I thought it would be good to start a new topic about cd's which are mastered well. What I mean is discs that aren't heavily clipped, among other things. Sort of the corollary to the other discussions. Maybe this can be the beginnings of a replaygain database.
I've been getting cd's from pawn shops lately. It's good because you can get them really cheap and usually they are a few years old and some have reasonable replaygain values.
I'll start by listing a few:
Dio - Holy Diver
REPLAYGAIN_ALBUM_PEAK=0.92724609
REPLAYGAIN_ALBUM_GAIN=-2.95 dB
Dio - The Last In Line
REPLAYGAIN_ALBUM_PEAK=0.78213501
REPLAYGAIN_ALBUM_GAIN=-1.20 dB
John Fogerty - Centerfield
EPLAYGAIN_ALBUM_PEAK=0.87054443
REPLAYGAIN_ALBUM_GAIN=-0.92 dB
More later...
Any old CD is a likely candidate.
What I mean is that I also like new music. And with RG, it is not that big a deal, to me.
I thought it would be good to start a new topic about cd's which are mastered well. What I mean is discs that aren't heavily clipped, among other things.
There are so many CDs which are mastered well. Almost all of them, actually.
Of course, I mean only CDs with classical music.
Peter Gabriel's albums always sound pretty damn good.
loreena mckennitt - the mask and mirror (1994, mastered by bob ludwig) "parallel dreams" (1989) is also mastered very well but no credit.
Anything re-mastered by Mobile Fidelity is a good bet.
Tool's Lateralus sounds quite nice.
Any old CD is a likely candidate.
What I mean is that I also like new music. And with RG, it is not that big a deal, to me.
Well, yeah, me too I suppose. But the more fundamental problem is that once the music is digitally clipped, some information is lost forever. RG brings the level back down to what it should be, but that data is still gone. The clipped parts have sample values of 1111111111111111... right? Or am I totally wrong here? That has been known to happen
Vladislav Delay - The Four Quarters is amazingly well produced / mastered.
Tool's Lateralus sounds quite nice.
As i see, people here tend to measure the mastering quality by ReplayGain values. (Not really know why, just the thing that it's load doesn't mean it's bad - but i'm not a specialist on this)
Now Lateralus has an album gain of -7.20 dB... quite a lot. But i don't think it sounds bad at all
(Just a little comment: i am much more aware of bad quality, so i often do not realise if something is 'well-mastered'. Mostly due to the thing that i don't have the adequate equipment to enjoy some high resolution sound)
Prodigy's Fat of the Land sounds really good.
blue note (RVG) jazz albums are generally quite nice too, apart from the classical music (stay away from crappy labels though)
As stated by molnart, there's a confusion between mastering quality and the average volume of a disc. A high RG negative correction value indicates that heavy compression process was applied during the mastering size. It's only a problem if the listener expect from CD to reproduce with fidelity the recorded sound. Otherwise, compression could appear as really pleasant (and it's probably perceived as a good thing by a lot of consumers).
On the other side, low RG value are not implying good mastering quality. I'm listening to classical music, and a wide majority (more than 90%, excepted for mono albums - maybe a RG problem) of albums have a RG value inside the +3/-1 dB range. But a lot of them are not totally pleasant, because of recording conditions (acoustic issues mostly, but not only).
In short, RG can't definitely be used as a quality benchmark. Only extreme negative gain could indicate serious musical issue (total lack of dynamic range).
On the extremely high end of things, BT's Emotional Technology displays good pop mastering at it's limit: Circles has an RG of -10.97dB. The album has an RG of -9.56dB. Despite that, there are places where it is very dynamic, like in the intro to Animals.
I've only heard a couple of ECM label albums, but damn, they sounded nice! Am I just fooling myself?
Related thread:
http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index....showtopic=36386 (http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=36386)
Hey guys, long time lurker, first time poster.
For a truly well mastered CD, anything done by Steve Hoffman will knock your socks off.
You can find a discography here (http://www.stevehoffman.tv/discography/).
I like Mark Knopfler's and Emmylou Harris' new duet CD ... it's called "All The Roadrunning" and it was recorded over a span of 7 years ...
It plays loud like any modern album (with dynamics at the right places) but it sounds fantastic to me (assuming you like a mixture of Knopfler-Soft-Rock and Country) ...
Tool's Lateralus sounds quite nice.
As i see, people here tend to measure the mastering quality by ReplayGain values. (Not really know why, just the thing that it's load doesn't mean it's bad - but i'm not a specialist on this)
Now Lateralus has an album gain of -7.20 dB... quite a lot. But i don't think it sounds bad at all
Tool is a special case. Their songs tend to have the very loud bits and the occassional quiet vocals, so they're pretty good about maintaining a lot of dynamic range, because without it, you wouldn't even be able to hear the vocals. So despite the medium-high RG value, there's still a very wide range of sound there. Not usually any clipping to speak of on their works either, they just push the upper end a lot.
Nine Inch Nails - Fragile (1999)
Massive Attack - Mezzanine (1998)
Faith No More - Angel Dust (1992)
All impeccably mastered. And really good too
I have the Faith No More cd, and it is a good disc. There is some clipping (reported by replaygain), but I agree that is is well done. The clipping does not ruin the sound (because I can't hear it). Another good one is the original release of Judas Priest's British Steel. I got that one used several years ago then was sort of disappointed at the time because I saw it was re-released and remastered. At the time I thought I should have gotten the new one, but now I am so glad I didn't. There's no clipping on it, and it sounds great. I have a few of the songs on it also on other discs (greatest hits) which aren't so well mastered, and the difference is very noticeable, which is unfortunate.
Buena Vista Club (1997) sounds amazing, if you ask me. I wish every CD sounded like this one. :)
[Also a long-time lurker/first-time poster. Hi everyone!]
Hey guys, long time lurker, first time poster.
For a truly well mastered CD, anything done by Steve Hoffman will knock your socks off.
You can find a discography here (http://www.stevehoffman.tv/discography/).
They do sound very good. He also takes great care to use master tapes that best reflect the final product presented to the artists in the studio.
As for other good-sounding CDs -- XTC's "Drums And Wires", as remastered in 2000 by a guy named Ian Cooper for Caroline Records, sounds sensational.
Shnaggletooth
Ghost in the Shell & Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence soundtracks, both by Kenji Kawai, have incredible sound.
Replaygain values (album) for the first one is -1,50dB, and -3,90dB for the second. If you like anime soundtracks check these ones out.
