IMO, Piece of Mind original CD mastering stands out among them as sounding terrible. Really thin and bright.
The Live after Death box has started to arrive for people who preordered it through Walmart. Did anyone here get it?
Both the 1998 and 2015 CD remasters are horrible. Not to change the subject but one example of how to do a remaster is the Permanent Waves 40th Anniversary Remaster. It is a flat transfer. Not even normalized. This is super rare in 2020. I heard good bass. I could blast the thing right up. No boosted highs or pulling down the cloud (90-250 hz) like the 1997 remaster. No strain in the music. The 97 remaster is not bad. It is good. A nice pleasant sound but it was far from the master. FYI: In 2008 I was invited to hear the new Mackie Mark 3 full range near field monitor system. The monitors went to 60 hz and then big Mackie sub woofer took over to 16 hz. The sub crossing over at 65 hz at 24 db per octave. The music used to demo the Mackies was a 1 inch half track (30 ips) copy of Rush - Permanent Waves. The new CD sounds the same. Even on a crappy mid fi system the thing sounds amazing. To be sure I brought the 40th Anniversary CD to My cousin's house. He has an all Moon system and a pair of full range spiked Castle Winchester's. (Flat down to 17 hz!) It was the master. Or a damn good copy. Why couldn't they leave Iron Maiden alone? This is it now. No more remasters. Not for another 10 years at least. Some compression o.k. but why so much? The 2015 ones are better. As they don't have any EQ. They are closer to the master but still a big disappointment.
WE WISH. OH, IF ONLY! The Castle 1995 release is not a remaster it is just a repacking (with some bonus tracks) of the original CDs.
I agree with you regarding the Maiden remasters, but I will say I did like the debut remaster. It brought something out of it that the regular version does not have. Perfect no, but it was the only one I could enjoy. Will be picking up Permanent Waves, especially after your review. I just got Farewell To Kings, and have only played the live show so far, which I loved!
With respect to the Maiden debut remaster that you like...are you referring to the ‘98 or the 2015 (2018)
1998, as well as the reissue picture disc. Never bought any of the black vinyl reissues or any of the new CDs. I have multiple copies of original CDs from various countries as well as all original vinyl from various countries.
I couldn't believe what I heard. No compression? Get out of here? It ain't 1985 anymore! So I pop the disk into my PC and rip it into WAVE PAD EDITOR (paid $54 for that!) and I almost soiled myself. No compression?!?!.....AND NO NORMALIZATION TO 0 dbfs!?!? But there it was right on the screen. And you will hear how much better modern ADC is than an old 1630. And then I woke up. It was only a dream.... Kidding! Flat transfer - VERY REAL. True: That Ben Kanobi movie....I thought it was real. And when I found out that the trailer was done by fans and the movie was a fake I was so angry. I wanted to see that movie. It looked so good! No really. I still can't believe it. Imagine if every CD was like this?... Look I know I am skidding off the thread a bit but what the hell did Abbey Road studios do to the stereo A HARD DAY'S NIGHT? The top end is missing or sounds funny. But considering that the J-37 had a frequency response of 30 - 15 000 +-2db it never really had a modern top end any way.
Oh and second live disk is the SAME. It sounds like it was mixed in 1980. And since the MOVING PICTURES tour was also recorded on 2 inch 24 tracks expect to hear 1981 live versions of: camera eye, Vital Signs (released on the 'b' side of a 1982 U.K. 12 - NEW WORLD MAN), and Lime Light. Also to be mixed by Terry Brown. When they put out the 40th anniversary of MOVING PICTURES next year.
I don't know who Farewell To Kings was mastered by or if it's a flat transfer. If I buy a CD and it is a flat transfer I tell you guys right away. Years ago before all the mono mixes of Hedrix were available on line many of you were looking for the unedited mono mix of STONE FREE. But it was no where to be found. It didn't exist. Just that fake stereo version. Or the 45 single on vinyl. But no clean digital version. Little did I know at the time that sitting on my PS2 game of GRAND TURISMO 3 was the unedited flat transfer of the mono mix of STONE FREE. And it has been there since 2001.
How does the new Live After Death compare to the 1998 edition? I'm inclined to buy the latter because I prefer jewel cases, and the 1998 booklets are great (I think they're good soundwise too, though the general opinion here seems to be the opposite). What's your opinion on both (sound, packaging, artwork...)? Thanks!
Well Hemispheres and Permanent Waves were both done by Sam Magee at Abbey Road. Problem with flat transfers is sometimes the master is bass shy and super bright (Russel Hitchcock 1988 solo LP) and so you get that or whatever it sounds like.
I listened to my original CD of Permanent Waves yesterday and it sounds incredible. The remaster is showing up today so I’ll compare them.
The one available on CD has all the fake ADT on it. I always assumed they had edited pieces out to make the stereo version.. Can you confirm this? How do you know that they just didn't cut parts out? The one on GT3 I assumed was the full version. Expect for the longer bit at the ending it sounds the same. Way better than the fake stereo version. I will accept Take 3, 5 or 54 over the garbage ADT version on Smash Hits/Are You Experienced.
