I did some thorough A/B listening, comparing the original Number Of The Beast. with the remaster. And the original is better, but only by the slightest margin in my opinion. What struck me was that the quality of the production is very poor. The original sounds very thin - you'd think that a metal album would have a fat and heavy sound. The remaster tries to fatten the sound with compression and EQ but it seems that you can't polish a turd. Neither sound that great to me.
I play some of their live stuff more than the studio versions.The Beast Over Hammersmith 2 cd(part of it also on the early days dvd) and also the Reading 1982 gig from the BBC Sessions were briefly in print on the 2002 Eddies Archive 6 cd set packaged in that goofy tin coffin.
I can tolerate compression/limiting up to a certain degree, probably more than most of the other forum memebrs here, but the 1998 remasters go too far. That is a shame, because the orĂginal mastering of Piece Of Mind sounds very weak to me. So I have to stuck with my German vinyl for that album.
Any new members might want to check out this exhaustive thread on Iron Maiden CD releases up to Fear of the Dark. A lot of good info in there.
VERY frustrating. Every one of the Bruce+Adrian comeback albums could have benefitted, as particularly Brave New World, Dance of Death, and Final Frontier were totally nuked on CD. The pic discs of Brave New World and Final Frontier have MUCH more tasteful mastering, however, sadly, Brave New World pic LP is unlistenable; a piece of JUNK. Final Frontier is better but still noisy. Oh and to address the topic at hand, the 1998 remasters are a travesty. Worthless crap. I listen to 1980-1988 Maiden on vinyl - the best presentation of those albums we will ever have. I would welcome a tastefully-done LP re-issue campaign, if done on an analog chain from the original tapes, as good-condition originals are hard to come by and expensive, but I highly suspect the originals would not be improved upon.
Even on poor computer speakers and mp3 players I find the remasters to sound flat and harsh. They are truly bad in my opinion.
There are other bands that were remastered worse. The Maiden stuff is bad but its not really suuuper bad. the original masters weren't that great to begin with which is probably why the overhyping of its sound tends to sound worse. Still, Motley Crue and poison remasters are far worse IMO LOL
The Vinyl sounds really good for NOTB , even the Original Cassette if i remember correct sounded really good . The whole catalog as of now is just a mess ...... kinda sad .
Peace of Mind on the Capitol vinyl is one of the best albums I have ever heard. I don't have the CD. It is too bad they couldn't duplicate that sound.
Yeh , that is an amazing sounding lp , I'm sure they could Easily make a cd that Rivaled the Vinyl if they had the Master tapes & someone who knew what they were doing did a nice transfer/Mastering . From what i have read , their Manager has a very TIGHT WALLET & he see's no reason to remaster anything as the catalog still sells .
is anyone familiar with japanese edition of virtual XI.mine is EMI 7243 4 93915 2 9 and it is quite "brickwalled".
But when he was a lad, he could lift up five navies on the end of t'shovel Pride and Ego my Son, Pride and Ego makes the world go round
In my experience finding 80s Maiden on vinyl in VG+ condition for a decent price is hard. Just a couple of years ago was easier, at least on Ebay. Now everybody wants $$kaching$$. I would welcome well-done reissue vinyl for that reason alone.
Iron Maiden's catalog should be Audio Fidelity's flagship for heavy metal remastering. I suspect IM's legions of dedicated fans from around the world would gleefully snap up the CDs in a frenzy. I get chills just thinking about Number of the Beast, Piece of Mind, and Powerslave with "Mastered by Steve Hoffman" on the label. I think if I ever see an announcement that Marshal at AF manages to license Iron Maiden my head will explode.
Absolutely. Entire catalogue (inc Paul, Blaze and reunion eras) remastered to Beatles in Mono or equivalent standard. Potential for replica mini vinyl gatefold sleeves with all that iconic artwork (Powerslave! Somewhere In Time! Seventh Son!). Either as individual issues or a career spanning studio box set I'd pay and pay willingly. Toss in the live albums, the full LAD with side 4 of the vinyl especially, and I'd happy pay what I paid for the Beatles stereo & In Mono boxes again. (cf Pink Floyd Discovery, except with better packaging please).
The 1998 remasters are deeply unpleasant. I sold mine. I hate multimedia content as well. The 1995 Castle reissues sound quite good - and have extra CDs. I have Iron Maiden and Killers from this series.