Fans of japanese percussion will appreciate tracks #1 and #5 on the first one and #2, #7 and #10 on the second. I always drool in awe when listening to these...
Any album by Vir Unis (Ambient). Actually, almost any non-mainstream Ambient album sounds nice(because lots of headroom for playing with dynamics plus depthness and clarity is what this genre is about). The albums by Vir Unis however are a special case because they are able to create an unusually deep and vast sound.
However, the style is probably not everyone's taste - for beginners, i'd propose the albums "Pulse'n Atmo"(synthetic and fast) and "The Drift Inside"(melodic, floating)
Anacondo: I have those soundtracks, they're wonderful (and the movies are good, too). Making of Cyborg and Reincarnation are my favorite tracks, they're really powerful when you hear them in 5.1 in the movie!
The Stand Alone Complex OSTs by Yoko Kanno are also great.
Also recommendable are the StarWars OST's, at least Episode 1-3 (Episode 4-6 are old, analogue recordings but still sound really good).
Episode II - Attack of the Clones is the best. It's my absolute favourite cd. RG_ALBUM_GAIN=+0.37 RG_ALBUM_PEAK=1.033703 (analysis done on lame 3.97b2 -V 5 --vbr-new lossy, that's why the peak is higher than 1; but there are no clipped samples and no excessive hardlimiting).
Nora Jones -Come away with me.
Tool - 10,000 days.
Death Cab for Cutie - Plans.
Seal - IV
I'm just gonna quit here, even though I could go on and on.
The new David Gilmour "On An Island" is mastered really well with actual dynamic range!!
On the extremely high end of things, BT's Emotional Technology displays good pop mastering at it's limit: Circles has an RG of -10.97dB. The album has an RG of -9.56dB. Despite that, there are places where it is very dynamic, like in the intro to Animals.
I love BT's stuff and I think he is a fantastic producer, but the hot levels on that disc make me cringe. It's the same with MITSL, which I own. .
If you want well mastered albums, look into soundtrack's, classical pieces, and 80's recordings.
David GILMOUR?
Hey, cool! I still remember that brilliant version of "Running up that hill" he did with Kate Bush, back in '87. Dynamics at their best! (As if Kate sat directly in your ear )
Thanks for mentioning...
Hmmm ... intelligent pop + live.
That could spawn another album title from within my mind...Eurythmics live 1983-1989, brilliant stuff.
Hm and what about Supertramp live in Paris 1980?
Supertramp? Sure. Breakfast in America. Recorded in 1979? If I didn't know, I couldn't guess.
Conclusion: lots of live albums (and bootlegs) are well-mastered.
I also remember a live bootleg from Supertramp where they stated on the CD that the sound was supposed to be as rough as possible and that least possible modifying/enhancing had been done on it. Been very old stuff, pre-"Breakfast in America".
Nora Jones -Come away with me.
Tool - 10,000 days.
Death Cab for Cutie - Plans.
Seal - IV
I'm just gonna quit here, even though I could go on and on.
Hey wait a minute..
Norah Jones? Are you serious?
The first track on the album, "Don't know why", has very audible distortion in her voice. It's one of those tracks that has bugged me the most, because clipping is completely uncalled for it this genre.
Listen at 1:13-1:14. It's not hard clipped, the damage was probably done by a soft clipper during mastering. I've noticed there are people who consider soft clippers to be "spectrally clean", which is absolutely not true.
1:45, 1:46 likewise, 1:55-1:58 - basically all the times she sings loudly. If you don't notice it in speakers, try headphones, but it should be audible.
Plans by Death Cab and Seal IV aren't bad for for a recent recordings, but they could have sounded better with more dynamics. For modern mastering they're about as good as it gets though.
Sorry everyone, didn't mean to turn the "well mastered CD" thread into yet another "poorly mastered CDs" thread. Let's see if I can redeem myself.
For a truly truly excellent mastering, try Still Life (Talking) by Pat Metheny (1987). It's Jazz, but so extremely well made and melodious, it's almost impossible not to like it. If you want to try just one track, try "Third wind". CDs can't sound much better than this.
Infected Mushroom - B. P. Empire (2002) sounds incredible too. If you're at all into electronic music, it's a must-listen. The album is clip-free as far as I can tell, they probably used a little bit of look-ahead limiting, but nothing I can hear. And dare I say it, if there's a flaw, it'll jump out and bug me, whether I like it or not .
///Leif
Infected Mushroom - B. P. Empire (2002) sounds incredible too. If you're at all into electronic music, it's a must-listen. The album is clip-free as far as I can tell, they probably used a little bit of look-ahead limiting, but nothing I can hear. And dare I say it, if there's a flaw, it'll jump out and bug me, whether I like it or not
It's also a good listen to if you have a pair of headphones. I have Classical Mushroom and IM The Supervisor. They tend to use a lot of reverberation and phase filtering, which makes their pieces standout in terms of realism.
Infected Mushroom - B. P. Empire (2002) sounds incredible too. If you're at all into electronic music, it's a must-listen. The album is clip-free as far as I can tell, they probably used a little bit of look-ahead limiting, but nothing I can hear. And dare I say it, if there's a flaw, it'll jump out and bug me, whether I like it or not
It's also a good listen to if you have a pair of headphones. I have Classical Mushroom and IM The Supervisor. They tend to use a lot of reverberation and phase filtering, which makes their pieces standout in terms of realism.
I agree about Classical Mushroom or any of their earlier stuff, but sound quality took a
steep dive on I'm the Supervisor. It's completely smashed, and while there's not a lot of clipping, there's a ton of limiting, drums have very little impact, the top 6dB has been squashed like on so many other recordings. Actually processing this album through a carefully adjusted expander made a big difference for me, and I'm able to listen to my modified copy. Sure, more processing isn't usually a good thing, but at least there are some peaks for the ears to focus on instead of noticing every other flaw.
"I'm the supervisor" is not the worst recording I've ever heard, but I thought this thread was about WELL MASTERED cd's, not "far-from-the-worst-but-still-crap".
(http://leif.cx/temp/im_the_supervisor.gif)
I'm the supervisor, track 02
///Leif
I just want to point out that Vlado Meller has mastered some good CDs.
Wynton Marsalis' album Black Codes (From The Underground) is an all digitally recorded, mixed and mastered album. Meller did the mastering, and it sounds wonderful.
Some may be amazed to know that it contains heaps of dynamic range.
