Remastering of songs

The harmonics issue you mentioned is well documented, and is something that unfortunately was not taken into consideration with the development of Compact Disc during the late 1970s.

Regrettably, the emphasis on "Compact" was such that both Sample Rate(over time) and Bit Depth(amplitude) could be only so high. CDDA(compact disc digital audio redbook) was originally supposed to have a 14Bit depth, but a way was found to increase the number of steps to the equivalent of 16Bits, pushing the noise floor an additional 12dB lower. All this, to double the number of CDs, vs albums, that could fit side-by-side on retail store racks! smh..

On the subject of harmonics, suppose a tone has a freq. of 26kHz. It could conceivably have a 2nd order harmonic of 52kHz, a third order of 78, etc. Sometimes it could have a lower harmonic(13kHz in our case) that is perfectly audible to most people. Since CDDA shelves off at about 22kHz, it cannot produce that 26kHz tone, and hence the 13kHz tone does not exist. It is that "inter-harmonic" that can have an intrinsic effect on the sounds that we can hear that is phsychologically(subconscious as you stated) profound and worthy of its own webpage entry(!)

Still, for what it can reproduce, CD performs flawlessly. However, it simply cannot produce dynamics that are not there(as in - removed during the mastering process of a current release, or the manipulation(advert. as "Remastered")) of reissues of legacy classic rock, R&B and country acts, etc.

macpomaus:

Once a song's original dynamic transients(the tallest spikes in a visible waveform of that song) are compressed or limited(chopped off), they cannot be recovered. Typically so-called remastering will remove anywhere from 3-8dB of the loudest spikes, and then apply a varying degree of compression(squeezing) to what remains. Finally, the track is peak-normalized to within a dB of full scale.(digital zero).

The average volume of the remaster in the first paragraph can be any where from 3-6dB LOUDER than the original track, which means your volume control will likely have to be set lower to hear at the same volume as the original, but something will be missing - the impact that made those parts of the song stand out.

Freeware such as "MP3Gain"(for mp3 files only) and iTunes own soundcheck both do a good job at matching the average volume(your perceived loudness) of modern songs and remasters vs original tracks and stuff from 20-40 years ago. That way you aren't constantly fiddling your volume control, but remember, those dynamics on the remasters are lost forever.

Just remember: I'm using the word "remaster" very loosely above; In a proper remastering, the only difference you should hear is a slight removal of background hiss, potentially fuller bottom and top, and correct left-right stereo channel balance. The original dynamic properties are left alone. Repeat: the process I described in my first paragraph is not remastering - it is sonic defamation of an artist's carefully thought out, recorded, and originally engineered work. If you listen to an original 1990 CD of your favorite artist, and then load in the "remastered" version, and have your ears blown off before you can reach the volume, that is NOT a remaster - LOLOL!! 😉 It has unfortunately given the phrase "digitally remastered" a very bad reputation, at least to my ears.

macpomaus wrote:

Hope it works because I'm never going to buy another song from iTunes again.

You make it sound like you think the remastering is something Apple did.

It is the label that does the remastering.

One idea I have is to approach LP sellers with an offer to buy a LP from them and to resell it back, after I've recorded the tracks I want, for a much lower price

Once you sell the LP, you no longer have a legal right to keep the tracks you have recorded.

mac!!!

I'm seeing everything you've posted on Jan 30-31st. 🙂 LOL!

We're still here. I don't think anything has been censored.

I did however, on my initial attempt to reach this thread, receive a message that I was unauthorized to be accessing it. But as you can see of this typing I'm back.

macpomaus wrote:

I do have to find a way way around you're censorship laws,

No "censorship laws" in effect here.

This is a privately owned website.