Raging Heart Wrote:
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> I'm with you, and I've said the same things on
> here many times.
>
> Especially with boutique labels, the temptation is
> for the label boss or similar, to simply book into
> a place that does mastering / remastering and
> twiddle the knobs themselves.
>
> You know the end result, we have all bought and
> heard them - brick walled forcefields of noise
> etc, no air or separation between layers and
> instruments, and depending on the person's
> personal preferences, either hardly any drums and
> vocals, and all guitars or quite the reverse. For
> any with long memories, the first ever batch of
> Rainbow remasters were utterly horrible, with
> guitar so far up front, you could use it as a coat
> rack, and Ronnie James Dio barely heard in the
> background.
>
> Mastering and remastering is a separate art. Just
> having something play back on the state of the art
> 'big speakers' in a recording studio can make a
> lot of things sound great, but when they are
> played in a car, on a home hifi, on a bedroom mini
> hifi, or (Gods help us) on a phone or a sound bar,
> they are all different. The mastering engineer
> strives to get the balance and compression right
> so the album will sound great on whatever. I know
> one guy when he thinks he's getting close to a
> mix, runs off a CDR and goes outside to listen in
> his car.
>
> Some of the 26 bit digital remasters from Japan
> are essays in the craft, especially when they are
> then recorded onto SHMCD or Blu-Spec discs - as
> are quite a number of the big label ones, but
> sadly partly because of the above, and partly
> because of access to original tapes, the rest are
> often substandard as a result. The Queensryche
> "Mindcrime" and "Empire" ones, some of the 50th
> anniversary Scorpions ones, and most things
> handled by Steven Wilson - from Jethro Tull to
> Kiss.
>
> We all know of at least two releases where you can
> distinctly hear surface noise from the original
> vinyl, which truly is taking the piss IMHO, and
> makes them nothing short of semi-official
> bootlegs.
>
> Even more sadly, these things often materialise
> without the knowledge or consent of any of the
> performers - for example, I believe DCD has never
> been consulted or earned a single penny from two
> White Sister remasters, when in fact, he is the
> very man who should have been given the resources,
> time and encouragement to so do.
>
> In the end, we are left with only 'caveat emptor'
> and listen to samples to see if the remasters suit
> your ears or not


True...no contact from anyone regarding royalties, input, nothing. Rock Candy did not respond when I reached out. Criminal. I'm working on a song with Sabu about this subject called "We Are The Wanted'. Stay tuned.