The Best Remasters, track by track

rhyeking wrote:

So you're saying the 1998 Crown Jewels Remaster had the hiss and hum cleaned/filtered/removed/"fixed" for the 2004 GH:WWRY Ed. and THAT version was used by PM on the 2008 Singles Collection?

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well, that's one possibility.  According to Justin Shirley-Smith in the liner notes of the WWRY GH edition, Peter Mew worked the magic that finally rid the BR master of hiss and hum, and it clearly states that his remasters are (c) 2001.

Now, the 2001 waveform looks more maxed out than the CJ / SC / WWRY ones AND it still has hiss & hum.   Perhaps he began with the 2001 masters and then added some additional touch-ups for WWRY GH (including the most dramatic results of BoRhap's newly-cleaned intro)...  it's speculation at this point.

But this is EXACTLY why I don't see remastering at all as a scam by the labels to make us buy the same stuff over and over.  It's not smoke & mirrors.  It's often done well, and it's often done poorly, but it's a legitimate necessary process for recordings created in imperfect conditions on imperfect equipment.  I'm not talking about processing signals to artificially make instruments sound better than they did originally.  It's this kind of thing, where technology now affords us the opportunity to rid a MASTER TAPE of something the band never wanted nor welcomed to their art, but simply HAD to accept as an unavoidable circumstance. (kay - stepping off soapbox)

I agree.

Some audiophiles (not nessecarily Queen fans) very much disapprove of digital remastering, arguing that it doesn't sound as warm and we should leave it the way it was at the time.

For me, the artist's original intention should win out. However, that can be taken to extremes too (**cough**George Lucas*cough**). I read a few years ago of an artist who has been consistantly rerecording and remixing his albums to the point where the songs sound different. And he wasn't advertising this on re-issues of the album, so the person who this article I read had bought the CD again to replace her lost copy and found certain songs sounded totally different. She was appalled and had to copy the original cd from a friend. For the life of me I can't remember who that artist was (I know Ozzy's done that too, but it wasn't him. I think it was a '90s Alternative guy).

I also think the human ear is great at filtering out imperfections in music. I know I never noticed any "hiss" or "hum" on BoRhap until it was pointed out, but even knowing it's there doesn't effect my listening to the song.

also, the hum is a very low bass frequency and the hiss is an ultra high frequency... if you aren't listening to the song on quality speakers (not a table top stereo or iPod earbuds) it won't even be replicated anyway.  I agree, though, i'd never been bothered by the hum before it was pointed out.  It is nice to hear the intro harmonies without 10 overdubs' worth of tape hiss, though.  And now the last two ANATO tracks Peter Mew revisited:

YOU'RE MY BEST FRIEND is one of the most consistent so far.  All three versions appear to be VERY similar in peaks/compression, and remastering in general.  So the dynamic range won't sound different among the three.  The sequence of loudness on the discs, however, progresses from Crown Jewels, to SC, and again the most extreme (as PM said) is the Japan 2001.  The intro organ notes (0:00-0:07 or so) are actually slightly QUIETER on the SC version, as opposed to the other two. 

Usually even on a super-compressed remaster like Bob Ludwig's AG, an opening that contains a single instrument like this one is NOT going to be brought up to the level of the rest of the track.  FM radio, however, is that extreme.  Often mixes serviced to radio-only have the vocals way up in the mix - so that when the track is squashed down for broadcast, the thing sounds right and you don't lose the singer.  (just checked AG's YMBF... the intro is about TWICE as loud as the PM remasters, but still much smaller relative to where the full band joins in)...

'39 is a mellower track, so i wasn't sure what to expect, but it follows the same pattern as above (Crown Jewels is the most conservative in volume, then SC, then JP boosts things all the way.)  SC is close to JP in compression / peaks.  Crown Jewels appears a little bit less effected.  Even in 1998, apparently, PM didn't see the need to overly compress a track that's acoustic guitar & voice...

@Brians Wig - if you haven't adulterated your vinyl yet, and don't want to, don't do it for us!  Didn't realize they hadn't been played before!  =)

[QUOTE][QUOTENAME]rhyeking wrote:[/QUOTENAME] The three I know of are:

In The Lap In The Gods (missing like two bars in the intro)
It's Late (the first few notes cut off)
I Want It All (wrong Master used for the HR remaster, missing part of the chorus)

As far as I know, the first two have been corrected, thought I'm not 100% certain of "Lap Of The Gods". I still own the Error Versions of the CDs and never bothered replacing them beyond downloading the Correct Versions years later. 

I don't think HR has fixed "The Miracle" album, seeing as the Queen camp only recently acknowledged the wrong original master was used.
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Any chance that you upload the error tracks  ? :-)

I'm willing to try uploading the Error Versions, but I'm hesitant because technically they've been released and are official. I don't want to get in crap from Queenzone and respect their policy.

What say you, Queenzone Officials, may I post these?

Lap Of The Gods has been corrected.

