The irony in all of this is that it really isn't all that difficult to get a good digital copy of an analog master. One simply plays the tape and records it in digital format leaving adequate headroom for whatever peaks are present. There is no extra processing required or applied. It's no surprise that the resulting digital copy sounds amazingly like the master tape.
For example, in 1975 I recorded Stan Kenton live at Drury College in Springfield, MO. It was a very simple mike set-up into a Tandberg open reel. Years later, I transferred that to CD format with excellent results. The same is true of all of the several studio tapes of which I'm lucky enough to possess a copy. The problem is that "remastering" can only address certain issues. It cannot fix a poor microphone choice, where it was placed, the mixing level that was chosen or any special effects that were directly applied to the live feed. Even if multi-track, most remasters are not remixed, so again there are a whole slew of choices that cannot be changed. Now, on some remasters, there are certain digital tools that can be used to try to "fix" some of the original choices, but they have their own downside. The cure may be worse than the disease. This is especially true if the person doing the remastering is taken with the current fashions in music production. As far as one particular remaster sounding "far different" from another release of the same album, I'm beginning to suspect the subjectivist gene is always biologically paired with the hyperbole gene on one of the chromosomes. They always seem to accompany each other. However, I guess I listen to music a bit differently than some. For example, last night I enjoyed the Sons of Champlin album "Welcome To The Dance" (Columbia, 1973, converted from LP) and felt no particular need to start a search for a differently mastered version. I basically had two choices in listening. One was to focus on the things I wish had been done differently in the original recording and the other was to just enjoy the music. I chose the latter. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ mlsstl's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=9598 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=98249 _______________________________________________ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/audiophiles
