vainandy said:

MickyDolenz said:

Why are some people concerned about whether a CD is remastered or not? In a lot of cases, the album is just louder or the bass is pumped up. If that's what you want, just get Nero or some other software and do it yourself.

I understand exactly what you are saying. I can see why people would want remasters of the 1980s Prince CDs because they sound absolutely horrible. The sound is so low on them and they sound kinda muffled like the treble has been turned down. To me, they sound like someone recorded a cassette tape onto a CD.

But as someone who has a CD recorder, I'm not talking about a CD burner in a computer, I'm talking about an actual stereo component that is hooked into the stereo and you sit and manually record CDs just like we used to do when we would record cassette tapes back in the day, if I record an old Prince song from the vinyl onto a CD, it sounds wonderful. The sound is louder, the quality is crisper, and it sounds just like the original vinyl except it is now on an actual CD. That's because, even back in the day, vinyl always sounded better than cassettes but so many people bought cassettes because they could play them in the car which I always found rediculous because just buy the vinyl and make your own cassette and then you have both for the price of one. But I guess people weren't into as much as I was back then. But as I said before, the Prince CDs, sound like they were recorded from cassette tapes which never sounded as good as vinyl even back in the day. They were more for car stereos or portable boom boxes and people really didn't pay much attention to them back then because they were looking for convenience but if you played a cassette on a good home component system, you could tell the difference because cassettes always sounded horrible on home stereos. But these days, with advances in sound in car stereos, people are starting to hear the difference and if something that is supposed to be CD quality sounds like a cassette, it's going to sound horrible. But it trips me out the amount of money that people will spend on a car stereo system but when you get in their house, all they have is a little ass boom box or simply their computer speakers. That's ass backwards. I never invested much in car or portable devices anyway because they are just temporary, short term, ways of listening to simply get you from point A to point B. Plus, you can't shake ass in a car anyway so why does sound quality matter.

But I guess the point I'm trying to make is, a lot of the widespread demand for remastering these days is due to people who have never had the vinyl or have never heard the vinyl so all they've heard is the old CDs that sound like they were recorded from cassette tapes so naturally when they hear these songs up next to other CDs by other artists, they hear the dramatic drop in sound volume. And since people seem to be so obsessed with small portable devices these days and aren't going to invest in a big stereo system with a turntable, there would be a big demand for these CDs to be remastered and bring that volume up. But honey, I still say throw away those portable devices and get you the biggest stereo system you can find with a turntable because stereos are just like dicks, bigger is better and the bigger it is, the harder it pulsates and throbs.

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[Edited 6/7/11 3:17am]

Those Genesis box sets from a few years ago does have better sound quality. Like the original Lamb album sounds muddy, but the new version sounds clear. I think those were remixed and remastered though. I like the way the Yellow Submarine soundtrack was mixed in 1999. It has a fuller sound instead of the vocals on one speaker and the instruments on the other of the original versions of the songs. The Beatles 2009 remasters also sound better than the original 1987 CDs.

SoulAlive said:

armpit said:

I swear I think they do more than just jack up the bass or the sound, because to me they sound a lot crisper, too - I don't know how to explain it exactly.

when a CD is remastered properly,you will sometimes hear things that you didn't notice before! A perfect example is Heatwave's 'Central Heating'.The sound on the remaster is incredible!!

Yes!! I can't speak for anyone else, but I usually LOVE remastered albums and I tend to never listen to the previous versions again. Often times, I will listen to them in my studio with studio monitors and all sorts of things start jumping out of the mix that I'd never heard before.

I'm a musician, but that doesn't automatically make me a big audiophile---some of the rest of you really sound like you know your stuff and have the ears to be able to tell a bad remaster from a good one. But, I've enjoyed most of the remasters I've purchased, better than the original releases. Just for the fact that to MY ears, they tend to sound more full with improved clarity. I was disappointed in the Stevie remasters, though.

MickyDolenz said:

vainandy said:

I understand exactly what you are saying. I can see why people would want remasters of the 1980s Prince CDs because they sound absolutely horrible. The sound is so low on them and they sound kinda muffled like the treble has been turned down. To me, they sound like someone recorded a cassette tape onto a CD.