I replaygained the album, the loudest song required -3.37 correction, the quietest song required an increase of +1.69.
Hats by The Blue Nile on the Linn Label. Good edgy stuff too. Did the guy who said Nora Jones ger Banned? . I like her too . Did i just type that
Any CD by This Mortal Coil. It'll End In Tears (http://www.discogs.com/release/184969) is veritable audio nirvana, both in terms of sound quality and content.
Did the guy who said Nora Jones ger Banned? . I like her too . Did i just type that
Johnnydex has not been banned. One wonders what would prompt you with such a wild, preposterous speculation as claiming that ppl get banned from HA for stating their musical preferences.
There's 2 christian labels that seem to release amazing sounding cds
Sparrow and inPop....their both connected, so that explains the similar mastering quality
as for more mainstream music...i have a couple remastered Pink Floyd / AC/DC albums that sound great...along with Nine Inch Nails cds and 10 Years are the best newer music i've heard, but still not perfect
I would personally recommend Chris Rea: "On the Beach" and Bryan Ferry: "Boys and Girls". Both albums sound quite good, with all music instruments well differentiated. Listening to them it's so nice... . Theoretically, Bryan Ferry album is a HDCD (that's what it have printed on the case), but WMP doesn't recognize it...
I like how the Porcupine Tree (http://www.porcupinetree.com) albums are mastered. Their 2001 release In Absentia a bit less (I guess they went for a louder sound or it was due to the (switch of) record company).
But all the others are good, dynamics wise. The newly remixed/remastered Stupid Dream is a great example. That the original was from 1999 may account for some of it. The real reason is that the band leader is very much in control over what happens to the albums, including mastering.
I like how the Porcupine Tree (http://www.porcupinetree.com) albums are mastered. Their 2001 release In Absentia a bit less (I guess they went for a louder sound or it was due to the (switch of) record company).
But all the others are good, dynamics wise. The newly remixed/remastered Stupid Dream is a great example. That the original was from 1999 may account for some of it. The real reason is that the band leader is very much in control over what happens to the albums, including mastering.
I've not listened to many Porcupine Tree songs, but Steven Wilson is widely considered as an excellent producer by many bands, like Opeth (whose albums are also widely considered to have an excellent production... Steven Wilson is the co-producer of three of them )
Gordian Knot's self-titled debut sounds quite good.
Mike oldfield's "amarok"... Talk about insane dynamic range and still no perceptible distortion.
Alan Parsons Project, Tales of mistery and imagination, remastered/remixed version of 1987. Another damn good sounding album. The drums on the first track "A dream within a dream" are just amazing.
Mike oldfield's "amarok"... Talk about insane dynamic range and still no perceptible distortion.
I heard he did that to annoy the record company, when he had to fill his contract with one more album
To me it's not his worst album (but those few loud passages in the first part are annoying indeed (happ-py?))
Mike oldfield's "amarok"... Talk about insane dynamic range and still no perceptible distortion.
I heard he did that to annoy the record company, when he had to fill his contract with one more album
To me it's by far not his worst album (those few loud passages in the first part are annoying indeed)
Indeed, he made it intentionally anticomercial plaging it with abrupt volume changes and weird noises and just one track of exactly one hour, not the music you'd expect to hear in commercial radioformulas, but for me is one of his best albums. The last 1/4 hour is pure genious. Very different from the garbage that were the previous (earth moving) and next (heaven's open) albums.
Dave Brubeck Quartet - Time Out (1997)
Nora Jones -Come away with me.
Tool - 10,000 days.
Death Cab for Cutie - Plans.
Seal - IV
I'm just gonna quit here, even though I could go on and on.
Hey wait a minute..
Norah Jones? Are you serious?
The first track on the album, "Don't know why", has very audible distortion in her voice. It's one of those tracks that has bugged me the most, because clipping is completely uncalled for it this genre.
Yeah, Yeah, tou·ché on the Nora Jones smack down. You are absolutely right, I admit to bluring the lines and including good production. The production on that album was great but you are right the mastering was not. And since this thread is not about well produced albums I should'nt have included it.
Just a question aside, what software are you guys doing these shiny spectrograms with?
CoolEdit?
I have an old WaveLab lying around somewhere, but it looks *quite* different to the above diagrams.
Just a question aside, what software are you guys doing these shiny spectrograms with?
CoolEdit?
I have an old WaveLab lying around somewhere, but it looks *quite* different to the above diagrams.
About any Waveeditor should do. Be it Cool Edit, Nero Wave Editor (crap, I know), Audition, or WaveLab...
Just open the file in the Editor and make a screenshot of the displayed waveform (e.g. using Alt-PrintScreen then inserting into IrfanView or so and just cut out the waveform, then save as png and upload somewhere).
Adobe Audition (former Cool Edit) allows to alter the spectral colors quite nicely via the Spectral Controls window. For example making the louder frequencies really bright colored and the not-that-loud frequencies almost black.... this way the spectral view is also useful for displaying clipping as it already is for showing compression.
(http://img54.imageshack.us/img54/8667/ss0313ov.th.png) (http://img54.imageshack.us/img54/8667/ss0313ov.png)
Dave Brubeck Quartet - Time Out (1997)
All Columbia / Legacy remasters sound pretty good to me. I don't know who did the Brubeck, but Mark Wilder does a lot of the Miles Davis reissues, and he is pretty good on those CDs.
so aaaaanywho, back on topic, are there any other good Electronica / Trance tracks/compilations out there?
a group or two that came to mind that i CURRENTLY like include Hydroid - Burn Proof / Sativa (i've seen some other tracks hit DJ mixsets). didn't realize how dynamic it was when i looked at it (and listened to it) followed by the other one i love even more, Probspot - Organic Waveforms, and realized Waveforms is quite a bit more dynamically squashed (damn me for looking at the waveform (heh) and then listening, and then comparing to the first one...)
anyone have any good trance albums / collections that have a nifty of a sound as those two? (is Anjunabeats (as a whole of what they release) any good? or do they vary per artist?)
Back on topic, this is a great sounding CD: Jazz at the Pawn Shop (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0000062AS/102-3271167-1580951?v=glance&n=5174)
If I may stray slightly off topic, I think we must understand that we are both physical and spiritual beings. Music is also both physical (the notes) and spiritual (the playing). And a CD player must capture both!
Mass produced CD players just don't capture the spiritual element of music. They might get the physical bits right but they often don't get the spirit of the performance right.
