Poorly remastered rock cd examples?

2008-10-23 02:42:54

For a little experiment, I'm looking for CDs that have been remastered in which the original CD has been well mastered, but the remaster has not (in terms of little dynamic range).  Ideally, it would be a rock CD and both versions of the CD are fairly easy to maintain.

I've looked through some of the worst-sounding CD threads but didn't see much that would meet this criteria.

Thanks for any suggestions!

Poorly remastered rock cd examples?

Reply #1 – 2008-10-23 03:27:41

This: AC/DC - Live (2CD) (I've had both the original and the remastered 2CD.. I'd guess that the 1CD edition is poorly remastered too).

The remaster is not totally crap, I've seen much worse (but can't remember the artists/titles at the moment), but nonetheless it's very poor.

Poorly remastered rock cd examples?

Reply #2 – 2008-10-23 03:56:30

The canonical example is The Stooges - Raw Power. The recent remasters of the Depeche Mode back catalog also come to mind.

Poorly remastered rock cd examples?

Reply #3 – 2008-10-23 05:35:39

You can pick any Iron Maiden Remaster.

However, my all time favourite in this catrgory has to be Judas Priest's "Defenders Of The Faith". They killed that album by "remastering" it, and how!

Poorly remastered rock cd examples?

Reply #4 – 2008-10-24 20:00:28

Thanks -- some good examples to start with.  Now I just need to go about getting my hands on both versions of one of these, as I don't have any of them in my library in any version...

Poorly remastered rock cd examples?

Reply #5 – 2008-10-27 14:50:19

Any of ZZTop's first 5 or 6 albums.

Poorly remastered rock cd examples?

Reply #6 – 2008-10-28 00:59:37

ZZ Top's a very special case, because in the first round of CD remasters of their back catalog, they made their sound more consistent with their Eliminator-era output by replacing the drums with a gated drum machine. No, I am not making this shit up. Listen to La Grange on the radio - do you seriously believe that drum sound was circa 1973?

This is one of those few situations where, even if the remastered version was brickwalled, it's arguably far better than the original remaster. Seriously: If you still have the 1987 CD, or any CDs based on those masters, 1) immolate it and 2) buy the 2007 remaster or Steve Hoffman's recent vinyl remaster. Or if all else fails, buy the original LP (which sounds great!)

Poorly remastered rock cd examples?

Reply #7 – 2010-07-29 01:06:13

In 2002 Ozzy pulled his entire catalog and remastered it.  Diary and Blizzard were re-mixed with a different drummer and bass player (to cheat the originals out of royalties), but all of the remasters are squashed to death by compression.

I bought the 2002 edition of Tribute. For a live album recorded in the early 80s it has absolutely no dynamics. I took it off my ipod and itunes because every time it would come on it would scream at me like an annoying commercial.  The compression is so bad that during the "silent" parts of the album the crowd noise, white noise, song introductions and feedback were turned up to the brickwall limit.  If that is how the Ozzy remasters mangle live music, I'd hate to think what they do to studio music.

When possible I avoid remasters by seeking out used CDs of the older version.  Better sound and cheaper.