Modern albums given good remasters

I'm sure they are, but I wouldn't describe either of those bands as 'modern'...

 

Good point--missed the "modern" qualifier.

 

Remasters, not so much but for brand new Metal albums good sound is a dime a dozen. Good sound being dynamic range 6-10 and full bodied sound. Metal being modern 21st century avant-garde Black Metal, Death Metal (none of that cookie-cutter 80's inspired nostalgia stuff) and all interbreeding therein. Good sounding "modern albums" are easy to find.

 

Nope. It's a huge downgrade. I bought it hoping for an improvement. It wasn't. One of Wunderlich's few failures.
This is much better: Weezer - Weezer

 

Could you explain exactly what makes it a downgrade? A downgrade from what, the original CD or this vinyl issue? I have no complaints about the sound of the MoFi, I can't see how it could be improved.

 

WAIT!
THEY’RE RELEASING ANOTHER REMASTER OF PET SOUNDS???
COUNT ME IN!!!!!!

 

just about every DCC and MFSL are upgrades to the original.

 

In most cases, "modern" is the significant qualifier, IMHO. Record labels who refuse to admit they blew it on the first pass, are seldom interested in loaning out albums before they've run their course through the markeplace, letting their flawed, brickwalled "iTunes" masters speak for themselves. Only when some little labels comes knocking on their door promising a little more life in the sales of a title, are they usually willing to let it out of their clutches, no skin off their nose.

I was impressed that Ben Folds would go to the expense of doing his own "un-brickwalled" release of 2008's solo album, Way To Normal, offering fans another shot of listening without it being squashed. If memory serves, it wasn't the actual album title though, but rather the re-configured version, entitled Stems And Seeds, which also included extras, such as, well, stems. You don't see that too often, particularly from a well-established artist.

 

Eventually... lol.

 

The 55th Anniversary is right around the corner.

 

Jayhawks’ Rainy Day Music was a terribly squashed sounding CD that now sounds quite lovely on the vinyl resissue from a couple of years back.

 

Wish they'd done more FNM. The Real Thing was pre-loudness so it's great, but the post-Angel Dust albums are borderline unlistenable, sound-wise.

 

Don't think anyone's mentioned the Tom Petty hi-res remasters. Those single-handedly broke my "CD or bust" music collecting rule. The Last DJ sounds like a completely different album - gone is the kick drum which makes the guitar disappear.

There are a number of albums and artists who have been releasing recent albums with good mastering from the beginning - Matt Berry is a good example, with most of his post-2011 work in the DR 9-12 range (I just uploaded all his CDs to the DR database the other day). Khruangbin is a funky-jazzy-ambient trio, and they've got good mastering (most recent album has some limiting on the drums, but the actual dynamics are still there). The first two of Dylan's three standards albums were great (IIRC Triplicate was pretty hot, though). Eleven Modern Antiquities by Pugwash was mastered by some guy named Steve Hoffman, and it sounds really good.

I mastered an album for a friend of mine a few years back. Eight tracks at DR 12 and two at DR 13. Even though it does sound a bit amateurish (my EQ plugin was pretty bad, and there are a few songs where you can really hear that), I'm still proud of it. And, I've been talking with one of my favorite musicians recently - all of his albums are completely crushed, but man, it would be a dream come true to remaster his most recent albums myself (skipping the EQ this time, of course). There'd be no reason for him to give me the files, of course - but it's a nice dream to have.

 

Ehm...GREEN DAY is boring and edgeless Pop Music...it has nothing to do with Punk Rock...sorry, I couldn't resist...

 

Ever compare this to the original Angel Dust CD? I always thought the original sounded pretty good but I didn't have a resolving system back when I was into the band. I would be interested in the Mofi if it was an improvement. A landmark album.

 

Vapor Trails by Rush - before the album was remixed, there was a remaster available on HDTracks that, while still having mixing issues, the album didn't have any more horrible clipping that rendered that mix initially nearly unlistenable

 

I just wonder how much good remastering is gonna do when a lot of modern masters have that overly aggressive use of compression baked right in. Not to say that's the case across the board, but when I think of bands like Oasis and RHCP, I gotta wonder if those particular ships have sailed. Besides - apart from the audiophile labels and a few other exceptions, most remasters don't even attempt to right wrongs, they simply add some bonus cuts and call it a day. Assuming they don't compress them further.

 

I haven't compared, sorry.

 

Agree on the TP. After buying the American Treasure set on CD and comparing it to the vastly superior vinyl, I took a chance and got the HDTracks version. And lo and behold, it smoked the CD set like a cheap cigar. Gone was the fuzziness and lack of dynamics. In it's place was detail, clarity, and a punchiness sorely missing from the CD set.

I've since also bought the HDTracks version of The Best of Everything, which is also quite nice. At some point, I'll probably end up getting all of the HD remasters. Especially those done for the albums made during the iTunes era.

Although, from what I've heard, the She's the One soundtrack is not much different, for some reason. Not sure why. But that might be last on my list.

 

I really love the 20th anniversary remaster of In Utero. I was super skeptical of it when it was announced but eventually bought the thing after someone played it for me.

 

Muse - the 2nd Law HD Download vs. the CD release.

 

I'm with you on this.

 

To the best of my knowledge She's the One doesn't yet exist in hi-res. Wildflowers was briefly available on Pono before that bit the dust, but it's not available anymore. It's my understanding that these two are set for release with the five-years-in-the-making-and-still-no-confirmation-that-it's-even-still-happening deluxe edition of Wildflowers.

The 2008 Mudcrutch self titled album is also not available for hi-res download. There's a special edition LP that includes an audiophile CD with it, but that (and even just the CD on its own) goes for big bucks.

The remainder of the Petty albums (including the second Mudcrutch) are all available in hi-res, though, and sound beautiful. Let Me Up uses remixes on two or three songs to tame the '80s-ness of the production - they do sound better, but purists would be wise to hang onto the original CD (which does still have good dynamics). I do wish they would do a hi-res remaster of the original mixes, though, just for consistency's sake.

 

On the other hand, the Mfsl version of Pinkerton is supposed to be amazing.

 

Presumably, what could save albums like these are remixes. There's a damn good chance that they were recorded with all the faders in the red and compressing straight to tape (or DAW, whatever), but a good ear and hand with expanders and stereo positioning could probably work wonders. The issue then is convincing the artist to let that happen - in the case of Oasis, that was the original vision (well, the original vision was coke, but I mean once the coke was in their brains), and I don't think anyone's gonna convince Noely G to hand over the multitracks for the snob market.

That said, if you listen to the remixed "D'You Know What I Mean", even though it's still a sonically bloated and dynamically empty catastrophe, you can hear how a remix might drastically improve the sound.