That's why a great CD player need a great CD player designer who is able to capture the spiritual element of music.
Spirituality is very close to me - a neighbour of mine runs a new age crystal shop - so I find that I am particularly sensitive to the spiritual reproduction of music. Of course, you might not be, so I'd understand that some people might disagree with me.
Dave Brubeck Quartet - Time Out (1997)
All Columbia / Legacy remasters sound pretty good to me. I don't know who did the Brubeck, but Mark Wilder does a lot of the Miles Davis reissues, and he is pretty good on those CDs.
I wonder if Wilder worked on Kind of Blue. I've always enjoyed the sound of both albums.
Tonal purity crap split to the Recycle Bin. Try to stay on topic please.
Dave Brubeck Quartet - Time Out (1997)
All Columbia / Legacy remasters sound pretty good to me. I don't know who did the Brubeck, but Mark Wilder does a lot of the Miles Davis reissues, and he is pretty good on those CDs.
I wonder if Wilder worked on Kind of Blue. I've always enjoyed the sound of both albums.
Yes, I'm pretty sure the current version (the one with the alternate take of Flamenco Sketches) is a PCM conversion of Mark Wilder's DSD transfer for the SACD.
Yesterday I got an amazing CD...
Ray Brown Trio
Some Of My Best Friends Are... Guitarists
2002
by Telarc Jazz
The point is that is perhaps the best CD I have ever heard...it sounds simply astonishing!..
I am particularly sensitive to the spiritual reproduction of music.
Can you ABX the spirituality of music?
On topic recommendation? - Neil Diamond's 12 songs. Sounds pretty good to me but i only use my ears. Does this produce a good graph too? Not sure if this is the forum for me as am not overly concerned about the graphs you guys seem to like so much. Attempts at a little light hearted banter seem to fall on deaf ears(geddit). 2 topics in music from last week have zero response. For me music is first and foremost but I like to enjoy my hobbies. I'm sure this will draw some ascerbic comments but lighten up guys!
Wilco's A Ghost is Born is mastered well. There is a tiny bit of clipping and is very dynamic in comparison to most modern CDs. It came out in 2004. I haven't checked their more popular album Yankee Hotel Foxtrot yet, but it probably has similar results. Their recent live LP Kicking Television is also well mastered (2005).
Just checked and apparently they are all mastered at Abbey Road Studios. Anyone know of who else they have mastered for?
MUST add a great one to this list, not english, not french, not italian not spanish - no, it's TURKISH.
Maybe most Turks cannot afford expensive ProTools crap? Or they just don't bother?
Heaven knows.
At least - GOOD FOR US LISTENERS!!!!
It's "Ask Yok Mu Ask" by Bendeniz.
This CD is seriously from 2005, it's fairly hot-mastered (largest RG correction value is -9.07 dB on track 3); but I can assure you, there is NO clipping, no moronically created artificial square waves that can't make it below the digital zero in all that sound stew (as this obviously IS the limit).
I analysed all the stuff, and it's just a pleasure for the ear, also on headphones.
No brickwall limiting AFAICS. Nowhere.
Turkish music has so many acoustic sazlar (i. e. plural of 'saz') and stuff in the mix, and they would just be squashed with digi-tools dogshite. Glad they kept their fingers off it, or used it so extremely gently that it doesn't show up.
There IS music that is loud-mastered, but doesn't clip as hell.
And the best is still to come: this is NOT jazz, this is radio pop. Most guys in their previous posts mainly named jazz cds; and that is really not very hard to find a well-mastered CD.
The art is to find a well-mastered CD amongst recent *pop* stuff.
Yes, that IS finding the proverbial needle in a haystack.
bringing this up again...
just listening to a very well-mastered electronic one...
Minimum Maximum by Kraftwerk, in 2005.
Replay gains are very "unusual". The loudest track is #7 (Autobahn) with 97.36 dB. Hard to find these days - a pleasure to listen to!
Many XRCDs are quite good.
Hi everybody,
I'm a long time reader and now first time poster to hydrogenaudio.
Here are a few CD's, which I think are well mastered:
Jennifer Warnes - Famous Blue Raincoat (1987 BMG Ariola München GmbH)
Amanda McBroom - Dreaming (1986 Gecko Records)
Paul McCartney - Give My Regards To Broad Street (Digitally Remastered 1993 Parlophone)
Apollo 13 (1995 MCA Records)
Greetings
Any old CD is a likely candidate.
What I mean is that I also like new music. And with RG, it is not that big a deal, to me.
Not really. There are lot of bad sounding old CDs too. The first release of Aerosmith's greatest hits sounded like a bootleg. Suzanne Vega's
Solitude Standing, while musically brilliant, is very flat and lifeless sounding.
I would also encourage people to not use ReplayGain as a measuring stick for quality. Sure, a lot of recent albums have been stupidly overcompressed but that doesn't mean compression doesn't have its place. The same goes for a high average level. I have a rock/metal track that comes out to -14.xx dB track gain. It must sound like crap, right? Not at all. It's maxed to 0 dBfs but there is no clipping. This particular track works well at screaming loud. If it's a quiet ballad...not so much.
One of my personal favorites is Tori Amos'
Boys for Pele. While it may not be your cup of tea musically, there is no denying the cleanliness and solidity of the sound. The quiet tracks are particularly impressive - her piano is delicate but at the same time very real. The album as a whole is very musical and pleasurable to listen to.
Most classical tracks from DG Archiv, especially The English Concert
Van Halen - Van Halen I (1978)
Van Halen - Van Halen II (1979)
Queen - The Game (1980)
Better Than Ezra - Deluxe (1995, surprisingly)
The Who - Who are You? (1978)
AC/DC - Back in Black (1980) - original version, NOT the remaster
Tool - Undertow (1993)
Boston - Boston (1976)
Sly and the Family Stone - Dance to the Music (1968)
Sly and the Family Stone - Stand! (1969)
Pink Floyd - The Wall (1979)
Chicago - Chicago IX (1975)
The Police - Outlandos D'Amour (1978)
The Police - Reggatta de Blanc (1979)
U2 - The Joshua Tree (1987)
If you wanna check these out, make sure you get the original versions, not a remaster. Not even an MFSL or other "audiophile" master.
Dire Straits - Brothers In Arms
Nice suggestions, yet I generally do not buy best-ofs at all. (one out of 1000 I might)
But good albums usually have an A-Z context, so this should not be sacrificed just because the melody is so "catchy."
