ABBA - '24 Bit Remastered' series?

Maybe someone can shed some light on this.... I've often seen photos of ABBA CD covers with a "24 Bit Digitally Remastered" logo. They look official, though Discogs doesn't think so; and I've even seen them on Amazon, if you dig through the various releases of an album that you can buy.

Anyone know the origin of these? They seem fairly common - except for the mysterious final entry (see below)...

Some sample covers:




But, most intriguingly, there's THIS:


Which is actually a superb compilation of oddities and leftovers that fills in most gaps:


Very curious!

 

"Opus 10", the album that never was.

 

And it wasn't even called Opus 10 (that was a term a journalist used to refer to The Visitors as "album number 10" while it was being recorded... This math considered the 7 studio albums up to that point plus both greatest hits volumes and not counting the spanish album)

 

No (though most of the 'tenth album' batch does appear on this compilation)..... but the existence of this admittedly well-put-together compilation has always intrigued me. An older version (from 1994) seems to be VERY common among ABBA fans - this one, with the same "24-Bit Remastered" marking as these other reissues, is almost totally impossible to find. Hm.

 

It would be nice if Abba finally released CDs or HD Tracks files mastered from the actual master tapes without additional brickwalling and compression. The best digital versions so far are still the original Polydor/polygram CDs, which were mastered from worn LP cutting tapes.

The original masters were used for some re-remasters, but they ruined everything they gained by smashing audio that was already very compressed. Stupid!

 

Just realized today that the liner notes of "More ABBA Gold" do indeed refer to ABBA's tenth album as "Opus 10" - and the liners were written by the band's official biographer.

 

How I wish everyone involved had been able to commit to just a few extra tracks for that one last studio album instead of the compilation we got in 1982, though I suppose a double LP set of hits and the singles released from their final sessions was a good way to draw a line under the group, especially as they'd supposedly grown tired of working together...

 

The "Opus 10" myth got so out of hand that it made it to the liner notes you mentioned and also Agnetha's bio despite the fact that there was never an album with such a name (Agnetha's book was mostly ghostwritten though. A huge chunk of it anyway)

Here's a good write-up of the Opus 10 story, among other things, by Carl Magus Palm.

Recordings FAQ

 

Boot's
Counterfiet re-hashes based on the 2001 bonus track remasters (Barcode's match)
Except for 'Opus 10', who knows what those were sourced from (Bogus Barcode)

 

That's what I'm waiting for too, something like the 2005 boxed set without butchered audio.

 

The 2005 "complete studio albums" was such a missed opportunity to do right for the fans. Although the original masters are in okay shape, they choose to use the LP cutting masters again, and then brickwalled them big time. When will they ever get this right? It's not hard at all! Just get the masters to Steve! Maybe he can run them through some tubes to mellow out the harshness. Most songs could use a low end boost to make them sound fuller, the top end is too shrill.

 

I would be glad to get flat transfers from the original mixdown tapes...that's all I want to hear...

 

Didn't Astley and Tretow use the mixdowns in the 90s?

 

Well, at least the Deluxe Editions (MOSTLY) avoided overblowing the volume..... except, IIRC, "Arrival" and "The Album", which are *much* louder than the others.

 

I wonder what our host would do with the ABBA catalogue?

It would certainly be a challenge.

 

Fix the f***ing edit in "Summer Night City", hopefully. XD

 

Yes they did. They used them for the "Thank You For The Music" box set, as well as the current CD issues. However, they re-equalized them for the "thank you" box set, making them so bright your eardrums bleed.
For the current CD releases, they brickwalled them. So they had better sources but then ruined them in mastering. The Complete Studio Albums used the LP cutting tapes, which they also brickwalled.
The only "flat" releases are the original Polygram CDs, unfortunately, these were sourced from the same LP cutting tapes. Which have dropouts in them.
The best sounding ABBA on CD is the "The singles: The first 10 years" 2 CD set on polydor or atlantic( canada only ), Which was compiled from the mixdowns.
"Super Trouper" came out on an Atlantic CD, which is quite rare. Atlantic used an LP cutting tape that was in better shape than the one used by Polygram, and they re-equalized it to give it some low end and warmth.

Basically, their entire catalog on CD is a train wreck! Somebody needs to get their hands on the mixdowns and do some decent flat transfers! Heck, I could do it myself!

 

Yeah but they used the damn LP cutting tapes again, still not the masters. Why? Who knows! I heard the Deluxe version of Super Trouper and it sounds duller than the original Polygram CD. So for some reason the changed the EQ again.

 

Zal Schreiber mastered the 80's Atlantic Super Trouper CD and it sounds fantastic.

 

yep, now imagine if someone just gave proper mastering to the original mixdowns!

 

I understand the Canadian Atlantic is pretty rare. I have the Polydor/german release and it's okay sounding to me. I'm not sure if it's true the Atlantic Canada CD's are a tape copy or if they are clones of the Polydor CDs.

 

I would be happy to do some comparisons with the Atlantic and Polygram versions of "singles: First 10 years" to see if they are clones.

 

The first five tracks on The Singles sound compressed but they were also compressed on the vinyl set.

The best ABBA cds I have heard are the Polar discs of s/t and Waterloo and the Atlantic Greatest Hits.

 

So how about the original 24 bit series that were released in 2001 (the bonus track remasters)? I do believe these are legit, but the sticker boosting the 24 bit thing looks different. There's one in this auction:

ABBA - THE VISITORS - 2001 cd -BONUS TRACKS - 24 BIT REMASTERED SPECIAL ED | eBay

I don't know about the origins of the masters, but they do sound shrill. Not good.