Mixed thoughts on 3 of the 2001 remasters/card sleeves

A Kind Of Magic was pretty awesome. The whole thing was a great improvement IMO.

The Miracle is greatly improved and really kicks ass in places. There's things I'd never noticed before. The intro to 'I Want It All' really grabbed me and 'Chinese Torture' sounds amazing. In fact I'm going to upload a file of it if I can figure out where I have space.

Innuendo is where the trouble starts. A couple of tracks seem to sound better.. Headlong & TATDOOL but for some reason the rest sounds the same as '91 or worse. 'I Can't Live With You' is particularly bad. Perhaps the high resolution just exposed how weak it really is.

Also, the Innuendo disc is not amplified very much the way the others are which seems a bit odd to me. Something just doesn't seem right.

I discovered that these do sound a little better going though analog cables btw. With other music, a digital cable usually sounds better but these are just the opposite. I'm sure Adam will explain why or tell me I'm nuts :-P

Here's Chinese Torture. Don't know if Rien already shared this one or not.

See later message for comparison version

Hey dude.

Well, I'm a little confused. I listened to that track in comparison to my HolRecrds version and I prefer the HR version!
Now, I should explain that I've processed my albums to get more out of the sound. Nothing radical. I mentioned this last year to folks about more warmth. Anyway, even when listening to the basic cd for comparison I found myself letdown by the 2001 version.
The mid-range has been greatly reduced, while the obvious highs and lows are punchier. I like those, but the mid-range really disappoints. The lead guitar sounds a lot thinner. I don't know what to say.

I don't know about Innuendo. Maybe if you could post ICLWY to hear?

Peace,
Adam.

it shouldn't sound that much different (if at all). The whole remastering process is a bit arbitary when the original source was digitally recorded in the first place. Hence, the biggest sound improvements can be heard in the earlier albums.

For what it is worth, i prefer analogue recordings. They just sound better. Digital recordings sound too sharp for my liking. Roger Waters' last (only) live album was recorded on analogue equipment and sounds great.

Well here's the thing... Analog recordings have their high and low end cut down when recorded. And there's also some midrange build up. Slight. Nature of the system. While digital obviously preserves as much as the recorder used, will allow. Again, nature of that system. However, digital recordings sound too sharp because of this. Quite simply, it wasn't clear, and to some still isn't (!), that you can't represent all the components of the mix at full bandwith.
There has to be a gap for all instruments to shine, but not all can exist in the same space. And a recording with too much highend is described as harsh. Sad really. Just listen to what's capable these days.

And that's part of the reason for what happened with early digital. Not to mention the bad converters used while recording. Sometimes at least. And this is where the analog versus digital thing came from.

Peace,
Adam.

For a short time you can find I Want It All and I Can't Live With You on my downloadpage.

Thanks Rien!

I don't know what to say about the differences we're hearing or not hearing. I clearly hear a fullness and clarity to 'The Miracle' tracks that I don't hear on the Hollywood version.. and the Capitol version is absolute junk compared to these of course :)

For my listening copy, I added some extra tracks such as the 12" Scandal from the Hollywood version.. amplified to the level of the original version remaster (but no compression tools or anything) and there's clearly a difference in quality.

But these things can be quite subjective. You can take nearly anything and make adjustments to get it sounding good.. and then compare it to another version and be amazed at the difference.

Here's a fun test for everyone.. open a favorite song in Winamp, adjust your volume, get it sounding right to you. Then turn on the EQ in Winamp and adjust it until you love the sound even more... then turn the EQ off and suddenly you'll realize how weak it sounded before, even though you were enjoying it. hehe

Thanks for those Rien. Again, I'm baffled. I hear what DF is talking about with ICLWY. And I just can't believe they've been remastered this way. It's really bad. Just listen to how thin Freddie's voice is and then compare it to the mix we all have from before. You see, again there's a huge hole in the mid-range. And Freddie's voice, our main focus, suffers greatly because of this. NOT PLEASED...

But IWIA doesn't sound as bad. But still, it's not great. I'm starting to wonder why JSSmith has done this. I've always supported the changes he made for the DVD-A and dvd vids. But these two titles don't seem as good as the earlier ones.

Just some info from me - I'm using 2 sets of studio speakers to listen with. One active and the other passive.

Peace,
Adam.

I know what you're talking about, DF. I used an effect I came up with the EQ on Nero burner for CD Audio which I named "Dark" :P, where I turned up both bass and treble, which actually gives some songs a better sound, clear-wise. If I had some CD-R's, I could make some songs this way and upload as MP3s in the future sometime

I've just listened to the two versions of ICLWY and I must say that the 2004 version sounds much clearer to me. All different instruments and left-right sounds (to put it very simple) can be heard much clearer than on the old cd.

Here's 29 seconds of 3 editions of 'Chinese Torture' back to back and at 320 kbps. I haven't done any tampering.

The first is the U.S. Capitol CD from 1989, then the U.S. Hollywood remaster from 1991, and finally the 2001 Toshiba/EMI from the 2004 card sleeve.

Obviously the volume level has been increased a bit, but ignoring that, I still think there's a much fuller sound.

**switched to A Kind Of Magic, see below**

I've also just noticed that all 3 versions have a slight 'drop-out' just after the first drum crash.

Hey, Adam or anyone.. listen to that file and tell honestly which of the 3 sounds best, so I can delete the thing :)

Listened to it a few times in Winamp (no eq), small Labtec speakers. To me the Hollywood Remaster sounded the best.

Definitely the one in the middle. In comparison with the other two, like I've said before, there's more mid-range. A VERY important part of the sonic picture when it comes to Brian's guitars.

Ah well...

Peace,
Adam.

I think I must have a midrange hearing problem. This is not the first time it's come up. I've had a friend comment on early attempts at 'remixes' "where's the midrange?" and I recall that while growing up, the EQ setting that always seemed right to me was a V shape. LOL

This is why I try not to mess with stuff when I'm doing my little edit jobs. I do sometimes do a little bass boost to try and make something match.

This blows. Stuff I do might sound horrible and I'd never know it :-P