Entertainment For Lively Minds
DSOTM "Experience" Edition.
This is, by my count, the 13,275th remaster of Pink Floyd's meisterwerk. And damned if I can tell the difference between it and all the other ones. It sounds no more nor less great. What is it that remasterers DO, anyway? It's not like remixing, where I can tell the difference without launching waveform analysis software. I know people go on (and indeed on) about brickwalling and compression and bitrates and so forth, but listening to Hendrix warping through the Van Allen belt into my Japanese transistor radio (deaf-aid earpiece) changed my life in '67. Listening to endless remasters of DSOTM will probably not.
I may be wrong; perhaps you hear a "warmth" and "wider soundstage" in the new remaster. Perhaps the "lows are better defined". Perhaps you can tell red wine from white without looking. I bow to your better judgement.
The second disc is something to jump up and down clapping like a girl about though, a great live performance from '74 (from memory, not good on dates).
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With the inevitable exception of the Fabs'
recent remasters I too must admit to a somewhat advanced level of cloth-earedness when it comes to 're-masters'. I used to trot out dutifully to buy any 'remastered' classic on CD but these days I'm a lot more wary. Unless they've discovered a previously unheard ukelele break in the middle of 'Money' I'll pass on the latest incarnation of Der Moon.
Which I've already bought four times.
Remastering
In a nutshell they are a bit louder and sometimes their EQ is tweaked a bit to sort out problems typically in the bass region. This is because vinyl had physical limitations in terms of how loud it could be and how throbbing the bass could be as the physical grooves need to be bigger to accommodate this. CD doesn't have this limitation.
Also remastering can to a degree remove problems such as humm, hiss, crackles etc which may have been present in original CDs made from old acetates.
Remixing is a whole nother bag, as you say.
The main appeal of remastering for the record company, of course, is to get you to buy again something you probably already own.
Pink Floyd appear to be...
...very rich people getting very much richer. I can't imagine anyone their end has EVER said 'What can we do to give real VFM to our loyal fans who may not be as wealthy as us?'
The 1999 Bowie Remasters
Anyone know why they were so awful?
Sound like they were remastered at the deep end of the local municipal pool. Through gauze.
In a nutshell
They employed too much noise reduction to eliminate any trace of hiss on whatever tapes were used, then turned up the treble to compensate for all the top end that went with it.
They sound boomy yet tinny at the same time, quite an achievement.
Do we all know about the
Do we all know about the Wembley 74 Dark Side gig audio streaming here on the hour every hour http://www.youtube.com/OfficialPinkFloyd complete with the background films shown at the gig (but not footage of the band playing).
Just had a listen
That's pretty impressive. Don't have time to listen to it all just now, so I hope they keep it up for the next few days.
Does anyone know: did they flesh out the band with other musicians during these shows, or was it still just the four of them at this point?
I seem to remember they used
Snowy White on second guitar and The Blackberries on BVs.
We do now ...
And I just compared the new remaster to the 25th Anniversary remaster - or maybe it was the other way round ...
Another overpriced reissue to
add to the "illegally download out of spite" list.
It's going to be a busy month...
On a side note
The remaster of McCartney II that I got recently is enjoyably hissy and there's a note in the accompanying book that explains how they weren't just remastering for the sake of loudness. It sounds great.
As for DSOTM, I'd buy the two-disc "Experience" edition if disc 2 was the alternate disc from the big box and not the live show.
Anyways the real fans want Immersion editions of Meddle and Animals.
RE: DSOTM
I'll buy the extras on download (if you can of course), but not the remastered album, I got suckered into the 25th anniversary one - not any more.
Although I'm looking forward The Wall boxset next year - madness!
Surely in 2013
There'll be another one. I'll wait for the biggie in 2023.
Surely in 2013
There'll be another one. I'll wait for the biggie in 2023.