Remastering

[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?

 

[ebaycj]

often times it involves re-sampling the analog masters at a better bit rate / sampling rate (e.g. 32bit/192khz), then re-doing all the processing steps at the higher bit rate / sampling rate, then adding any new processing steps they deem necessary, then finally re-sampling it down to 16bit / 44.1khz for cd release.

Usually, unless the mastering was very bad to begin with, it will sound 99.9% the same when you compare "old" CD to "new" CD, because both are limited to 16bit/44.1khz.
However, if you get a SACD / DVD-Audio that is sampled at a higher bit rate and/or sample rate, that will nearly always sound better (on good equipment).

Really, any differences will be slight, unless you spent mucho $$$ on your listening equipment.

 

[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.

 

[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.

🙂

 

[Rubycon]

Depending on the source and genre sample rate and bit depth may make significant difference or no difference at all. The latter is more the rule than the exception.

Some remasters may sound really good and others add artificial ambiance or reverb which detracts from the original IMO.

What they should do is release the original tracks on BD format and allow experienced folks master them as they please! 😀

 

[rockyct]

By "remaster", they better not mean destroy the dynamic contrast of the music to make every sound at the same, loud volume.

 

[Rubycon]

Originally posted by: rockyct
By "remaster", they better not mean destroy the dynamic contrast of the music to make every sound at the same, loud volume.

Yes they could do that too. RMS normalize to make it much louder. 🙁

 

[IronWing]

Originally posted by: Rubycon

Originally posted by: rockyct
By "remaster", they better not mean destroy the dynamic contrast of the music to make every sound at the same, loud volume.

Yes they could do that too. RMS normalize to make it much louder. 🙁

This is kind of what I was fearing.

 

[seemingly random]

They resurrected the dead beatles and re-recorded everything. The budget buster was acquiring the various drugs required for the various time periods.

 

[EGGO]

Originally posted by: rockyct
By "remaster", they better not mean destroy the dynamic contrast of the music to make every sound at the same, loud volume.

I've heard they made sure this will not happen.

 

[skace]

All of the aspects have been touched upon, however, Rockyct mentioned the main reason that "Remastering" has any sort of negative connotation. The loudness wars caused remastering of CDs that destroyed the low and high ranges of the music. Which also created something called clipping. I would hope they'd get a good studio and use some great source material to remaster the Beatles albums. Here's to hoping that happens.

 

[Platypus]

The Beatles remasters sound amazing.. warm and bright.

Definitely get the mono mixes though.. fuck that fake stereo bullshit they did on a few albums.

 

[NL5]

Originally posted by: Rubycon

Originally posted by: rockyct
By "remaster", they better not mean destroy the dynamic contrast of the music to make every sound at the same, loud volume.

Yes they could do that too. RMS normalize to make it much louder. 🙁

More like brick wall limit to make them louder. 😉

 

[Lonyo]

I was listening to something not Beatles at all as an mp3 and had to check the bitrate because it sounded so crap. 320kbps and it might as well have been 64.
Hopefully they will have someone with their head screwed on right overseeing this project. I don't like the Beatles, but that isn't an excuse to want to see their music destroyed by remastering.

 

[Codewiz]

I know this will be considered blasphemy BUT I think it would be awesome if they got someone to remix the albums. Now keep in mind this isn't the "remixing" that you here about today of adding crap. This is just changing how the songs are produced and mixed.

For example, Pearl Jam got a producer to remix their original Ten album. I believe the remix album is superior to the original. The songs are still the same. But the production quality just improved the album IMO.

 

[oynaz]

The remastering will probably use noise filtering to remove some of the noise, gain and compression to make the recordings louder (this is a good thing if done right), and, most importantly, use algorithms (like Sonic Maximizer) to reduce phase problems.

 

[DougK62]

Originally posted by: rockyct
By "remaster", they better not mean destroy the dynamic contrast of the music to make every sound at the same, loud volume.

This is why I don't buy music anymore. It ALL seems to be this crap now and it's awful.

 

[NL5]

Originally posted by: oynaz
The remastering will probably use noise filtering to remove some of the noise, gain and compression to make the recordings louder (this is a good thing if done right), and, most importantly, use algorithms (like Sonic Maximizer) to reduce phase problems.

Please explain how limiting to make a track "louder" makes it better in any way, shape, or form.

...and "sonic maximizer" are you serious?!?!?!?!?

 

[MrChad]

Originally posted by: Platypus
The Beatles remasters sound amazing.. warm and bright.

Definitely get the mono mixes though.. fuck that fake stereo bullshit they did on a few albums.

Is the mono only available in the limited edition box set?

 

[rbV5]

Story Highlights
Engineers spent more than four years on Beatles catalog remastering

Group strived to stay as close to originals as possible, yet clean up flaws

One of the biggest surprises: hearing the mono versions

Complete CNN interview with EMI engineers Allan Rouse, the project coordinator, and Sean Magee


story link

Rouse: When they were originally transferred to CD in 1986, digital technology was in its infancy and the gap of 22 years has allowed for a great increase in that technology. So the transfers are far superior now and that was before we actually did any work to them.

In addition to that, we had decided that we wanted to remove or improve technical faults within the recordings that could have been a bad edit, a dropout, vocal sibilance, vocal pops. Things that were directly related to the technical recording rather than the human recordings, so in other words we haven't taken out breaths or little coughs or squeaky chairs or Ringo's occasional squeaky bassdrum pedal
.

 

[Rubycon]

Originally posted by: Platypus
fuck that fake stereo bullshit they did on a few albums.

:laugh:

Originally posted by: NL5

More like brick wall limit to make them louder. 😉

My monster cable is shivering at the thought. 😉

Originally posted by: oynaz
Sonic Maximizer

Ewww! That's like stepping on a slug with no shoes on! Gross!

 

[lokiju]

Here's a good article on the topic.

Basically some of it will be mono like it was originally meant to be.

 

[FeuerFrei]

Wish the Beastie Boys would remaster Licensed to Ill. The tracks are so quiet and tinny. 🙁

 

[skace]

Nice post rbv5. Now when the hell can I get this to hear the kind of job they did?

 

[RyanPaulShaffer]

Remastering can either be a good thing or a bad thing. It's bad when they just pump up the volume and make everything LOUD. It can be good if the original CD version wasn't mixed very well. Remastering can be a very good thing if done right, and can really make the music sound better, but most studios nowadays just pump up the volume, distorting the original music.