Mastering Engineers: Do you ever remaster cds you buy?

[Admbmb]

I've been lurking for a while, so I decided to finally post! This forum is like a dream come true and a wealth of knowledge.

Anyway, I'm curious...do some of you ever remaster music that you listen to for personal enjoyment? Say you bought a new cd from Best Buy and you notice that the highs are a little harsh or the bass is kind of weak, do you tweak and customize the music for your liking and then burn a new disc to play in your car?

[Silver Sonya]

My way of remastering modern CD's is to turn the volume down and down and down and down and then off. It sounds so sweet when you do that.

- c

[DuX]

I do sometimes! However, as they say - you can't polish a turd... when something's already ruined you can't bring it back :(.

Cheers!

[masteringhouse]

I definitely adjust the EQ in my car when listening to some CDs (as well as volume). If it needs more work than that it goes in the trunk.

[bobsandifer]

I'm not a mastering engineer....
I buy quiet a bit of indie and unsigned bands CDs so I usually "fix" the CD a bit. I usually find that the bottom is really boomy so it sounds pretty muddy in the car. I personally think the budget for the album should include a trip to a real mastering engineer. I would prefer buying a great sounding EP as opposed to a terrible sounding full album.

[Virtalahde]

I have a small Sony stereo at home that makes everything sound the same. No fidelity at home, please!

[jayfrigo]

If only we had access to the unmastered mixes! By the time you buy it in the store, they're too far gone. After the clipping and limiting, you can't really do much to save them.

[finetuner]

Nope, i got a crappy home setup anyway...

What i have done once was omitting the last track on an original cd.
I thought that track was really putting the whole album down.

So i meticulously placed a small piece of black tape where the track seemed to start.
Worked perfectly.
That way i could still play the original cd as i don't value copied cd's in my collection.

Originally Posted by jayfrigo

If only we had access to the unmastered mixes! By the time you buy it in the store, they're too far gone. After the clipping and limiting, you can't really do much to save them.

Word.

[Waltz Mastering]

I've gotten a couple bootleg's of "Wayne Krantz" playing in NY clubs that I've eq'ed a little, but that's about it.. He doesn't do any studio recording but is a great guitarist.

Originally Posted by finetuner

i got a crappy home setup anyway...

Me to, whatever's hooked up to the dvd/tele...blew all the speakers in my truck so, if I need to listen to anything outside of the studio, I'll do it in my wife's car... no matter what stereo for playback... always flat.

[IIIrd]

i listen to music in the car, that way i don't get worried by the sound of it and just enjoy the music...
remaster a cd i bought...no...

[masterizer]

Originally Posted by jayfrigo

If only we had access to the unmastered mixes! By the time you buy it in the store, they're too far gone. After the clipping and limiting, you can't really do much to save them.

Some of the bad masters sound better on lower quality speakers since they don't accurately reproduce the highs and lows that might be a problem

[ncoak]

Originally Posted by finetuner

What i have done once was omitting the last track on an original cd.
I thought that track was really putting the whole album down.

So i meticulously placed a small piece of black tape where the track seemed to start.
Worked perfectly.

lol!

[PatrikT]

If someone actually feels an itch to tweak already mastered material (which one suppose is coming from a well-known or respected mastering room) then all that says is that the room or the monitoring system at the sub-tweaker ain't good enough for mastering purposes.


Best Regards
Patrik

[Jesse Graffam]

Originally Posted by PatrikT

If someone actually feels an itch to tweak already mastered material (which one suppose is coming from a well-known or respected mastering room) then all that says is that the room or the monitoring system at the sub-tweaker ain't good enough for mastering purposes.

Or is it? You've never had to do something the client wanted and compromised the way that you would like it to sound?

[Dale Turner]

I'm not a mastering engineer, but I've cropped stuff out of certain songs on my Masterlink.... for various reasons... and sorta felt guilty!! Dunno if that counts?

