Sterile Sound on remixes

[David Gitin]

[graypencil]

It's been my observation that the transfer from an original analog master
to the digital realm can take the balls out of classic mixes when done by
techno heads who:

1. have too many new shiny digital toys at their disposal
which can do marvelous things in the right hands, but like oregano, can ruin the dish
with too heavy a hand at the spoon ..

2. Many of these guys are too young to have had experience in the
analog realm and hence, dont understand the concept of analog
"warmth", tube amps, etc ..

Its the same com[plaint I have about many engineers weaned on
rock ( especially techo-rock ) on jazz dates ..many of them haven't even
LISTENED to the sound of an acoustic drum set, or bass, or piano ,or ...

[Kevin Bresnahan]

Not that I'm entirely disagreeing with GP, but in my experience, the people who overuse those "digital knobs" are the artists themselves! I have heard many a remaster ruined because the artist decided to do a little "revisionist remastering". Some of the worst offenders I can recollect were ZZ Top, who overdubbed new drum parts, which sounded like they were recorded in a warehouse, to the classic "La Grange" and the Moody Blues, whose re-worked "Nights In White Satin" is so different, they should have changed the name. How about that infamous Aerosmith "Greatest Hits" compilation where they decided to speed up all the tunes so they could fit more music on the disc? That was a doozy.

BTW, the latest, and to me, the worst trend yet, is the recent rise in remastered CDs where they crank up the "digital volume". There are several sites around that go into gruesome detail but in essence what's been happening is that the digital recording levels, which work nothing like analog levels, are being pushed past 0 dB to get the most sound onto the CD so that the disc sounds louder. Louder is better, right? Wrong! The music is getting clipped and distorted. It's happening all over the place, including Jazz. Download the trial version of Adobe Audition software and run one or two songs from one of your latest CDs through it. You may be surprised to find out that some of the worst-sounding CDs in your collection are "cranked up".

I haven't heard "40 Licks" but I do own several Stones SACDs and they sound phenomenal. I highly doubt they did much to these remasters except hit play on the analog tape machine and record on the DSD recorder.

Later,
Kevin

[willy]

I concur as to the sound of the new Rolling Stones SACDs. I have England's Newest Hitmakers, 12X5, Between the Buttons, Beggars Banquet, Let it Bleed, and Hot Rocks. All sound great. Even the CD layer on these SACDs blow the normal CDs away.