"Digitally Remastered" = more nonsense...

Ever seen the phrase "digitally remastered" on a CD?
I am sure everyone has. It is plastered all over CD re-issues of older recordings.
It is yet another meaningless nonsensical phrase made up by the record companies
to fool Joe Public into thinking he is getting something special and sonically superior.

Anything that ends up on an audio CD is by definition mastered digitally,
by virtue of being digitalised and placed on a CD. However, looking at the matter
from a technical point of view, the phrase "digitally remastered" is in fact incorrect.
It does not correctly describe the process the music undergoes.

Most good mastering studios use an all-analog processing chain when mastering an older recording
for CD from analog master tapes. In the case of an analog source, the two-track analog tape gets
played back on a mastering deck, and usually gets processed through various analog processing gear
(mastering console, compressors, equalizers, limiters...etc), before finally being digitalised and captured
either by a digital tape recorder or harddrive-based digital audio workstation.

As such, the phrase "digitally mastered" or "digitally remastered" means nothing more than "Mastered for CD".
Which of course they can not put on CDs, since it would be utterly redundant and does not impress.






Edited by Analog Kid - 21 Jan 2010 at 1:03pm

After getting this boxset, I have become a huge fan of early Genesis: I can't stop listening to "Foxtrot", "Nursey Cryme" and "Selling England by the Pound"... lovely music, and lovely sound quality!!!!

Even "Trespass" actually seems quite decent thanks to these remasters!

Ok, I'll admit that I still can't stomach too much of "Lamb lies down on Braodway" (too heavy, plodding and pretentious for my taste... sorry!) but the boxset is highly recommended anyway!

Mmmm, I'm not that sure, Graham...

It's not a matter of "sound quality" here, just of personal appreciation towards the content. While I "admire" the genius and creativity behind "Lamb", it doesn't click with me with the same immediacy of "Foxtrot", "Nursery Cryme" and "Selling England". These three albums are complex, rousing, exciting, weird, flamboyant, very very British, very quirky. "Lamb"... well, it's complex and "mature"... but way overlong and IMHO not as exciting as the previous three. As much as I hate Phil Collins singing, I must admit that I enjoy "Trick of the tail" and even "Wind and wuthering" more than "Lamb"!!!!!