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The '70s hard rock remasters thread (1 Viewer)

Jeff Ulmer

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I figured we could use a thread on 1970s albums that are being/have been remastered, since these tend to creep into distribution with little fanfare.

Has anyone heard about any more Blue Oyster Cult coming out? I have the first three and Agents of Fortune, but really want Cultosaurus Erectus and Mirrors, and Spectres needs a remaster badly.

I'm still waiting for a Styx-Equinox remaster.

How about the whole BTO catalogue, including the long out of print Rock 'n' Roll Nights and Street Action?

Where are the first and second Prism albums?

Will the first Boston album and Don't Look Back ever be remastered?

how about the Max Webster catalogue - without the "featuring Kim Mitchell" on the cover"
 

Gordon McMurphy

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Boston's first album is on Hybrid-CD-SACD, is it not?

Does anyone know if and when we will see high-rez (100+ khz / 24-bit stereo/5.1) DVD-Audio remasters of Led Zeppelin? Those are a real Holy Grail for fans, I'm sure and I'd love to hear those great albums again.

Stooges/Iggy Pop in SACD would also be awesome. Especially Raw Power.

Oh - Ace Of Spades by Motorhead is out tomorrow on DVD-A in Britain - and the US?


Gordy
 

Jeff Ulmer

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The Motorhead back catalogue (not including the first disc I think) up to Iron Fist was remastered a few years ago on CD, with Ace of Spades getting the original UK running order.

There are the Deep Purple reissues as well, which are pretty nicely done, and I highly recommend the first two Captain Beyond albums.

I also want to see remasters of the early Heart material, Dreamboat Annie through to Dog and Butterfly.
 

DaveDickey

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Zeppelin's "How The West Was Won" will be out in DVD-A on November 11th. I believe it will be 96-24, but don't quote me.

AC / DC just remastered all their CD's. Very good results for a standard resolution format, IMO.

Also, King Crimson's "In The Court Of The Crimson King" is coming in SACD format. Not sure if it's a hybrid disk (import). The only place I've seen it mentioned is on the musicdirect website.
 

Joel Fontenot

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I also want to see remasters of the early Heart material, Dreamboat Annie through to Dog and Butterfly.
Dreamboat Annie got the best remaster on redbook CD you'll ever see back in '95 by Steve Hoffman on the DCC Gold CD. Even the more recent '99 remaster in the Digipack by Odea Murphy can't hold a candle to Steve's version. The only real problem is that the DCC disc is out of print and goes a little high on ebay.

Actually, I've not cared for the way most remasters are done these days. Too much digital dynamic compression, too maximized, too distorted and too much damn midrange.

Even on new releases (like the recent Evanescence CD), I have to cut 3-4 db's from about 200Hz on up just to give my ears a break. Then I can crank it up.

Joel
 

Gordon McMurphy

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Zeppelin's "How The West Was Won" will be out in DVD-A on November 11th. I believe it will be 96-24, but don't quote me.
That's a kinda 'Live Greatest Hits', isn't it? 96/24 is good, but why stop there? Automatic For The People is only 48 khz 5.1, yet Randy Newman's Little Criminals is 96/24 5.1 and 192/24 stereo!

I can't believe that Boston's debut is not a hybrid, that's crazy. This format is never gonna take off with descions like that.

Oh, there's gonna be three Bowie remasters (Hybrid-CD-SACD or DVD-A) in 2004:

Ziggy Stardust
Scary Monsters
Let's Dance


I would prefered Low over Let's Dance, but I guess they gotta bring out the Big Sellers to try and push the format.


Gordy
 

PhilBoy

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Exile On Main St. is better on the Virgin remaster... but a dvd-a release would 'Shine A Light'.

Diamond Dogs & The Joshua Tree would also be welcome...
 

Jeff Ulmer

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I kinda doubt Tom Scholz is on speaking terms with the folks at Sony, as the last I heard they still owed him in the neighborhood of $30 million in royalties.