Re: In The Lap Of The Gods

I thought so, but wasn't 100% certain.

I know "It's Late" was fixed.

I still don't think any 1991 HR re-issues have fixed "I Want It All." In HR's defense, the problem wasn't of their making, but of having been sent an alternate album master of the song made during The Miracle sessions. They had no reason to think it was wrong, as it had all the legitimate notation from QP.

It does make me wonder what other alternate master mixes exist of Queen songs. We've all heard the "rap" bit which doesn't appear on any released versions of "The Invisible Man."

It's funny, as I was first getting into Queen in the early '90s, I got the 1991 HR SHA cassette for Christmas. I had that for the longest time (still do, in a box somewhere) then got the CD and at some point found the LP at a yard sale. That's when I heard the missing bars in In The Lap Of The Gods and was like, "Hm, I wonder how Hollywood Records ended up with this edit?"

Unlike the "It's Late" error, which cuts off the first few notes, the ITLOTG error seems to be the result of mixing that bit out, rather than by way off just chopping it out. The mix is smooth and unless you knew it was supposed to be there, I defy anyone to tell me they'd notice there was an edit. I've often thought that maybe HR recieved an similar incorrect master from QP.

The only other way I can fathom the Edit Version coming about was that somehow Kevin Metcalfe (who remastered it) cut that out, noticed the mistake, remixed it to smooth out the error and hoped no one would notice. My problem with that is looking at Metcalfe's long track record with Queen-related releases, it doesn't seem like something he'd do (it would be incredibly unprofessional to not own up to the mistake and just hope for the best). If his original copy of the master was now lost because of this error, why not just ask for a new one from QP?

No, I think it well be an alternate master, which raises the question: why bother with such a small tweak of the song?

We may never know.

I have found the "error" version of In The Lap Of The Gods on Youtube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8yr_4HJKKec

If the singles collection uses old remasters, how did the click in Seven Seas Of Rhye get fixed?

where exactly is the click on the SSOR track?   On the HR 91 remaster or later editions?

Singles Collection reportedly used previous Peter Mew remasters (1998 Crown Jewels, 2001 Japan reissues) otherwise, new ones were created (also by him) between 2008-2010.

It is at around 2:07-2:08 of the track (both the 1991 Hollywood and 2001 Japan Remasters).  I haven't bothered checking it on Crown Jewels yet.

To follow-up...

The "click" appears on:

UK Greatest Hits CD
US Hollywood Records 1991 Queen II Remaster CD
US Hollywood Records 1992 Greatest Hits CD
UK 1997 Rocks CD
US 1998 Crown Jewels Queen II CD
US Greatest Hits (We Will Rock You Edition)
Japan 2004 Mini Vinyls
Japan Jewels II

The "click" does not appear on:
Singles Collection Vol. 1
Absolute Greatest

Interesting!  So Peter Mew definitely did some new work on that track for SC.  And apparently, Bob Ludwig did as well for AG... 

I also noticed on Bohemian Rhapsody that in the intro section where the lines "Little high" and "Little low" are isolated in the Left and Right channels - there was always a bit of a rough edit between one channel going mute and the other coming in... until the SC and AG versions...

Adam is dead on with the "click" being cleaned up. I always thought it was a drumstick tap by Roger, but even if it was, someone thought enough about not liking it that it was removed.

I guess Peter did do some polishing of standard album tracks he'd previously remastered. And that Bob Ludwig must have done the same thing, removing the click, for Absolute Greatest.

Okay, this thread's been kind of quiet, so here's Jazz:

01) Mustapha (1991 HR)
02) Fat Bottomed Girls (1991 HR)
03) Jealousy (1991 HR)
04) Bicycle Race (2008 SC)
05) If You Can't Beat Them (1991 HR)
06) Let Me Entertain You (1991 HR)
07) Dead On Time (1991 HR)
08) In Only Seven Days (2008 SC)
09) Dreamer's Ball (1991 HR)
10) Fun It (1991 HR)
11) Leaving Home Ain't Easy (1991 HR)
12) Don't Stop Me Now (2008 SC)
13) More Of That Jazz (1991 HR)

Not too many surprises here, because there weren't too many alternate remasters to pick from.

We covered Live Killers, so here's The Game:

01) Play The Game (2009 SC)
02) Dragon Attack (2009 SC)
03) Another One Bites The Dust (2009 SC)
04) Need Your Loving Tonight (1991 HR)
05) Crazy Little Thing Called Love (2009 SC)
06) Rock It (Prime Jive) (1991 HR)
07) Don't Try Suicide (1991 HR)
08) Sail Away Sweet Sister (1991 HR)
09) Coming Soon (1991 HR)
10) Save Me (2009 SC)
bonus track
11) A Human Body (2009 SC)

Again, we're split between the 1991 Hollywood Records and 2009 Single Collection remasters. And this is the only digital remaster of "A Human Body" available, so it's inclusion goes without saying.