"Digitally Remastered" = more nonsense...
Printed From: Graham Slee Hifi System Components
Category: Music
Forum Name: Music!
Forum Description: Because it's #AllAboutTheMusic
URL: https://www.hifisystemcomponents.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=778
Printed Date: 27 Mar 2026 at 12:15am
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Topic: "Digitally Remastered" = more nonsense...
Posted By: Analog Kid
Subject: "Digitally Remastered" = more nonsense...
Date Posted: 21 Jan 2010 at 1:01pm
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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. |
Replies:
Posted By: Lucabeer
Date Posted: 22 Jan 2010 at 10:14am
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Quite obvious, I must say! And as if digital always meant better! Quick test: take two Aerosmith albums, "Pump" and "Get a grip". "Pump" is DDD if I remember correctly. "Get a grip", although more recent, is AAD. Guess which ones sounds MUCH better on CD (even if the final product is, of course, digital in both cases)? |
Posted By: Fatmangolf
Date Posted: 24 Jan 2010 at 7:35pm
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Good points well made.
I suspect recent re-releases benefit from TLC and better ADC's as much as the improvements in "digital remastering." Loud mixes with heavy multi-band compression and emphasised sub-bass seem obligatory on releases nowadays. Worse still is brickwall limiting and deliberate "enhancer" style distortion on CD's and MP3's. There is plenty of good material out there on what all that does to the sound.
In defence of digital remixing and remastering, I offer the digital restoration of "Live at Leeds." But that is about restoration of recording defects like lighting buzz and drop outs, noise sampling and reduction. I also think the Beatles Remasters are very good but they are very careful restorations and better A/D transfers, with the "mastering" being just the final stage. ------------- Jon Open mind and ears whilst owning GSP Genera, Accession M, Accession MC, Elevator EXP, Solo ULDE, Proprius amps, Cusat50 cables, Lautus digital cable, Spatia cables and links, and a Majestic DAC. |
Posted By: Lucabeer
Date Posted: 03 Feb 2010 at 6:06pm
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Well, for once let me say good things about a remaster... I have decided to shell out some cash on the 1970-1975 Genesis boxset on SACD+DVD. Boy, I have never heard "Foxtrot" sound this great!!!!! Of course my opinion strictly applies only to the 2 channel SACD layer: not interested in multichannel, neither in the ordinary CD layer. But what an improvement over the previous CD editions: clean, detailed, luscious... |
Posted By: Lucabeer
Date Posted: 07 Feb 2010 at 9:23pm
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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! |
Posted By: Graham Slee
Date Posted: 08 Feb 2010 at 1:56am
Should be listening to it here... ...on vinyl  ------------- That none should be able to park up and enjoy the view without a smartphone and the knowledge in how to use apps |
Lucabeer wrote:Posted By: Lucabeer
Date Posted: 09 Feb 2010 at 9:06pm
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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"!!!!! |
Posted By: Graham Slee
Date Posted: 10 Feb 2010 at 1:32am
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I must admit it's a bit of an "acquired taste" The "Lamb" has a considerable number of Biblical links (but so has Supper's Ready - quite blatantly - change the word "ball" to "baal" and you may get my meaning...), and extremely subtle ones at that, for example "Counting Out Time" and the references it makes (IMO) to the book of Numbers  OK, maybe I get struck down for that last comment? As you'll probably have realised, I have more than a passing interest in Biblical study, and I guess that's the reason the "Lamb" goes well with me. ------------- That none should be able to park up and enjoy the view without a smartphone and the knowledge in how to use apps |
Posted By: Lucabeer
Date Posted: 10 Feb 2010 at 6:35am
Oh, sure, I did notice your interest in Biblical references before!  Personally I think that "Lamb" would have heavily benefited from being condensed into a single album: there is so much great stuff in there, simply it's a bit too diluted on two LPs. IMHO there are some truly magical moments, but lost amidst the filler. On the contrary, "Supper's Ready" IS long... but it keeps my interest awake for all its 23 minutes... |