I would agree that Low or before would be much more desireable than any of Bowie's sell out period stuff, but having bought the last set of remasters, I'm in no hurry to shell out yet again.

I would agree with Joel on the quality of modern remastering, but would argue that the '70s material usually fares a little better since it was produced with the compression heavy radio play in mind to begin with, so squashing it to death gives it that "over the air" sound. Just give all the good stuff to Bob Ludwig, easily the best mastering engineer out there IMO.
 

Brian L

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I would agree with Joel on the quality of modern remastering, but would argue that the '70s material usually fares a little better since it was produced with the compression heavy radio play in mind to begin with
I would agree as well.

My best sounding hi-rez discs are '70's catalog stuff like ELP, Yes, and Chicago (FWIW, I was underwhelmed, sonically, by DSOTM and ANATO, although they are great musically).

I wait patiently for a proper remaster of the 1st four Aerosmith albums. I have GYW, TITA, and Rocks on CD from their last remaster, but they are nothing special.

There is a user report of the MC SACD release of Toys in the Attic over at Steve Hoffmans site. I will probably need to snag that, but for me, Rocks is the title that I am salivating for.

BGL
 

Rachael B

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I'm purr-dy content listening to the original vinyl of the period. I will buy some SACD's or DVD-A's but so many of my fav's have never even been put on CD, much less been remastered over and over.
 

DaveDickey

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"How The West Was Won" is a kind of live mish-mash put together recently by Jimmy Page. It's not as good as the original Zeppelin releases, but if you're big on Zep, then it's kinda nice to hear some new stuff. Why Atlantic chose to release "How The West Was Won" in Hi-Rez before the studio albums is a mystery.

"Automatic For The People" is only 48 khz, but it sounds great, IMO. The engineer who remastered it must have had a really good day.

The Stones' ABCKO remasters are all hybrid stereo SACD's. I'm not sure if the CD layer sounds much better than the previous issue, but the SACD layer sounds clean...opens up quite a bit.

Also, The Van Halen remasters from a couple of years ago sound great for standard rez. They sound better than some of the DVD-A disks I've heard.
 

ElevSkyMovie

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I just read a review of the MC "Toto IV" SACD, and evidently the reviewer thought Scheiner was having a bad day when he mixed that disc.
 

Brian L

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I just read a review of the MC "Toto IV" SACD, and evidently the reviewer thought Scheiner was having a bad day when he mixed that disc.
Fair enough. I do not have enough exposure to his work to really say that he NEVER has a bad day.

The MC stuff I have that he mixed (Queen A Night at the Opera, REM, and I think, Hotel California) sound fabulous to my ears, but that is a pretty small sample.

Then again, Ken Richardson at S&V didn't like some parts of ANATO, so what do I know?

With MC, it really is in the ears of the beholder.

BGL
 

ElevSkyMovie

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I was just putting that out there. I haven't heard any of his MC work. I think Scheiner is amazing, one of the top engineers in the world.
 

Joel Fontenot

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I would agree with Joel on the quality of modern remastering, but would argue that the '70s material usually fares a little better since it was produced with the compression heavy radio play in mind to begin with, so squashing it to death gives it that "over the air" sound.
I would say that I can't stand that "over the air" sound of 70's material that is bass heavy to begin with - every beat causes a drop in the volume of instruments left, causing a pulsing effect that is just irritating as hell.

Although, it's true that some compression was used in the original recordings. But, they used analog (usually tubed) compressors then, and that's much easier on the sound and the ears than the digital ones used yet again these days on those recordings that already had the compression done once before. If you follow my logic :).

Joel
 

DaveDickey

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Do any of you guys know if Scheiner remastered REM's DVD-A release "Document" as well? If so, I'm gonna buy it. I have the remastered CD now, but judging by the improvement in the "Automatic" release, it would be worth the bucks.
 

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