Have new Stones CDs been digitally maximized?

For Luke, or anyone who has the Stones sampler;

Thanks for the great review of the Stones SACD sampler.

One question....

I'm curious as to whether the new CDs will be digitally maximized.

Have you had a chance to put a few of the tracks into Cool Edit
and have a look at the wave forms?

Do they have that charateristic "buzz-cut" haircut?
Could you post a screen shot?

Thanks for your comments

 

I will jump in here, even though I haven't heard the sampler. There's no way in the world the SACD engineers involved would have let the project be ruined this way.

 

I haven't looked myself, but my friend David has, and he tells me that "Dandelion" had roughly 17 dB of dynamic range on the old London MHR CD, while it has about 14 dB on the ABKCO sampler disc.

Of course, that's the CD layer, but...

So, yes, they seem to be compressed a *little*, but nothing too major. No clipped peaks or anything. Not enough to really worry about...

 

Luke, thanks for the info.
Looks like I'll be buying some these after all.
(My credit card will have to go into rehab though)

 

Here's the screenshots - for those who might be interested. I picked "Dandelion" simply 'cause I dig the tune.

First, from the new sampler:

 

Here, from the Japanese More Hot Rocks 2:

 

Jeez, the sampler "looks" so much more open. I can only imagine how it sounds.

 

David Modny,

The sampler is just fine! That is encouraging! Around -14. is loud enough to get it into the ballpark of other CDs but not as loud as to seriously compormise the dynamic range. It's also interesting to see the DC offset as 0%! That is much better than what you get on most CDs.

This all tells me that they were very meticulous in mastering these new discs. If this is just the CD layer, just imagine the standard they set for the SACD layer.

I'm making plans to buy several of these discs AND the next batch of Chicago remasters!