Remastering

[SludgeFactory]

Originally posted by: ironwing
As some might have heard, the Beatle's catalog is being re-re-released tomorrow. This time it has been "re-mastered" and is therefore a hundred billion times better than the crap we're used to hearing fro the last 22 years. So what exactly do they do to the music to re-master it? Do the original tracks exist to be re-mixed? Do they take the original mixed tracks and play with the equalization? Do they run the tapes through autotune? What's the scoop?

There's usually some equalization, compression (yes, you have to have some), noise reduction, peak limiting, etc., applied during mastering. The original master tracks are always preferred if they can be acquired. Re-mixing is something else entirely, where you go into the individually recorded tracks within the master and change the arrangement and levels of specific vocals and instruments in the mix, generally something that the artist and producer had direct creative involvement in originally.

Most of the time, remastering is a ploy to sell you the same album again. Given modern mastering preferences, the remaster has a good chance of of sounding worse/harsher/like ass when compared to the original CD issue from the 80's/90's -- even though some of those original mid-80's CD's of back catalog material were rushed, didn't use original tapes, were flat transfers of the vinyl master, etc. I'd still rather listen to that than brickwall limited garbage.

As far as the Beatles go, their EMI catalog from 1987 is legitimately pretty poor, especially if you ever compare it to one of the better vinyl releases. A chief complaint with the '87 EMI releases is heavy-handed use of "No-Noise," a filter to remove analog tape hiss and pops as the music is transferred from the original tapes, which also effectively masks the music by chopping out good stuff in the frequency spectrum. If you've grown up on those EMI CD's and know the music well, the first time you hear a better version where some of those backing vocals just jump out at you and sound alive, it's a revelation (i.e. "WOW" followed by huge grin).

You can read more than you ever cared to on Beatles recordings at stevehoffman.tv (probably thousands of Beatles threads over the years, and they're going totally insane right now). For general mastering questions, this and this have some good info, and there's more here.

 

[Jesusthewererabbit]

Originally posted by: vi edit

Originally posted by: Jesusthewererabbit
Yeah, it rarely makes any difference to a normal joe sitting in his bedroom listening on PC speakers. Now, if they would take an ass recording, like "...And Justice for All", and remix it to have some low end, then there could be an improvement, but most of the time it's just trying to get people to buy it again.

Interesting you say that. If you have Rock Band, download the ...Justice tracks and give them a shot. Somebody turned up the bass volume.

🙂

I'd buy that for a dollar! However, I am hopeless at those games. I always try to actually play the song instead of the game, and it never goes well.

Has anyone actually heard any Beatles tracks yet?