Sorry for OT.
I like Sony Legacy remasters: Simon and Garfunkel, The Byrds, etc.
Donald Fagen- The Nightfly. Of course Fagen and Becker are total freaks when it comes to recording and mastering quality. This title does not dissapoint. And you're missing out if you don't get the DVD-A as well.
John Barry-On Her Majesty's Secret Service (Remaster) The most overlooked Bond film of all time comes with perhaps the most beautiful score to go along with it. And they did a great job of remastering this soundtrack. It is literally breathtaking. Not to mention all of the recent Bond remasters are very good sounding. (Except for Dr. No)
I would also add many albums from the Elton John classic years remastered. My favorite two in terms of sound quality are Honky Chateau and Goodbye Yellow Brick Road. Gus Dudgeon, the original engineer, did an excellent job with these.
Donald Fagen- The Nightfly. Of course Fagen and Becker are total freaks when it comes to recording and mastering quality. This title does not dissapoint. And you're missing out if you don't get the DVD-A as well.
"The Nightfly" actually needs to be a little dirtier. It's one of those albums that veers too far into "clean" territory and everything on it sound slike it was synthesized.
You definitely need DVD-A to hear all the quality of the original 16 bit master though.
Bumping this one to see if anybody has the recent Neil Young release, Live at Massey Hall, 1971. I'm pretty new to analyzing dynamics, but this CD sounds fantastic to me.
If you listen to rock music, here some (IMHO) well mastered rock CDs that you may find:
1) Rush - "Chronicles"
2) Meatloaf - "Bat out of hell II: Back into hell"
The latest Iron Maiden album "A Matter of Life and Death" too is a pretty decently mastered album.
Chick Corea - Beneath the Mask
The CD is very nicely mastered, music isn't that good.
Beth Orton - Comfort of Strangers (2006)
Sounds great, and encourages me to turn up the volume rather than down, so I don't think is mastered too high. Seems to have clear treble frequencies, and yet doesn't unnaturally push them at higher levels than everything else. In fact, describing this reminds me of another album, which although in a different genre has many similar sonic tendencies...
Jamiroquai - The Return of the Space Cowboy (1994)
Beth Orton - Comfort of Strangers (2006)
Sounds great, and encourages me to turn up the volume rather than down, so I don't think is mastered too high. Seems to have clear treble frequencies, and yet doesn't unnaturally push them at higher levels than everything else.
One of my favorite artists. Great call.
Queen - Innuendo (1991) (album gain=-1.87)
I like so much of album and it sound pretty good to me.
Hybrid - Wide Angle (1999)
The CD is quite loud, yet I could not hear any distortions, and above all the high frequencies don't squeak at all, not the least bit, which is something I hear very rarely.
- Beck - Mellow Gold: I've always been amazed by the sound of this album - it can change dramatically from song to song, yet it's always very "punchy" ("ballsy" would be another way to put it ) and clean, with only occasional harshness.
- Emmylou Harris - Wrecking Ball: Top end can be a bit crisp at times, but the overall sound is big and expansive - a great listen on headphones, or even better, a pair of good speakers properly setup.
- Neko Case - Blacklisted: Strong midrange showcasing that wonderful voice, drenched in reverb, and overall quite loud, but not a trace of digital limiting (plenty of analog limiting, though ).
- Kruder & Dorfmeister - K&D Sessions: Disc 2 wanders off into nowhere, but Disc 1 alone is well worth the price of admission - great mixes, great sound. I haven't looked at any waveforms, and I wouldn't be surprised if there was quite a bit of digital limiting, but you wouldn't know it from listening.
Here's a German one, brand-new:
Die Fantastischen Vier - "Fornika" (2007)
Album Gain = -7.60 dB (Single Album)
This is NOT loud for an album with powerful music.
(They did pure hip-hop in the past, but now focused on a greater part of rock elements).
I think it's perfectly mastered for this year's standards. Hot yes, but not exaggerated.
I've seen INSANE RG values of -14 dB with so-called "radio pop" and everything squashed to pop porridge.
(Any Russians reading this post? So check Znayesh' li ty, Track #09 from MakSim's Trudniy vozrast. HORRIBLE.)
and everything squashed to pop porridge.
Mmmm, pop porridge...
Great description - I think it needs to be made an official ID3 genre.
Dunno if anyone will agree with me, but I find the sound on Accept's "Restless and Wild" extremely good! It sounds as if I'm sitting right beside them in the studio and drinking a beer You can hear every so little nuance of the drum kit very clearly; awesome dynamics.
Most others tell me it's not well produced, there's some noise in it. But I find this (very slight) noise typical for most recordings from that time period.
(It's from 1982.)
Edit:
Of course it might not matter as a "measurement of quality", but F2k's ReplayGain reports values very near to 0 on all tracks.
Neil Young Live at Massey Hall 1971.
Excellent sound quality. And it is a 1971 recording!
I wasn't so strict with mastering until I improved my audio gear, specially the headphones. Now I detect a lot more mastering mistakes than before.
As a mainly soundtrack listener, I thought I was safe from the "loudness war" in mastering process, but there're exceptions. I've recently listened to Planet Earth BBC soundtrack by George Fenton. On the second CD it has traces of compression and even hard clipping (sound even crackles in loud passages). I had a few emails with mastering engineer Sean Magee, but we were unable to agree the origin of that anomalies.
You have mentioned several soundtracks in this thread. A common element between some of them is recording engineer Shawn Murphy. Other good professionals in mastering are Joe Gastwirt, Patricia Sullivan-Fourstar, Gareth Williams, Martin Giles...
Joe Walsh's Barnstorm MFSL release is a beautiful sounding CD, a lot of dynamics, and mastered just right.
James Taylor - Hourglass
Tool - Aenima
Tool - Lateralus
Holly Cole - Don't Smoke In Bed
I wasn't so strict with mastering until I improved my audio gear, specially the headphones. Now I detect a lot more mastering mistakes than before.
As a mainly soundtrack listener, I thought I was safe from the "loudness war" in mastering process, but there're exceptions. I've recently listened to Planet Earth BBC soundtrack by George Fenton. On the second CD it has traces of compression and even hard clipping (sound even crackles in loud passages). I had a few emails with mastering engineer Sean Magee, but we were unable to agree the origin of that anomalies.
You have mentioned several soundtracks in this thread. A common element between some of them is recording engineer Shawn Murphy. Other good professionals in mastering are Joe Gastwirt, Patricia Sullivan-Fourstar, Gareth Williams, Martin Giles...