But as someone who has a CD recorder, I'm not talking about a CD burner in a computer, I'm talking about an actual stereo component that is hooked into the stereo and you sit and manually record CDs just like we used to do when we would record cassette tapes back in the day, if I record an old Prince song from the vinyl onto a CD, it sounds wonderful. The sound is louder, the quality is crisper, and it sounds just like the original vinyl except it is now on an actual CD. That's because, even back in the day, vinyl always sounded better than cassettes but so many people bought cassettes because they could play them in the car which I always found rediculous because just buy the vinyl and make your own cassette and then you have both for the price of one. But I guess people weren't into as much as I was back then. But as I said before, the Prince CDs, sound like they were recorded from cassette tapes which never sounded as good as vinyl even back in the day. They were more for car stereos or portable boom boxes and people really didn't pay much attention to them back then because they were looking for convenience but if you played a cassette on a good home component system, you could tell the difference because cassettes always sounded horrible on home stereos. But these days, with advances in sound in car stereos, people are starting to hear the difference and if something that is supposed to be CD quality sounds like a cassette, it's going to sound horrible. But it trips me out the amount of money that people will spend on a car stereo system but when you get in their house, all they have is a little ass boom box or simply their computer speakers. That's ass backwards. I never invested much in car or portable devices anyway because they are just temporary, short term, ways of listening to simply get you from point A to point B. Plus, you can't shake ass in a car anyway so why does sound quality matter.

But I guess the point I'm trying to make is, a lot of the widespread demand for remastering these days is due to people who have never had the vinyl or have never heard the vinyl so all they've heard is the old CDs that sound like they were recorded from cassette tapes so naturally when they hear these songs up next to other CDs by other artists, they hear the dramatic drop in sound volume. And since people seem to be so obsessed with small portable devices these days and aren't going to invest in a big stereo system with a turntable, there would be a big demand for these CDs to be remastered and bring that volume up. But honey, I still say throw away those portable devices and get you the biggest stereo system you can find with a turntable because stereos are just like dicks, bigger is better and the bigger it is, the harder it pulsates and throbs.

.

.

.

[Edited 6/7/11 3:17am]

Those Genesis box sets from a few years ago does have better sound quality. Like the original Lamb album sounds muddy, but the new version sounds clear. I think those were remixed and remastered though. I like the way the Yellow Submarine soundtrack was mixed in 1999. It has a fuller sound instead of the vocals on one speaker and the instruments on the other of the original versions of the songs. The Beatles 2009 remasters also sound better than the original 1987 CDs.

The GENESIS Box was one of the main things I had in mind. It sounds great!! But, it was indeed remixed from the ground up. I don't have a problem with that, except when things are altered to a point where it's expressing something different from the original---like the chorus of Back In NYC. I think they should have left that alone. But, at least I can clearly hear lots of things Steve Hackett was playing that I never knew he was playing.

The Beatles box set is one of my favorite purchases!!

gemari77 said:

MickyDolenz said:

Those Genesis box sets from a few years ago does have better sound quality. Like the original Lamb album sounds muddy, but the new version sounds clear. I think those were remixed and remastered though. I like the way the Yellow Submarine soundtrack was mixed in 1999. It has a fuller sound instead of the vocals on one speaker and the instruments on the other of the original versions of the songs. The Beatles 2009 remasters also sound better than the original 1987 CDs.

The Beatles box set is one of my favorite purchases!!

Yep!

I was pissed though when I found out later that some of the instrumentations were omitted from the studio version but were kept in the mono version and vice versa for the other instrumentations.

But I agree, the sound quality is top notch.

Harlepolis said:

gemari77 said:

The Beatles box set is one of my favorite purchases!!

Yep!

I was pissed though when I found out later that some of the instrumentations were omitted from the studio version but were kept in the mono version and vice versa for the other instrumentations.

But I agree, the sound quality is top notch.

I think a few of the mixes of songs on the USA Capitol albums were different than the ones on the British albums also.

MickyDolenz said:

Harlepolis said:

Yep!

I was pissed though when I found out later that some of the instrumentations were omitted from the studio version but were kept in the mono version and vice versa for the other instrumentations.

But I agree, the sound quality is top notch.

I think a few of the mixes of songs on the USA Capitol albums were different than the ones on the British albums also.

I don't get it. Why not keep the original mix as it is after you remaster it and make everybody happy? Why the hell would you manipulate the instrumentation during the process? Never could understand the purpose of this.

If the reason is because I should go out and buy all these different versions, you can go fuck yourself with the sharpest object made by man, this I will gladly & generously pay for.

Harlepolis said:

MickyDolenz said:

I think a few of the mixes of songs on the USA Capitol albums were different than the ones on the British albums also.

I don't get it. Why not keep the original mix as it is after you remaster it and make everybody happy? Why the hell would you manipulate the instrumentation during the process? Never could understand the purpose of this.

If the reason is because I should go out and buy all these different versions, you can go fuck yourself with the sharpest object made by man, this I will gladly & generously pay for.

I think at the time (1960's), a lot of people had mono record players. A lot of acts records were released with different mono and stereo mixes. As far as the Capitol albums go, they were trying to make as much money off the Beatles as possible, so they chopped up the albums, mixed them with singles, and you have records like Hey Jude and Beatles 64 or A Hard Day's Night with George Martin instrumentals. The group didn't like this and that was why they did that infamous "Butcher Babies" cover, which was quickly banned and worth a lot of money now.