Are all the 2011 remasters as bad as A Kind Of Magic?

I've had the complete series of album remaster series since they were released. I've only really listened to them on my iPod and in the car before but last night I listened to AKOM on my CD player with a really good set of cans (Grado GS100 Statement series) and was blown away by how truly horrendous the start of this album sounds.
I'd heard MIH and Innuendo through these cans before and found the albums to sound muddy, massively over-compressed and with loads of digital clipping, but I was shocked last night when I listened to this.
The first four tracks are obscenely distorted in places. The whole thing sounds muddy and awful. Only by Pain Is Close does the whole distortion start to subside.
I listened to T. Rex's The Slider immediately after and it was a clean, perfect sound so I know the problem is with the CD.
Anybody else had problems with this remastering series?

Aac files?

No idea.

How's your mixer/preamp set?

Distortion in the low end?

Which edition? Legal/pirate?.... different encoding rate?
98kbps? 128? 192? 320?

Can't hear any issues on my Genelecs. Except the album being mediocre, that is.

I listened to the genuine copy on a super set of headphones, a great preamp and my usual Sony player. I genuinely think that these remasters are absolute bobbins. I'll have to dig out my original CD version from 20 years back to contrast the sound.
Funnily enough the best sounding songs are the filler ones.

[QUOTE] [b]Oscar J wrote:[/b]
Except the album being mediocre, that is. [/QUOTE]

There's the answer.

Albums which greatly benefited from Bob Ludwigs' work are: Queen I, Queen II and News of The World. Especially the 2011 remasters of Queen II and NOTW are tremendous. Queen I still needs some work to be done and I'd like to hear it remastered in the way in which Bob Ludwig remastered Queen II but with re-recorded drums :)

If you want to hear an excellent mastered version of AKOM just pm me.

[QUOTE] [b]MercurialFreddie wrote:[/b]

Albums which greatly benefited from Bob Ludwigs' work are: Queen I, Queen II and News of The World. Especially the 2011 remasters of Queen II and NOTW are tremendous. Queen I still needs some work to be done and I'd like to hear it remastered in the way in which Bob Ludwig remastered Queen II but with re-recorded drums :)

If you want to hear an excellent mastered version of AKOM just pm me.[/QUOTE]


totally agree with that about II.............I always thought the remastering really kicked Funny How Love Is up a notch!

I don't think the remastering of AKOM is THAT bad..........maybe it's just that I'm listening to it in mp3 form with relatively cheap headphones...........lol

If you want to hear a really distorted and over-compressed cd listen to anything Rick Rubin has produced recently..............ie Black Sabbath's 13 and Metallica's Death Magnetic! (both great albums except for that!!!)

I'm not used to promote my remixes, but this can be an excellent opportunity if you want definition and a fresh sound. I'm reworking the whole Queen studio discography, and 'A Kind of Magic' is my last work.

Here's the link. Enjoy it very much!

https://onedrive.live.com/?cid=444956C082D185FC&id=444956C082D185FC%21344

There is no distortion anywhere to be found on my copy (of AKOM)... unless you mean really minute instances of distortion... and you're off the wall bonkers in exaggerating it... then you might have a point.

[QUOTE] [b]C_Matt wrote:[/b]

I'm not used to promote my remixes, but this can be an excellent opportunity if you want definition and a fresh sound. I'm reworking the whole Queen studio discography, and 'A Kind of Magic' is my last work.

Here's the link. Enjoy it very much!

https://onedrive.live.com/?cid=444956C082D185FC&id=444956C082D185FC%21344[/QUOTE]

And I'm not used to promote Matt's remixes outside the fan mixes forum, but please do as he says and you'll enjoy the best sounding AKOM ever.

And get ready for his forthcoming QII...

I think the fact that I was listening on Statement series headphones which unearth any source problems. In defence of the mastering job I think my headphones needed warming up first. WWTLF sounded fantastic by the way.
And yes Queen II sounds awesome :)

Well, it doesnt sound that bad at all, at least to my ears.

I have to say that the remasters that I like the most are the ones in the Crown Jewels and the one in the Absolute Greatest, both of them are considered kind of irrelevant or even bad according to some internet comments.

There's a thread somewhere here about the different remasters published over the years.

Now, I dont own all of them, this are the ones I own:

Queen 20 years remasters from Hollywood records (from Queen to Miracle)

The japanese "LP replica" (from Queen to Jazz)

2011 remasters (except the live albums)

Crown Jewels

A few from EMI mexico and Holland

Dont have any of them coz I am not a shameless sucker..... what I do have suits me fine.

If everyone was the same we would get the non existent 'anthologies'

If you are listening to it through a pre amp, then there is your answer. The treble and bass shold be set to zero too. They got rid of equalisers on amplifiers years ago because they muddy and distort the sound, which is very true.

I would trust Bob Ludwig's ears over yours any day. What a pompous post.

having said that, I find it very strange that you can listen to perhaps the second worst album they ever did, second only to the Works album.

Look up... a prat... who knows nothing.