Those crakles from clipped music really piss me off. apart from the fact they just shouldn't be there they sound horrible.
My pick for well masters cd's Smashing pumpkins - Siamiese Dream
I'm just listening to Pet Shop Boys' 2006 masterpiece Fundamental + Fundamentalism (limited edition).
That's another flagship of good mastering IMHO for the 2nd half of the 2000's.
Album gain -7.70 dB.
Single-track scans revealed a lot of ear-soothing RGs ("Psychological" -5.77 dB, "Luna Park" -5.84 dB, "Gomorrah" (last track on 2nd CD) -4.74 dB!!!)
It appears to me that PSB seriously do take care in order not to have their music over-compressed. It pops into the eye that a lot of pieces which have the "soothing" RG values are mainly using ACOUSTIC instruments, so they did take care not to destroy their dynamic range too much; hence, acoustic bass drums have very good punch and do not sound clipped.
Exception: The Sodom & Gomorrah Show, -8.68 dB, which is a bit too much! The track uses a huge apparatus of acoustic instruments and IMO the track would've been a bit more dynamic by using less compression!
"Fugitive" - -8.95 dB but *NOT* too much! It must be noted the track is 100% electronic and thus digital. Despite hot mastering, I found no clipping at all.
(OT note: I can't see any reason what kept them from releasing "Fugitive" as a single. This IS a hit, also for disco people!)
Way to go boys!
There are so many well recordings but one of the best i have in my collection is "Patricia Barber - Modern Cool".
You may argue about a tiny bit of to much bass here and there but the clarity is just amazing. I only have the regular Parlophone version. Maybe the Mofi version is even better.
One of my recent favorites has exquisite engineering and mastering: the hi-res stereo mix from Porcupine Tree's Fear of a Blank Planet Limited Edition DVD has a Replaygain Album value of -4.01dB. I think the CD release is in the -7dB range. Steven Wilson (songwriter/vocalist/guitarist/producer) took on the mixing and mastering chores for that album himself and has been quoted in interviews (http://aharden.wordpress.com/2007/05/02/steven-wilson-porcupine-tree-addresses-louder-is-better/) that he did so primarily because of the "louder is better" problem.
Beastie Boys (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beastie_Boys) - The Mix-Up (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mix-Up). Very well mastered record.
There are so many well recordings but one of the best i have in my collection is "Patricia Barber - Modern Cool".
You may argue about a tiny bit of to much bass here and there but the clarity is just amazing. I only have the regular Parlophone version. Maybe the Mofi version is even better.
Maybe we should support Parlophone more by buying more of their CDs?
Guess what - the Pet Shop Boys release described above *IS* a Parlophone release, too!
Beastie Boys (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beastie_Boys) - The Mix-Up (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mix-Up). Very well mastered record.
Any RG values please?
Beastie Boys (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beastie_Boys) - The Mix-Up (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mix-Up). Very well mastered record.
Any RG values please?
Not like it matters (use your ears!) but to answer the question, mine is -3.09dB.
I'll add one to the list: the new remaster of Monolake - Interstate. It sounds great, very clear and it seems to have great range. RG is -4.22 for those who are interested.
5 of the top of my head
Seal - 1st and 2nd
Roger Waters - Amused To Death
Madonna - The Immaculate Collection
Bran Van 3000 - Discosis
Beastie Boys (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beastie_Boys) - The Mix-Up (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mix-Up). Very well mastered record.
Licensed to Ill and Paul's Boutique are mastered well too. -2.87dB and -0.94dB respectively.
I'm sure somebody has mentioned this already but:
Pink Floyd - The Wall MFSL Gold Disc. Album Gain: +1.35dB, Album Peak: 0.999969
The Wall was the first album I can remember actually thinking "wow, this is really high quality"
I think record companies should at least try releasing well-mastered cd's. Even people who aren't aware of "the Race" subconsciously hate the sound of
cd's, I'd guess. Then they might start buying more records.
The 2004 Brian Eno remasters (Here Come the Warm Jets, Taking Tiger Mountain) are exceptionally good.
I think record companies should at least try releasing well-mastered cd's. Even people who aren't aware of "the Race" subconsciously hate the sound of
cd's, I'd guess. Then they might start buying more records.
I agree. Trouble is at the moment, the big labels are doing it.. so the independent labels feel they have to or else their stuff will sound quiet in comparison. The big labels have got to make a move... they can't exactly sell less CDs than they do now. With iTunes and digital sales on the up, ReplayGain could become a standard which would end the war right away. Unfortunately Apple couldn't care less about the music so they wouldn't do something like that.
I stumbled upon another well mastered CD in my collection. 2Pac - 2Pacalypse Now: Album Gain +0.18dB, Peak 0.994.
It's a 1991 CD so not really surprising but it just shows that Hip Hop is suffering from the war too and not all the compression is done in production.
Some good news I suppose.. I've got an advance copy of the new Kanye West album.. it is still loud with about a -7dB but he previous album was -8.9dB so at least this is a step in the right direction. If you're reading this Kanye.. tell your mastering guys to aim for 0dB for your next one, ok?
While I expected from a Jennifer Lopez album to contain overcompressed pop,
I am positively surprised by her 1st album in Spanish language,
2007 Como ama una mujer.
rg values average around -6 or -7 db, which is clearly not the today's -9-10-11 db.
IMO a good example, that it is possible to produce well-mastered today's pop, even by major labels.
I hope, she has success with this album, I like it, maybe the best I listened so far from 2007.
At least, I have this album automatically in mind, regarding this question.
Of course, previous named albums here are great for all times, Like Queen - Innuendo etc.
Don't forget thousands of nice mastered classic albums with lots of dynamics.
Even for rock/pop/metal fans I strongly recommend to visit at least 1 classic symphony concert in their life. Then they/you will know, what dynamic can be...
I classify Bach as 1st Rock/Hard-Rock/Prog-Rock guy,
while Mozart could be called the 1st pop guy.
Beethoven, Brahms, Wagner etc. describe more schizophrenic problems in their music, "modern". But most composers writing for symphonic orchestras have clearly both parts in their piece of work: calm and nice moments, and wild or unpleasant sounds.
While I expected from a Jennifer Lopez album to contain overcompressed pop,
I am positively surprised by her 1st album in Spanish language,
2007 Como ama una mujer.
rg values average around -6 or -7 db, which is clearly not the today's -9-10-11 db.
