Bad Mastering!!

[Rudy]

I thought modern CD mastering techniques were bad, but an online pal of mine put together a file that compares two different CDs, and the difference is remarkable! The following MP3 file contains snippets of a few different tracks from the Huey Lewis & The News album "Sports"--the first sample of each track is from a Mobile Fidelity gold CD (which sounds very similar to the original CD), and the second is the newly released "expanded edition" with mastering by Bob Norberg.

Click here for Huey Lewis sound sample.

What you'll notice about the new version--the sound is muffled, very bass heavy, and there is strange, "phasey" kind of stereo enhancement added to the track. How anyone can think this sounds good is beyond me! Let's hope this "rot" doesn't extend to any future A&M reissues!

(Thanks to Jamie for putting this file together. )

 

[daveK]

Man, that is a big difference. I can't believe that the newly remastered version is the second snippet of each song! I have heard new remastering jobs that I thought went a little overboard on noise reduction, thus chopping off the high end of the song, but I've never heard anything that muddy sounding passing for a new remastering job. That's pitiful!

 

[Rudy]

From what I've heard, this is how Bob Norberg remasters things. He did some recent Capitol reissues of classic Frank Sinatra albums, which were originally mono...they reportedly sound similar, and are also "widened" into some kind of fake stereo which doesn't sound as bad as the old "eletronically rechanneled" LPs that companies like RCA used to put out, but still isn't very good.

Jon Astley is another notoriously bad remastering engineer. He's heavy on no-noise, a lot of EQ (boosting the high end), and a lot of brick wall compression when it goes to CD. His work can be found on some of the recent The Who remasters.

This "remastering" is also making its way into DVDs, believe it or not. When films are digitally transfered, they are sometimes digitally cleaned to get rid of film grain. Yes, it does make an old film look squeaky and brand new, but it also takes away a lot of the character of the film. Same with audio--you can eliminate tape noise, but you not only lose some of the minute details, but you also get rid of the tape hiss. A little tape hiss never hurt anyone, but it was part of the character of the original tape. The effects of removing it are subtle, but noticeable.

I can vouch for the Huey. I don't own the new remastering, but my original CD sounds almost as good as the Mobile Fidelity gold CD that my friend used to make this comparison. The original is nicely balanced, and has good punch to it.

 

[daveK]

I always thought that the first three TJB albums sounded great on CD, especially "Bull" and "Volume 2". From "Whipped Cream" on, it seemed like the tape hiss was a lot more prominent. Does this have to do with more tape tracks being used in the recording sessions?

 

[Rudy]

I'm not exactly sure how these were recorded, but I know that South Of The Border may be one of the best sounding TJB albums in the catalog! Gotta love that classic reverb room at Gold Star. I know they did a lot of track bouncing in the days before they had the larger multitrack consoles. I believe Equinox (Brasil '66) was the first to use a new multitrack at A&M...so anything after that date probably sounds a little better.