 1970s Polydor albums have also received excellent remasters. 'Gone To Earth', in particular, benefits greatly from the remastering, again sounding less flat and grey than it did on the earlier CD.

 

[chebby]

Thanks. I shall get the 2011 remastered version of QGH I, II and III Platinum box set.

 

[Peter Larsen]

I found Van Halens debut album remastered in 2011 very good. The sound is open and the drums kick you in the face.

Thin Lizzy's Black Rose deluxe edition 2011 is not any good though. Sounds flat, bright and without any bass.

 

[WX]

The remastered CD albums I have are these...

Herbie Hancock - Thrust (1974), Sony/Columbia Jazz Originals (2000 ?). = just excellent sound.

Billy Cobham - Spectrum (1973), Warner Jazz/Atlantic Masters (2005 ?). = even so excellent sound.

Alan Parsons Project - Tales of mystery and imagination (1976), Polygram/Mercury (1987). = this is an ADD, Parson did the digital remix himself. There is an amazingly spacious sound from the classical parts aswell the rockin' songs.

Mike Oldfield - The Collection & Tubular Bells (70's), Mercury/Universal (2009). = new 'stereo mixes' done by Oldfield in his own studio's @home. The sound is of very good quality, lots of details to hear.

Beatles - Past Masters (60's), Apple/EMI (2009). = the much debated 'digital remasters', various songs, some nice sounding some still a bit harsh but it's good to have those classic songs and rare B-sides and all.

Jean Michel Jarre - Oxygene, Live in your livingroom (1976), Capitol/EMI (2007). = a re-recorded 24b/96kHz CD version and a Live Studio version on DVD. It has a very 'big' sound, you play in stereo but sounds like surround.

ELO - Out of the blue (1977), Epic/Sony-BMG (2007). = the '30th anniversary edition', great songs but doesn't sound very different/better than same songs played from a 'best of...' CD.

happy listening!

 

[The_Lhc]

Jean Michel Jarre - Oxygene, Live in your livingroom (1976), Capitol/EMI (2007). = a re-recorded 24b/96kHz CD version

How does that work then?

 

[WX]

It's just that the Oxygene 30th anniversary CD album is a remastered version after the original tapes have been re-recorded and mixed in 24b/96kHz @ JMJ Studios.



Like most of today's remasters, which some of them are available as DVD-A or HiRes download.

 

[The_Lhc]

Right but the cd itself is only 16/44.

 

[toyota man]

I have never turn your back on a friend and in for the kill budgie very good remasters and extra bonus tracks to boot if you like bredfan i suggest that you have a listen:rockout:

 

[drichardb]

Can't beat a bit of Breadfan!! Another thing on the list that makes me feel proud to be Welsh :rockout:

I've got the Dire Straits remasters of Love over Gold and Brothers in Arms and the majority of the Rush Remasters.

IMO all of them are inferior to the originals due to being louder and losing dynamics - Love over Gold in particular.

Thankfully a relative had all the original CD releases from the 80's so I ripped them to WAV on my PC and use the remaster CD's for putting practice

 

[Anonymous]

Hi,

question on ledzep4

There is a noticable difference in quality as i would expect. but the main difference is that on the original cd the opening parts of Stairway to Heaven ( the guitar and recorder ) comes out of the different speakers to all the others ( ie it comes out of the left when it comes out of the right on the other versions ) .

Other than that I find the remastered versions too 'smooth' - particularly ledzep3.

Do I have a 'duff' copy of ledzep4 or is this a known mistake in the mastering on this?

cheers

 

[Gusboll]

The 40th Anniversary of Jethro Tull's 'Aqualung' is a superb example of the remastering art, further aided by a sensitive and very effective remixing job by Steven Wilson. Finally this great album has the sound it deserves and I enjoy listening to it more regularly now.

Oh my word! Just got the Steven Wilson remastered Aqualung and it is fantastic.As the man himself states in the sleeve-notes; everything sounds like it's been given a lift but without straying too much into a 'modern' sound as others have done.

I've listened to this album regularly for a lot of years on both vinyl and CD and this version is by far the best.

 

[BigH]

Yes this is a good idea. I was looking at buying some Led Zepp but was put off by some negative reviews about sound quality, some say the original cds are better. The problem is also there are many different versions available all different quality. You can read things like the Japan 1994 version is the best or the SA hybrid is the one to buy etc.

 

[DIB]

The 40th Anniversary of Jethro Tull's 'Aqualung' is a superb example of the remastering art, further aided by a sensitive and very effective remixing job by Steven Wilson. Finally this great album has the sound it deserves and I enjoy listening to it more regularly now.

Oh my word! Just got the Steven Wilson remastered Aqualung and it is fantastic.As the man himself states in the sleeve-notes; everything sounds like it's been given a lift but without straying too much into a 'modern' sound as others have done.

I've listened to this album regularly for a lot of years on both vinyl and CD and this version is by far the best.

I may well invest in this one. I bought the 25 yr anniversary re-issue back in 1996 but that got a lot of bad press for the quality of the remaster. Quite right too, sounds pretty flat and uninvolving.

Hopefully this new Steven Wilson effort will be worth it. If it's anything like his King Crimson productions then I'm sure it will be.

.

 

[6th.replicant]

IMHO, the following have all achieved decent results without resorting to dynamic-range-crushing compression:

David Bowie's studio back catalogue [reissued 1998] and the live albums, David Live and Stage [2005]

Roxy Music / Bryan Ferry [reissued 1999]

Stevie Wonder [reissued 2000]

Kraftwerk [reissued 2009]

Neil Young [reissued 2009]

Bob Marley [reissued 2001]

AFAIC, Led Zep's remasters still sound too bass-shy.

And for classical, the EMI Masters series has done a great job as has Deutsche Grammophon's The Originals. And Verve's jazz remasters are normally top notch, and in many instances disprove the old adage, "You can't polish a ..."

 

[Blackdawn]

In the end its still about the music. For example, I'm probably not going to buy two copies of the same album on CD unless I already know I like the music. For example, I've got two copies of the first 3 or 4 Neil Young albums and I already know the albums are great so I decided to invest in the newer remastered versions. I may also do the same for Aqualung and others

I've just got John Fogerty's The Long Road Home for Christmas which is excellent but I wouldn't have a clue whether previous versions sound as good or not. Cosmo's Factory (40th anniversary edition) is great as well.

In the end for me the music has a priority over release version.