IMO a good example, that it is possible to produce well-mastered today's pop, even by major labels.
I haven't heard the album but I think -6...-7 is still quite bad.
Many 1970's prog/krautrock/psych albums are very good sounding.
-6 / 7 is reasonable. Could there be a link with a non-english album ?
An album with great dynamics is the Lost Highway Soundtrack [1997]. Gain is -6.50 but there are also quieter tracks. Danzig I-II by rick rubin are also very punchy, Bloody Kisses by Type O Negative [1993], Judas Priest - Screaming for vengeance [1982], Dead Can Dance - Wake [2003] , Sarah Mclachlan Touch [1989] / Solace [1991], David Lee Roth - Eat em and smile [1986] ,most dire straits albums too.
Try www.linnrecords.com. The recording branch of the Linn Audio high end equipment maker.
CDs and a range of download formats. Very well mastered indeed, at least the ones I''ve tried so far.
-7dB is not good, it's just not quite as bad as it has been. As I said in my previous post, the new Kanye West album is -7dB. It is a step in the right direction.. let's hope they are phasing out the loudness crap.
I classify Bach as 1st Rock/Hard-Rock/Prog-Rock guy,
while Mozart could be called the 1st pop guy.
Beethoven, Brahms, Wagner etc. describe more schizophrenic problems in their music, "modern". But most composers writing for symphonic orchestras have clearly both parts in their piece of work: calm and nice moments, and wild or unpleasant sounds.
You must be kidding -- some individual pieces of theirs may indeed be used to justify such tenuous stylistic connections, but to liken Mozart to "pop" and calling Bach a hard/prog-rocker (?!) is just bananas considering the entire scope of their output. The classical (and to a lesser extent jazz) form allows for much larger-scale development, and correspondingly, greater expressive range. (On the other hand, popular music, in all its sub-genres, can do things that classical & jazz can't.)
-6 / 7 is reasonable. Could there be a link with a non-english album ?
Do you mean you would rather have the non-spanish version of the album? Which BTW does not exist. Or do you mean those that produced her album are better at it because it's in Spanish. I'm confused.
In any event many of the studio musicians and engineers that do mainstream albums cross over and play on Latin Artists albums quite often and visa versa. For record companies its $$ and record sales just the same.
I understand shadowkings 'link to non-English album' the way, that he guesses, wether non-English albums don't have that pressure to be produced at highest loudness levels, so, that the producer of that Spanish language album by J.-Lo could have that more reasonable loudness level and maybe those producers/record label in charge want to watch, how this record sells compared to... whatever.
Nah, if I write, that Bach and Mozart 'could be called 1st rock or pop composers', this is valid in certain senses. I wrote that with the aim, to cause a little bit interest to those parts of the (HA-)public, who limit themselves so far only to modern music, to try also the 'classics'.
I agree with you probably, that music classifications in genres is very difficult and limiting, as music is music, and either it is good music or mediocre... , which depends also on taste, which we don't want to discuss.
loreena mckennitt - the mask and mirror (1994, mastered by bob ludwig) "parallel dreams" (1989) is also mastered very well but no credit.
Mask and Mirror is fantastic!
What a pity about the recent album though, An Ancient Muse - have you heard it?
New Iced Earth album 'Framing Armageddon' has a RG of -6.95dB which is pretty decent for a 2007 heavy metal release!
[a href="http://www.zshare.net/image/36347502cd5ce9/" target="_blank"]
Ok.. new CD to AVOID. Foo Fighters - Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace. Album Gain -11dB. It's like Californication all over again... clipping every second.
Tori Amos - Little Earthquakes
Tracey Chapman - S/T
Kate Bush - Sensual World
Ok.. new CD to AVOID. Foo Fighters - Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace. Album Gain -11dB. It's like Californication all over again... clipping every second.
Thanks. Maybe we should setup www.clippingwatch.com ?
Ok.. new CD to AVOID. Foo Fighters - Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace. Album Gain -11dB. It's like Californication all over again... clipping every second.
Still sounds better then Foo Fighters "One By One". Not only was there horrible clipping, it sounds eery similar to the infamous Metallica "St. Anger" in terms of audio quality.
I'm not an expert on mastering, but I've always heard that Kid A by Radiohead is very well mixed. It sounds good too
Thanks. Maybe we should setup www.clippingwatch.com ?
Absolutely!
And "clippingwatch.com" is available, by the way.
Not for long now that someone's shown interest in it. The domain squatters' bots have probably already picked up on it. </pessimism>
Anything Mark Knopfler has been involved with (Dire Straits, solo work) seems very well mastered.
Cowboy Junkies - The Trinity Sessions - ******
ReplayGain_Album Gain=+0.92 dB
ReplayGain_Album Peak=0.959290
(This single mike album must be heard
to be believed! My reference for mastering.)
Mary Black - Looking Back - *****
ReplayGain_Album Gain=-0.99 dB
ReplayGain_Album Peak=0.975403
Roberta Flack - Softly with These Songs - *****
ReplayGain_Album Gain=+0.17 dB
ReplayGain_Album Peak=0.992065
Sinéad O'Connor - Am I Not Your Girl? - *****
ReplayGain_Album Gain=-1.29 dB
ReplayGain_Album Peak=0.999969
St. Germain - Tourist - *****
ReplayGain_Album Gain=-5.55
ReplayGain_Album Peak=0.993164
Tracy Chapman - Tracy Chapman - *****
ReplayGain_Album Gain=-0.48 dB
ReplayGain_Album Peak=0.977234
(DDD)
As well as: Leonard Cohen - Ten New Songs (Wow!)
These are some of the best mastered albums of all time, imho.
There's also a brand new Cowboy Junkies - Trinity Sessions II out;
I wonder if this is just as well mastered?
(ps - so sorry, but exactly what does the replaygain info illustrate?)
Replaygain is a measure of perceived loudness (normalised to 89dB). +ve RG values indicate quieter audio, -ve values indicate louder audio.
Interestingly, 4 of your 6 albums (nearly 5) are within 1dB of the 89dB target.
ps. I really like the eponymous Tracy Chapman album.
Interestingly, 4 of your 6 albums (nearly 5) are within 1dB of the 89dB target.
If that's so, could replaygain information be used to determine if an album is well mastered, or perhaps, poorly mastered?
(is sorting by album gain possible?)
