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Remastered CD's

27 replies

Euro4Ever said on July 17, 2004 00:40:

How much audible difference in sound quality is there between Remastered and original CD’s?
How worthy are they to buy/have?
Anyone ever seriously compared?

Many 80’s and early 90’s cd’s get remastered nowadays

Ferdan said on :

Well, that’s depends on the job they’ve taken remastering it. It could sound better, or it could sound worse!(yes, there are cases like that).

So, is it worth?, depends on the case.

GT remasters are good, they have raised the volume of the bass for example.
BUT, in “När vi två blir en” for example in the original version Per voice sounds like saying “Gyllene T-Tider”, but in the remasters he sound “Gyllene Tider”.

If you listen to the songs in details, you may find things that are missing in one of the two versions, etc.

ally77 said on :

Worth getting I think...

coyboyusa said on :

its cds no matter how they master it it will never sound as good as the master save your money

TheRain1981 said on :

“How much audible difference in sound quality is there between Remastered and original CD’s?
How worthy are they to buy/have?
Anyone ever seriously compared?

Many 80’s and early 90’s cd’s get remastered nowadays”

It really depends on how picky you are about your audio and if you have a really good stereo system to listen to the music.

Some people could care less as long as they get to hear the music. But if you really love music and love to listen to it in the best quality then yes, I say invest in them.

Nowadays, I won’t buy any ’80s or ’90s CDs (at least prior to 1997) unless they’ve been remastered. I’m that picky. :) It seems that a lot of the CDs released after 1997 are up to about today’s standards in terms of audio quality. (Yes, I’ve spent time doing comparisons.)

All in all, I say there’s a huge difference between remastered and the old CDs. A HUGE difference in some cases. The same goes for DVDs as well. Yesterday, I picked up INXS’ ’I’m Only Looking - The Best Of’ 2-DVD set. The sound quality is brilliant...absolutely brilliant. I captured the audio using a program and listened to the tracks on my car stereo system today and couldn’t believe that some of the material was nearly 20 years old. It sounded as good as being recorded today with the crisp, clear instruments and bass lines! I wanted to jump up and down out of excitement since it only cost me $20 for stunning video and sound quality and all the bonus material.

Last week I picked up my copy of ’The Very Best Of The Human League’ DVD - oddly enough released by EMI!!! - and again, brilliant sound quality. (Yes, EMI! Why they couldn’t do the same for Roxette I have no idea!) You can hear things you don’t hear on the old CDs - for example, I actually hear a bass line in “Human” which I never knew existed.

And as mentioned above, it depends on who is doing the remastering. I’ve come across a few bad copies as well, like ’Shout: The Very Best Of Tears For Fears’ released on Universal in 2001. A horrible remastering job was done on the ’Songs From The Big Chair’ tracks (Everybody Wants To Rule The World, Head Over Heels, Shout, etc.). They sound as dull as the original CD copy released in ’85 (maybe worse!) - yet the liner notes claim 96/24-Bit digitally remastered. Whatever! (I’m a bit annoyed by it still since I bought it for the supposed remastered quality.) However, when I purchased their ’Songs From The Big Chair’ 1999 remastered album, it was brilliantly remastered (it happened to be remastered by someone different than the best of collection). “Everybody Wants To Rule The World” actually had an underlying thumping bass line I couldn’t hear on the best of collection.

One label I’ve always been able to trust in putting out good remasters is Rhino Records (who actually are responsible for the INXS DVD). Never had a problem with their material. I bought that ’Like, Omigod! The ’80s Pop Culture Box’ and all the songs were brilliantly restored and remastered.

So there’s a little ramble from me on my take on remastered albums, CDs, DVDs. I hope that helps!

ChrisWilliams said on :

I’m interested in the sound quality and remastering of CDs. It’s true that there is a difference between remastered and non-remastered recordings. One example I often refer to is an ABBA album (box set, in fact) from 1994; many of the songs sound completely different to the 1997 and 2001 remastered versions of those songs.

I’m wondering how you manage to capture sound from a DVD - I have a standalone DVD player, plus the one in my computer... Any ideas how I might go about it?

Thanks :-)

purplemedusa said on :

Try connecting a firewire from your stand-alone DVD player to your computer and then capture it with an audio program such as MusicMatch

coyboyusa said on :

the abba box set was a brillaint remastering one of the only few i ever liked!

TheRain1981 said on :

“I’m wondering how you manage to capture sound from a DVD - I have a standalone DVD player, plus the one in my computer... Any ideas how I might go about it?”

Well, I have a DVD player on my computer. I use a program called Goldwave (www.goldwave.com) to capture audio from the DVD. Under the device controls, I go to properties and then the volume tab. From there, I set it to the wave out mix setting and adjust the volume there. Basically I hit the record button and it captures the audio. It’s a perfect capture too since it sounds brilliant in my car stereo.

purplemedusa said on :

yeah... forgot about Goldwave!! Fantastic program!

