CD Remasters that Blow Away other masterings

[jim1961]

What I want to talk about are those remasters that as Jon would say "Are a cut from a different cloth". Those that stand head and shoulders above previous or later efforts. Not those that yield hairline differences.

Please provide the release date, and preferably the label and catalog number so we are exactly clear which mastering we are referring to.

Return to Forever - Anthology 2008 - Concord Jazz / CRE-30847-02
Yes - Close to the Edge - 2013 - Audio Fidelity / AFZ 147 (SACD/CD hybrid)
Yes - Going for the One - 2013 - Audio Fidelity / AFZ 157 (SACD/CD hybrid)

...more to come as memory permits

[JonMarsh]

This is a steep bar to set, though worthwhile... will have to think if I've come across anything else in the last year or so that justifies inclusion.

I just got a Sony K2HD Sony remaster of Sarah MacLachlan's Surfacing; not cheap, but that's not what you'd typically call an audio file album- just some music I like. But I'm hoping they did an above average job on it- will let you know.

[jim1961]

This is a steep bar to set, though worthwhile... will have to think if I've come across anything else in the last year or so that justifies inclusion.

I just got a Sony K2HD Sony remaster of Sarah MacLachlan's Surfacing; not cheap, but that's not what you'd typically call an audio file album- just some music I like. But I'm hoping they did an above average job on it- will let you know.

http://store.acousticsounds.com/index.cfm?get=results&searchtext=Any&CategoryID=185&ResultsPerPage=100

Here is a list of Sony K2 releases. I don't know if this is a exhaustive list or not. But if "Surfacing" passes with flying colors, some of these other titles may be worth looking into. On the same line of thought, there are probably other Steve Hoffman/Audio Fidelity releases worth exploring as well.

Along the lines of the later, and of those I have actually heard, these two might qualify:

Styx - The Grand Illusion - 2010 - Audio Fidelity / AFZ 067
Rush - Hemispheres - 2013 - SACD/CD Hybrid - Audio Fidelity / AFZ 162

Another just struck me:

Chicago - The Chicago Transit Authority - 1992 - Columbia / CK 64409 (Super Bit Mapping Gold edition)

[JonMarsh]

Thanks for the link- there are some interesting titles in that group, I'll be sure to give Surfacing a good listen. Of course, the problem is, I should go get my "standard" CD version and compare it against that, as I haven't heard it on the current system, and I could expect "some" improvement just because of that... best not to rush to judgement!




If they've done as careful a job in the mastering as they did for the original SACD releases this could be a good thing, in spite of the nominal format limitations.

[JonMarsh]

Another odd thing to ponder is that I can create CD remaster that blow away the existing ones. How? Example- take my 176.4/24 bit extraction of the SACD of James Taylor's Hourglass (which is a considerably better sounding mix and remaster than the available CD- I have both) and using Triumph, create a CD master using Izotope anti-aliasing pre filters and M-bit dither to reduce quantizing from 24 bit to 16 bit. I have numerous other SACD extractions like this for which I'm not aware of an equivalent commercial CD (these are all relatively early SACD's, none of which are hybrids. Also, oddly, many hybrid SACD's don't actually have the same mix for CD layer as for SACD. This is even true for Dark side of the Moon.

Some exceptional CD's from the early 2000's are the Sony Super bit mapped CD's which came out in a similar time frame and use similar mixes as the SACD, such as "Boston" and "Blow by Blow". These were produced in small quantities and are generally long out of print.

[JonMarsh]

This album may be a fairly esoteric pick, certainly it's pretty old, original recording hardly made with what we'd call state of the art gear, first released back in 1960.

Considering all those factors, if you are any kind of fan of the early incarnations of Fleetwood Mac with Peter Green, ( I am!), then the recent SHM CD from Warner Japan is a must have disk. I never thought I'd ever hear it sound this good. From "Coming your way" to "Oh Well" it delivered clarity and articulation of transients with timbral richness I never expected to hear on a CD of this album. No, some of the cymbals still sound somewhat sandpapery, but most of the percussion, guitar, and even bass is really quite good, and for an old Peter Green fan like me, a real treat to hear. ( I love the phasey tone his '59 Les Paul has, with the miswound neck pickup set in parallel with the bridge pickup- there's a long story behind that guitar on the web, including the current owner...)