I've posted this on the Murmurs.com (http://www.murmurs.com/forum/showpost.php?p=1915039&postcount=75) forums in response to a discussion about the mastering of the latest R.E.M. album:
I just bought the new Elbow album ("The Seldom Seen Kid", very good record by the way). There's an interesting text in the liner notes:
Turn Me Up!
To preserve the excitement, emotion and dynamics of the original performance this record is intentionally quieter than some. For full enjoyment simply Turn Me Up! (TurnMeUp.org (http://turnmeup.org/))
Ok, these guys get it!
[edit]Album gain is -9.75 dB by the way, so that's still quite loud, but I can't deny that it's very dynamic[/edit]
Interestingly, 4 of your 6 albums (nearly 5) are within 1dB of the 89dB target.
If that's so, could replaygain information be used to determine if an album is well mastered, or perhaps, poorly mastered?
(is sorting by album gain possible?)
No. Replaygain is affected by the style of music. An extremely high RG-Value (above -6db) quite reliably tells that a record was dynamically compressed for loudness. However, an album may easily reach -5dB replaygain, without making use of "compression for the sake of loudness". Simply take a track or album, which has reduced dynamics by definition - i.e. albums with lots of reverb and effects, or albums with constant strings in the background. Even ambient albums - the music style which by definition is "anti-loudness"... often reaches -5dB, simply because loudness is very constant and the album gets of course normalized. And all this happens before it even gets into mastering stage.
So in short - RG values up to -6dB can, but do not necessarily, indicate dynamic overcompression - since in that range, the style of music can have a strong effect on RG, even if the track was just peaknormalized. If however we get above -6dB, it is very probable that the music was intentionally dynamically overcompressed for loudness.
P.S.: Also take into account that RG is not perfect. It can easily miscalculate actual perceived loudness by +/- 2dB - in rare cases even up to +/- 4dB.
Not for long now that someone's shown interest in it. The domain squatters' bots have probably already picked up on it. </pessimism>
It would appear so.......
Anything Mark Knopfler has been involved with (Dire Straits, solo work) seems very well mastered.
Are the Dire Straits 1996 remasters good?
I've been listening to the Jean-Michel Jarre album 'Equinoxe' quite a lot lately. The album was originally released on vinyl in 1978 and, although I can't find a date of manufacture on the CD itself, I know for a fact that it's a mid-80's release as I bought it at the same time as my first standalone CD player, a Philips CD-150 (still going strong), back in 1986(?).
It has to be one of the cleanest and most dynamic sounding albums in my collection and makes almost all modern pop music recordings sound badly broken by comparison.
Cheers, Slipstreem.
New Iced Earth album 'Framing Armageddon' has a RG of -6.95dB which is pretty decent for a 2007 heavy metal release!
(http://www.zshare.net/image/36347502cd5ce9/)
I heard a recent interview with Iced Earth-mainman Jon Schaffer, and he's in fact very aware of the loudness race, and has made a conscious choice of maintaining the dynamics from recording all the way through mastering. (Interview here: [a href="http://www.icedearth.com/media/interview_061608.mp3)" target="_blank"]http://www.icedearth.com/media/interview_061608.mp3)[/url]
I've only heard a couple of ECM label albums, but damn, they sounded nice! Am I just fooling myself?
Not at all. ECM ist an audiophile label for jazz and contemporary classic. All ECM cd's i've seen so far have Replaygain values at around +4db, so they seem to master their cds generally at -20db FS (no wonder, as Manfred Eicher, the founder of ECM and producer of almost all of their records is quoted on his philosophy to produce "the most beautiful sound next to silence"...) It's a nice change if you actually have to use Replaygain in order to get a CD loud enough on your iPod
MA Recordings:
http://www.marecordings.com/ (http://www.marecordings.com/)
Oh dear!
http://www.marecordings.com/main/product_i...d13fb236c2e4e84 (http://www.marecordings.com/main/product_info.php?products_id=130&osCsid=ffe22f8d9cebee7cfd13fb236c2e4e84)
MA Recordings:
http://www.marecordings.com/ (http://www.marecordings.com/)
Oh dear!
http://www.marecordings.com/main/product_i...d13fb236c2e4e84 (http://www.marecordings.com/main/product_info.php?products_id=130&osCsid=ffe22f8d9cebee7cfd13fb236c2e4e84)
I'm actually a big fan of MA. They have some AMAZING recordings of AMAZING music. I'm not really too excited about the music on many audiophile labels, but I find myself listening to to the MA stuff on barely functioning laptop speakers all the time . And then when I get back to a real system, the audio quality just blows me away.
I just gloss over any mention of cables in their literature. They're doing something right, and hopefully not spending too much time worrying over cable during the recording .
I don't know if it's still available, but I have one of their early samplers called "Music In a Bottle". I highly recommend getting a copy. I don't see it on their website(I think it was a promotional thing), but if you give them a phone call, they might be able to help you out. I did google for "6 moons" "music in a bottle", and found one shop selling it, although I don't read the language well enough to follow the details.
In our efforts to make for a more colorful sonic and musical experience, MA Recordings introduces the "Emerald Audiophile Series". MA’s "Emerald Audiophile Series" discs are actually made with a dark green polycarbonate, to help alleviate the potential problems associated with internal light refraction and enable a more accurate reading of the digital data from the optical disc.
LOL
It sounds like the main thing going for them is dual omni stereo recording and no postprocessing. Which to be honest is a great way to record music.
The DSD recording and the cable fetish is pretty unfortunate, though. They probably have what, $20,000 locked up in unnecessary equipment costs? They could probably knock a buck or two off the cost of each CD if they just stuck with 24/96 and Blue Jeans. Heh.
To be honest, I'd pay good money for this if it were released in FLAC. By "good" I mean about $8 an album. That's a little above the cost of a monthly subscription to yourmusic, and the music from MA is likely to be a lot better sounding, and more interesting, etc.
In our efforts to make for a more colorful sonic and musical experience, MA Recordings introduces the "Emerald Audiophile Series". MA’s "Emerald Audiophile Series" discs are actually made with a dark green polycarbonate, to help alleviate the potential problems associated with internal light refraction and enable a more accurate reading of the digital data from the optical disc.
Heh, apparently my brain automatically filters out audiophile talk. I forgot about the emerald discs completely .
The recordings and music are very good though, so don't knock the label too hard. I try to listen to the music without drinking the audiophile kool-aid. And it is very good music.
For classical music, almost anything on the Chandos label is very good. Ditto for Griffin Recordings.