From memory:

The entire middle section of Joe Walsh's "Life's Been Good."

A select few solos in Iron Maiden songs.

Inserted a much quicker fade at the end of Hendrix's "If 6 was 9." Okay, now I know I'm going to L!!!

PS: Wayne Krantz KILLS!!!!!!!!

[Franco]

Originally Posted by PatrikT

(which one suppose is coming from a well-known or respected mastering room) then all that says is that the room or the monitoring system at the sub-tweaker ain't good enough for mastering purposes.

Not always true. I once did a remaster for my mom of about 3 CDs she had of one of her favorite Spanish singers (Raphael) and all three CDs were basically transfers from the tape masters to digital (they had tons of headroom) and I believe they were all from Sony, done by various people but these particular discs were not "digitally remastered" (thankfully!)

It seems to me that the only useful way to remaster anything from CD is if it's just been a straight transfer from the master tapes through a good ADC, with no "digitally-remastered" thing happening, otherwise, it's basically what the others have already said.

[psykostx]

Mastering engineers make CD's. They don't need to buy them. They have a secret underground community where they get raw stems from all our favorite artists and they trade them like playing cards. They are the only ones that get to listen to Dark Side of the Moon with full dynamic range (except for the sweet compression on the trax). Those RAT BASTARDS!


Seriously tho, can someone give me a copy of darkside stems mixed down from tape straight into 32-bit 192khz?

Also, just so we're clear about how modern CD's sound. dfegad
When are they gonna start making 32-bit 192khz dvds for the masses? Are you guys gonna roadkill 32-bits just like you did 16?

[psykostx]

ALSO as this applies to this post twice, go to youtube and search "loudness war iron maiden"

[fradoca]

well...if you extract pcm tracks from the dvd audio version
of the same album previously released onto cd many times you get better results.
The dvd audio tracks are not mastered loud as hell as the cd version..
much more resolution and dynamic range.
Then if you use a very good src like sox and the dither algorithm of your choice
the final sonic result can be reaally good and for sure better than the original cd.
I've tried with Donald Fagen "The Nightfly" dvd audio and the result
is better than the normal cd version.
A friend of mine(a japanese mastering engineer)
did the same with the mlp/pcm stereo track (24 bit 48 khz)
from Led Zeppelin "How the west was won" dvd audio.
No eq or limiting.Just src and dithering.
Well i don't listen anymore to the commercial release because this new
version made from the dvd audio is far superior.
So there can be many ways to improve or to remaster something
you have previously bought on cd...just my two cents...

cheers

[lucey]

It's really not 'remastering' to alter a mastered product as you don't have the mixes. Having said that I used to take 80s CDs that sounded bad to me and work on them for fun. Dire Straits first record for example, Back in Black Jensen CD, that sort of thing. Great music from the early days of CD mastering. Anyway, I rarely listen to recorded music outside of the studio now, and it's usually to unreleased material that I've mastered for clients.

[sammyp]

I like to remaster stuff on CD from the 70s/80s just for practice and personal enjoyment! If i feel i can improve something i'll generally remaster the album's biggest hit and apply that processing to the rest of the songs....it's quick and fun, far from thorough!

[sammyp]

Originally Posted by lucey

It's really not 'remastering' to alter a mastered product as you don't have the mixes. .

Right! Remastering with the benefit of the original mastering engineer's efforts! LOL

[Mr.HOLMES]

I am not a mastering engineer but I have not bought a CD in the last 10 years anymore.

All the music I love I have it as CDs and the newer music is for my taste often over produced over mixed and over mastered.....

This shows me that for the labels not the music is the important part anymore.
Bigger Wider Fatter Louder ....louder make it louder make it louder .....
It is a part of the trouble the record labels have and shows their black despair with the consumers.

So buying no CDs is my best mastering chain I ever had.

[Franco]

Originally Posted by lucey

It's really not 'remastering' to alter a mastered product as you don't have the mixes.

