What does remastered mean exactly?

[bootylicous]

I confess I have yet to have bought 'Rumours', 'Fleetwood Mac', or 'Tusk' on Compact Disc, although I have everything else, but the reason I've been holding off on buying those three is because we keep hearing that they're being remastered and will be released in... is it October they're saying now?

The thing I'm wondering is, what is so good about a piece of music being remastered? When I listen to 'Hold Me' on the 'Very Best of' it doesn't sound that much better than the version on the 'Mirage' cd, just that I have to turn up my stereo when I place 'Mirage'.

So I guess my question is, besides volume, what is so much better about an album being remastered?

[David]

Originally posted by bootylicous
So I guess my question is, besides volume, what is so much better about an album being remastered?

http://www.visionentertainment.com/h...mastering.html

http://www.maltedmedia.com/mmremastering.html

http://audio.egregious.net/dj-remastering.html

http://www.remastering.com/Content/Whatdowedo.htm

[worldturning]

It's basically the mastering engineer making the final "sound enhancements" to the multitrack master tapes before the transfer to cd. The tracks have already been mixed at this point and this is the final process for getting the sound the way you want it (such as making an instrument more prominent).

There's a slight controversy with remastering these days where some established mastering engineers complain that the record companies are having the engineers just pump up the volume to meet the expectations of the mass consumer and not staying true to the original intent of the artist. In fact, if you have ever ripped a cd track to your hard drive as a wav file and examined the wav structure, on a lot of remasters or even current artist, you'll pretty much see a solid block where everything is just increased to the same level. There are no more or very minimal transients in the musical waveform, where something like a cymbal crash or a kick drum would stand out.

If you have ever heard the first cd pressing of Rumours, you'll know why Warner Brothers "remastered" it some years back. Mirage, of which some songs were remastered for the 1992 box set, still sounds dull and lifeless to me.

I remember when cd players first came out, Mirage was one of the cd's the store was sampling, and other than no more pops and clicks, it didn't sound all that much better than the album.

Back in the day when cd's first became commercially available, there was a another controversy on how some of the digital transfers were pretty bad. I guess the recording engineers were still trying to learn how to get digital right.

[wetcamelfood]

The main reason I'm after them is for the bonus tracks (assuming there will be some).

If they didn't have any, I don't even know if I'd get them (well, maybe...).

John

[Cammie]

Hi David...
That was really interesting! I wondered... why go
to all that trouble!Excuse me, but I still like analog
taped music right into the mic...sweet and mellow!
Evidently studio engineers won't do this any more!

How many of the CA concerts have you been to?
Did you like "COME "any better live? Still hurts my
ears! I see why they remove his kids during loud
guitar antics and drums of this tune!Take care!