Thriller 25 remaster, a bit polite?

[The_Lhc]

At the risk of being slated for my music taste (the missus wanted it, honest!), has anyone bought the Thriller 25 re-issue on CD? If so could you make any comment on how it sounds?

The reason I'm asking is I bought it on new vinyl and it sounds good, but it's unbelievably polite! Listening to something like Beat It, Eddie Van Halen's guitar solo is so, well, pleasant, it's lost all the excitement. Don't get me wrong, the sound isn't "bad", it's just, well boring, to be honest, all the excitement that I recall from listening to the songs originally seems to have been sucked out of the music, but I don't know whether it's the vinyl version or the re-mastered versions in general, so I was wondering if anyone with the CD had noticed the same thing?

It's not just Beat It incidentally, it's all the tracks, Thriller itself has lost all its creepiness and at times makes me wonder whether someone has slipped in the Casiotone version for a laugh!

 

[Anonymous]

Hi there,

I don't have the 25th CD version, but I have got the first remaster from a couple of years back and I reckon it sounded pretty bombastic compared to the vinyl. I don't know if that's still available but that's the one for me. If you can pick this up I'd personally go for this (along with the remaster of "Off The Wall")

Alot of people don't like the 25th version for all the awful remixes etc. From what I've also read the SACD version of Thriller isn't up to much at all in terms of audio quality.

 

[The_Lhc]

bleachershane:
Hi there,

I don't have the 25th CD version, but I have got the first remaster from a couple of years back and I reckon it sounded pretty bombastic compared to the vinyl. I don't know if that's still available but that's the one for me. If you can pick this up I'd personally go for this (along with the remaster of "Off The Wall")

Alot of people don't like the 25th version for all the awful remixes etc. From what I've also read the SACD version of Thriller isn't up to much at all in terms of audio quality.

Yeah I have to admit I haven't even taken the second disc with the remixes out of the sleeve! I'll keep my eyes open for the original remaster CD, cheers!

 

[Tear Drop]

Well the original LP is still pretty easy to come by, and you shouldn't pay much for a copy in top condition, problem solved.

 

[Ajani]

I Have the previous Special Edition on CD and it's excellent quality... You might want to try and find either an original or the Special Edition...

 

[Thaiman]

I am glad someone bring this subject up. Few weeks back I bought the whole "remaster" issue of Bon Jovi and what a waste of money they were! Comparing to the original mix (which was not great by any mean) the re-issue CDs sound like someone hook up a cheap graphic equalizer to the master tapes and push every buttons to the top!

There are some good re-master enginner about, The Cure's re-master are quite decent and the same can be said about Dire Straight but for most of the time it's a miss rather than hit.....imo

 

[Anonymous]

There are more than few record companies and 'remastering engineers' that seem to think that remaster means:

1) Make it louder (until all the dynamics are completely wiped out of the music whatsoever)

2) Turn up the treble

3) Turn up the bass

There's more than a few remasters I've had displeasure of hearing that don't better the original CDs (that were often frowned upon in the case of alot of 1980's and very early CDs) but they've actually made things worse!

It's got to the point nowadays that I rarely buy new remasters or even new CDs because of the awful remastering/mastering. If you want well mastered CDs you need to pay the premium in most cases, MFSL examples are usually the definitive release of alot of albums and small labels putting in the time and effort often get things right.

Glad to see that it wasn't just me that enjoyed the original remaster of "Thriller"! It sounded better to my ears than I even remember the original vinyl being when I was 5 years old lol

 

[The_Lhc]

bleachershane:
Glad to see that it wasn't just me that enjoyed the original remaster of "Thriller"! It sounded better to my ears than I even remember the original vinyl being when I was 5 years old lol

Sounds like I need to find the old versions, can't put up with Vincent Price sounding like Kenneth Williams anymore!