ChrisWilliams said on :

@ coyboy
Compare the sound on the box set with the 2001 remasters (which, having been done under ABBA’s original label’s supervision instead of Polydor’s, was done more thoroughly) and you’ll notice a huge difference. Some of the songs on the box set even pan from one speaker to another, especially during the “Undeleted” medley (there are 2 or 3 tracks that pan during the medley.. I can’t remember all of them, but Just Like That is one of them). So, yeah, the sound may well have been good at the time, but it sounds muffled and messy by today’s standards.

- - - - -

Thanks for all your ideas... I’m off to Sweden tomorrow (see you in Sthlm), so I won’t be capturing any sound for at least a week... But when I get home, I’ll be sure to read everything you’ve all written.

@ TheRain1981
I have Goldwave! But because I have a webcam/microphone plugged into my PC, it always records through that when I hit the Record button.

How could I change that?

coyboyusa said on :

the box set came out after 2001’s abba gold unless i am mistaken and i have no speaker pannning on my box set at all

TheRain1981 said on :

@ChrisWilliams,

I have an older version of Goldwave. The latest version is supposedly quite different, but I didn’t download it because my friend did and he couldn’t get it to work the same way I was using it with capturing DVD audio. In my old version, you have to click “wave out mix” under the volume tab in the device controls window (as I mentioned above) in order to capture audio from the DVD. If you need any help, just post it here or IM me on AOL IM @ TheRain1981.

coyboyusa said on :

goldawve is a great proggie i would think that total recorder would also record audio off of dvds as well

TheRain1981 said on :

Total Recorder works as well. I used to use that before I started using Goldwave.

Ferdan said on :

yes, those programs may work to record the audio off a dvd (they just record what the sound card is playing)...
but in the link I posted there are programs that rip the audio directly from the dvd to the HD, so there is not quality loss that way.... but it takes a little more of work and maybe time that way.

LaMan said on :

great topic.
*bump bump*

what about copy-controlled remastered cd´s?? Arent they annoying?

TheRain1981 said on :

“yes, those programs may work to record the audio off a dvd (they just record what the sound card is playing)...
but in the link I posted there are programs that rip the audio directly from the dvd to the HD, so there is not quality loss that way.... but it takes a little more of work and maybe time that way.”

I actually haven’t noticed any loss of quality when capturing the audio from a DVD into a wav file. It must be working quite well. In any case, I’d be interested in one of these programs actually ripping the audio. Any suggestion of which program is best?

As for copy protected remastered CDs, the only ones I can think of that I own are the Roxette ’Hits’ compilations. Luckily in the USA copy protected CDs aren’t that widespread yet. Is everything copy protected in Europe now?

LaMan said on :

Rain: not all, but most.
BMG releases are all copy-protected I think.

ally77 said on :

They are good, and in Ahlens in Stockholm they have them op sale pre signed for 169 SEK! ;)

n-Somnia said on :

If the originals are impossible to find, then by all means get a remastered copy. :)

RobS said on :

anyone who’s looking at recording the audio from dvd’s check out http://www.imtoo.com/dvd-audio-ripper.html i use it all the time, excellent program and really easy to use.

—–

I think someone mentioned when the hits compilations were released, that its quite obvious to hear the difference between an original recording and a remastered one, the whole recording seems to have more presence and is clearer, probably helps if you’ve got really good hearing as well!

i’m the same as Therain1981, anything older that 5/6 yrs old, i’ll try to find a remastered version if possible.

ChrisWilliams said on :

@ TheRain1981
I have the 2002 version of GoldWave, and I can’t find the “wave out” option :-( It must be there somewhere, surely...?

@ LaMan
Copy Controlled CDs are a pain only for those who want to use them within the limits of copyright. For those who want to upload songs to the internet for general download, having “copy controlled” written on the sleeve doesn’t cause them any problems. Virgin/EMI have started writing “Thank you for buying this CD...” in a lot of CDs they release, which is a nice touch, I think.

@ coyboy
No, ABBA’s box set, Thank You For The Music, was not released after the 2001 remasters. It was released in 1994.

ChrisWilliams said on :

@ TheRain1981
I’ve found it :-) But I can’t stop it recording sound through my webcam/microphone :-(

TheRain1981 said on :

@Chris Williams,

http://www.imtoo.com/dvd-audio-ripper.html

I just downloaded this program and it works very well! Maybe you should try that? I don’t know how to stop it from recording from your webcam/microphone. I never had that problem.

ChrisWilliams said on :

It’s working now! I unplugged the microphone ;-)

Roxette-wise, I’m having It Must Have Been Love from ’Live-Ism’ on CD. It’ll be nice to have the Mazarin concert on CD, too.

A very handy little tool.

ally77 said on :

Yeah I saw that I want to download it too, would love to make Mazarin live on CD.. and also any GT dvd we get... :)

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