If we're going to get technical about this, then I would go as far to say that it's not considered "remastering" unless you've been commissioned by the record label to do so for an official re-release of the title(s).

Not having "the mixes" can be a mixed bag. I've heard "remasters" of titles that have been done officially off a vinyl LP because all of the master tapes (the mixes) have been lost. Not all "the mixes" come from analog 2" tape, it is possible that some projects' master tapes have been lost and all that remains are 16 bit versions on DAT. For the purpose of what we're talking about here, we're saying "remastering" in terms of extracting the audio file in 16bit/44.1kHz form, and improving it (or at least mangling it to our tastes).

[Teddy Ray]

Originally Posted by finetuner

So i meticulously placed a small piece of black tape where the track seemed to start.
Worked perfectly.

I dont get it. Perhaps I am stupid?

[finetuner]

Originally Posted by Teddy Ray

I dont get it. Perhaps I am stupid?

Sometimes, when you observe a cd (bottom side) in the right light, you can really distinguish the separate tracks. Sort of like with a vinyl record.
So what i did was obscuring the outer ring - which represents the last track (unlike a record - cd's are scanned in opposite direction) with a piece of dark tape. No need to cover the whole ring, just enough to have the cd player say: "i can't correct this one anymore, i'll just quit"
It can be done with a watermarker, but the tape allowed me to readjust until i got it to stop exactly before the last song.
Obviously, this trick only works on the last track...

[Adam Dempsey]

It's totally sacrilege (and being the utmost Floyd fan) but months ago I ran Dark Side of the Moon (1st CD edition) thru the Vertigo compressor, just to see what the compressor could do. And it didn't sound bad at all.
Did it 'need' it? Of course not.
(I did, however, run level-matched comparisons with the 30th annniv edition, which, despite being peak limited, benefited far more from what I feel was better calibrated tape playback, better A-D and not-EQ'd-for-vinyl).

[Bob Yordan]

Always, all cd's take the detoure via wavelab, just out of curiosity.


Especially during the years I developed my plugs.

[jruberto]

some great and surprising answers here!

i have "mastered" a few bootlegs of my favorite live shows. one where i notched out a nasty resonant frequency that was in the snare through the whole show, *biiiiiiiinnnnnnnngggg* every time he hit the snare. much more enjoyable to listen to without that. (i was at the show & wanted to say something to the live engineer but he was too busy getting drinks)

by request i "remastered" (aftermastered? overmastered? lol) a dearly beloved but very poorly produced reggae album for a friend, some of the low low stuff was way out of control and the track-to-track levels were all over the place. he was thrilled with it.

Originally Posted by Dale Turner

A select few solos in Iron Maiden songs.

whoa, guy. if you are talkin' anything powerslave or older, you have committed a serious offense.

[fradoca]

I know it's an old thread but last night having some free time i did an experiment thinking that stereo audio tracks for blu-ray sound much
better than the same release on cd.Boy i was wrong!!!
Just out of curiosity i demuxed and converted to pcm the dolby true-hd 2.0
24bit 96 khz track from the police live certifiable blu-ray i own.
Dolby true hd is a lossless format so converting to pcm keeping bit-depth and
sample rate will do no harm.Well after the conversion i opened the stereo pcm
track in wavelab 6 and could not believe my eyes first and my ears after!
Audio smashed and compressed as hell!! You can hear saturation and distortion on some songs where the rms levels reach -5 db rms!!!
I don't know if the guy who mastered the blu ray audio track is the same one
who mastered the cd release but what an awful job he did!
There's no reason to pump the levels so hard for video release!
Unfortunately the loudness war has hit also the video market.
To be honest i'll keep listening to the cd version that having less bit depth and lower sample rate somewhat masks some of the defects of the blu ray version.
As long as you listen to it on your cheap home stereo system and not in your studio or with your high-end headphones.
In that moment the urge to throw everything out the window comes pretty fast

what a shame....really...