[Poll] Is it me the only one that hate remastered albums?

Music
1
  • Love them!
  • Hate them!
  • Don’t really care.

0 voters

2

It depends how they have been remastered.
If they are mastered hot and lose all dynamic range… I hate em.

16 Likes
3

Same as above. The first wave of RM had many that were a brick wall but that is a less common stereotype. The audiophile remasters can often be best version.

1 Like
4

This is way too simplistic. I always look for the best digital mastering of an album. That might be the original CD, a new high res download, a SACD, or some other mastering. In other words, latest isn’t always worst or best.

8 Likes
5

As a general rule, many seem overly compressed & just louder. Of course that’s a vast generalisation, so a bit too hard to definitively make comment or to even vote as that would produce a skewed result in such a diverse range of remastered albums.

Cheers.

1 Like
6

Which label, artist, access to original tape, mastering suite in use, mastering engineer, day of the week…

2 Likes
7

But Not all remaster Sounds better…

8

That’s the point that make the poll difficult…

9

Anything remastered/remixed by Steven Wilson is always better than the original. Imho

4 Likes
10

How do you do this? Where do you find this information?

11

Steve Hoffman forums are a good place to see lots of discussions of such topics.

1 Like
12

Take the Chicago remaster for example.

13

Great Steven Remaster. You can now hear individual instruments. Some great horn moments are now unveiled.

1 Like
14

As others have said there are good remasters and poor ones. Sometimes it’s the case that whilst the remaster is technically superior it lacks some of the emotion and rawness that makes the original the more compelling to listen to also.

15

Remaster does not always mean better for sure. My favourite versions of the Led Zeppelin albums are the 2014 remasters - better than the 24bit versions IMHO. The first album in particular sounds wonderful.

1 Like
16

The best place I have found is indeed the Steve Hoffman forums. They tend to favor Steve Hoffman’s rmasterings there but is usually with good reason. I find my ears generally like his masterings. But, he has only mastered a small handful of albums so it isn’t a problem.

17

I think a great percentage of remasters are too hot and too bright.
It’s almost like some were remastered solely in an effort to win the loudness wars.

18

I found this article tracking the changes in masters interesting
https://www.arpjournal.com/asarpwp/the-definitive-edition-digitally-remastered/

2 Likes
19

Thanks for sharing this Ged - very informative and interesting indeed.

1 Like
20

You are entirely welcome.