Weezer's Blue Album Deluxe: Remastering done right

2004-08-01 05:45:48

We've all heard the complaints about albums falling victim to the loudness race in remastering. Well, complain no more, 'cause Weezer's Blue Album Deluxe Edition is here!

Listen for yourself

The stats: 30 second clips of three songs from the album, both versions, LAME --aps. The timing isn't exactly the same between both albums, but close enough that comparing with an ABX tool is possible.

Weezer's Blue Album Deluxe: Remastering done right

Reply #1 – 2004-08-01 14:39:07

Thanks for the clips..   

I was debating picking this up a little while ago but shied away because I've learned to be dubious of remasters of classic albums.  It's nice to see that, even though they didn't increase the dynamic range, at least they didn't take any more away.  Seems like the Blue Album was a pretty hot CD for being released in 1994.

Weezer's Blue Album Deluxe: Remastering done right

Reply #2 – 2004-08-01 15:40:33

I get a replaygain album value of -8.15dB for the original Blue album. That is high for a 1994 release.

Weezer's Blue Album Deluxe: Remastering done right

Reply #3 – 2004-08-01 15:59:53

I don't really understand what was wrong with the original Blue Album master. IMHO it sounded just like it should sound: Boomy and loud, but still with some dynamics.

Weezer's Blue Album Deluxe: Remastering done right

Reply #4 – 2004-08-01 19:14:11

It is a loud album, but it's very clean-sounding. Weezer plays a lot of distorted guitar, and distorted guitar sounds louder in the first place, because for the same peak level, it will have a much higher RMS since distorted guitar is basically intentional clipping.

Blue is probably one of my favorite sounding albums, and definitely my favorite Weezer album. Pinkerton was pretty low-fi, and everything since then sounds way too pop.

For replaygain, I got -8.28 on the original, and -9.3 on the new. As far as I can tell, most of the extra loudness comes from boosting the vocals and guitar solos a bit more in the mix.

I was hesitant myself about buying it when I saw "remastered" on it, but the people I talked to said it sounded great, so I bought it. My verdict: If you liked the sound of the original Blue, you'll also like Deluxe Blue. The extras CD that comes with it is pretty cool, too, though I wished they'd put the kitchen tapes versions of My Name Is Jonas and Say It Ain't so on there. I got them off Kazaa once and while the sound was really raw, they did some different thinks musically that I thought were cool. The guitar solo on that version of Say It Ain't So is definitely my favorite, I wish they'd kept it for the album.