Remastering of songs

macpomaus wrote:

I think I made a mistake when I talked of Dynamic Range. However, after reading your excellent explanation, did you consider that when using a Magnetic Cartridge on a LP the amplifier's pre-amp has an opposite waveform, in that, when the cartridge's output decreases at the lower and upper frequency range, the amplifier boosts the signal so the overall output is flat (I forget what this stage is called). Please note, I'm no expert on this.

Which is why a decent recording applications allow you to different EQ standards when recording from LPs.

The RIAA standard helps fix this. This is a general import filter, in addition to the general EQ filter. the stadard EQ. The RIAA standard is for recording from 1954 onwards. However, there are many different standards you can use for different vinyl recordings (speed, size, year) and usually you can tweak these.

-> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RIAA_equalization

Mac Pomanus,

iTunes has recently issued specs for what it considers proper good quality mastering, although only a small number of songs are available so far. See information here: Mastered for iTunes.

As for the "not enough variation" issue, the concepts of what constitutes good mastering have changed considerably in the decades since the CD was introduced, and they are by no means to everybody's liking. See Loudness War.

Hi,

Do you still have the original LPs? If so, I suggest that you re-digitise your LPs., use apps such as Clickrepair and Denoise to clean up and remove clicks.

I used a turntable which had a analog to digital converted that connected to my computer by USB. I use Audio hijack pro to capture songs at 24 bit AIFF format. I use a combination of Clickrepair / Denoise to clean up recordings the used Audacity to edit as necessary. Result pretty good digital copies of old LPs.

Ps not sure you can easily undo the remastering.

Jim

Hi,

The record deck is top quality hi-fi deck. http://www.project-audio.com/inhalt/en/pdf/complete.pdf.

Before I had this record deck, I used a Linn Axis record LPs via amplifier to CDR recorder. Rather than re-record those tracks, I copied them to my computer and used previously mentioned Apps. Again I got very good results. I even got many of the tracks to match using iTunes Match.

Jim

(I thought re-mastered meant digitised without clicks, etc,

That could be true for vintage recordings where the best surviving copies are pressings in vinyl (or acetate), but more often the term refers to creating new, and hopefully improved, masters out of older analog tape masters.

How did you get your links within your reply?

In Reply mode, click the little symbol that looks like a couple of links of a chain!

I'm doing some experiments into finding out if a track has been Louded or not; will let you know my findings.

Good, pls post back with your results.

What macpomaus described is definitely not remastering.

A proper remaster should both sound and appear in waveform virtually identicaly to the original release.

There should be only minor sonic differences: Subtle corrections(left-right channel balance, EQ - restoration of bass lost to LP mastering, etc).

The reason you see such dynamically squashed, lawnmowered transients being passed off as remasters is because when a customer goes to buy an album marked "Digitally Remastered" or some such words, they naturally expect to hear a significant differnce when they put the CD in their car or home system, or as in your case, downloaded from the Apple Store, et al.

Record labels know this, and use this knowledge and technology to exploit unsuspecting consumers into buying reissues/remasters of legacy(pre-1990) back catalog.

It's immoral, and IMO detrimental to our musical heritage, and is the reason I no longer buy CDs of rock and r&b legends in a retail store. The thrift stores, on-line used CD markets, and indoor/outdoor flea markets, with hundreds to thousands of second-hand CDs in every genre, have provided in the last three years the building blocks to my very fine collection. I could not be more pleased.

macpomaus wrote:

I've contacted Apple Store many times and keep getting crap back from them; they keep answering the same question that I didn't ask, just like a politician.

FYI: Apple does not do anything with music except sell it.

All the recording/mastering/converting to iTunes format is done solely by the label. The finished product is provided to Apple for resale.

Can you please explain what IMO and r&b meam? I'm over sixty and don't understand these terms.

IMO = In My Opinion

r&b should be R & B (Rythm and Blues)

but, in Australia, you have to correctly advertise the procduct you sell. For example. I bought an INXS CD and found it was Louded. I returned it and got my money back as it wasn't advertised as being Louded.

It does not need to be advertised as louded (increase in volume?) because it is sold as it is.

And it's not incorrect advertising by not stating that.

In other words, as iKLutzSupreme said "A proper remaster should both sound and appear in waveform virtually identicaly to the original release.", and I agree.

You both would be incorrect.

A remaster is just that.

They redo the release it to make it "better"in some way than the original release.

I put better in quotes beause it's not always better. The just want to sell it that way.

macpomaus wrote "

I totally agree with you. I don't know if you know this, a vinyl record has a greater dynamic range than a CD."

Not entirely true.

CD Redbook(the standards governing the CDs you buy in stores and to some extent the ones you may burn at home) specifies a potential DR(dynamic range hereto) of 96dB(16bit, 65,300 steps).

The best vinyl LP records and 45s can do is 60-70dB.

This signifies that both CD and LP can more than adequately accommodate a DR12(pop/hip-hop), DR16(jazz, new age), and DR20(classical/acoustic) recording. "DR" = average range of levels in an audio track from the softest to the loudest(Dynamic Range).

And a raw(unprocessed) recording with a 30-50dB DR, while well within the capabilities of Digital(CD, WAV, etc), would not be practical in the home, or in noisier situations like flying, driving, or just listening outdoors. Heck, you'd be spending more time adjusting the volume on something like that up/down than enjoying the music! LOL So some compression is done at the mixing stage to keeping certain levels steady enough to stand out in the mix.

Are analog and digital both capable of those DR values over their full frequency spectrum? Not necessarily. You'll find a lot of LP masters that bass content below 50 or even 80Hz is rolled off to prevent your phono's needle from jumping the groove. CD is flat down to 20Hz, and flat up to 20-21kHz.

So why the impression that vinyl is more dynamic than CD? Simple: In-studio processing. Very often, the track destined for CD recieves a final dose of compression and/or hard-limiting. This hard-limiting may chop off anywhere from 4-8dB of the loudest parts of the songs(the transients), reducing the DR value in some cases as much as half of that on the LP version!!

This allows the tracks on CD to play back MUCH LOUDER than they would on LP or cassette, and of course louder than in their uncompressed dynamic glory. And that, my friend, is the secret of what is being sold to you as "Digitally Remastered". And of course, since the late 1990s, new releases, such as (What's The Story) Morning Glory, Away From The Sun(3 Doors Down), and just about anything by Pink, Jay Z, and that hideous Death Magnetic atrocity by Metallica, has been subject to this loudness processing in the mastering studio. The DR value of some of those modern releases is at most DR7 - virtually a 4minute piece of pink noise or DIAL TONE.

The bottom line: Record labels and engineers are underutilizing digital's potential Dynamic Range for the sake of sheer loudness. A vinyl record or CD is for the most part only as dynamic as what is put on it.

So if you're sick n tired of what's being done to both our musical legacy and to modern releases, tell the record labels and the artists you won't be buying any of their catalog until someone in there learns what a good album is supposed to sound like!! 🙂