A week doesn’t go by without my being asked about obtaining the “Peter Green tone.” Usually the seeker has narrowed their possibilities down to this or that pickup, and just wants some final guidance. Though I’m always surprised to hear the question, it actually begs another. Which Peter Green tone?

Most players, regardless of their stylistic leanings, are aware of Peter Green’s genius. The English guitarist is revered for his amazing tone and fluid vibrato, and his work is as inspirational today as it was 40 years ago. Clearly influenced by Chicago blues greats like Otis Rush and Buddy Guy, Green had the vocal and songwriting chops to stand alongside his American idols. In early 1969, Green and his bandmates made the sojourn to Chicago’s Chess Studios to do just that. To my ears, the slightly restrained playing on the resulting Fleetwood Mac in Chicago reveals the raw sound of Green’s technique more clearly than the balls-out jams Mac was known for at their live shows. Regardless of the session, Green’s use of multiple pickup settings—sometimes within a single solo—demonstrates his adventurous spirit and desire to extract the maximum emotional effect from whatever instrument he was playing. For him, it was about the surroundings—the song itself.

I was lucky enough to see Green and Mac at a 1968 New Year’s Eve show in Chicago. The pure power of their signature loping shuffle could make a believer of a stone wall. During the show, Green alternated between a Les Paul and Stratocaster. At the time, my limited understanding of the inherent differences between the two guitars did not allow me to detect a major difference. In his hands, the instrument did his bidding.

Fast-forward 15 years: In June of 1984, I had the opportunity to inspect the “Peter Green” Les Paul Standard. At the time, it belonged to the late Gary Moore who was in town supporting Rush on their Grace Under Pressure tour. We’d been working together for a while and had become friends, so he called me up when he hit town. Moore had some free time during the day and expressed an interest in visiting the workshop. We were both big Peter Green fans and he mentioned he’d acquired the legendary ’59 ’burst directly from Green himself. Moore was eager to show the guitar to me—so much so, that when I picked him up at the hotel, he pulled it out of the case before we even got in the car. I remember thinking how surreal it was to be standing on Clark Street in Chicago holding that guitar. We were grinning like little kids with a cool new toy.

Back at the shop, I gave Gary a tour of the place and introduced him to all the guys. Then Gary and I went into my office to play some guitar. I fired up a ’68 Marshall plexi and plugged in the ’burst for him. Sitting directly across from me, Moore launched into a note-for-note cover of Fleetwood Mac’s “Stop Messin’ Round.” The dual-pickup position yielded a convincing tone that was both recognizable and unique. Moore handed me the guitar and urged me to give it all I could. We traded the axe back and forth to the delight of the entire shop.

To be honest, when Moore played, it sounded a lot like Gary Moore even when he channeled Green’s licks. When it was my turn, I did my best to replicate Green’s signature riffs on the very instrument that made the recordings I’d learned from. Moore managed to be gracious about my playing. Still, with both of the guitar’s pickups selected, we acknowledged that something was special about the tone. If it had been any other guitar, we might have stopped there.

Up to this point in time, I’d been the owner of a few original Sunbursts, and our shop had bought and sold plenty more. But none had the eerie tone that Green’s guitar demonstrated in the middle selector position with both pickups on. I’d always assumed that the hollow tone on particular Mac recordings was the result of an out-of-phase condition. On my guitars, I’d been able to replicate it to a good extent by reversing polarity on one of the pickups. With the actual instrument now in my grasp, I suggested to Moore that we disassemble it and determine the cause once and for all. To my delight, Moore jumped at the chance.

Back on the bench, I carefully removed strings and hardware. A quick look inside the control cavity revealed that everything was stock. Hot to hot, and ground to ground—original pots and caps. It didn’t appear to have been resoldered or disturbed in any meaningful way. Carefully removing the pickups yielded the same results. The pickup covers retained their original undisturbed solder joints. Still, I knew that something lurking within gave this guitar its unusual sound. Removal of the pickup covers showed nothing unusual either.

A pickup creates current through the use of a magnetic field coupled with coils of wire. Both the wiring and the orientation of the magnetic poles determine polarity. If you alter either of these, you change the phase of the pickup relative to another pickup. So, with the wiring intact, I decided to test the magnetic polarity with a compass. Bingo! The magnet was reversed on one pickup. Because the pickup internals looked undisturbed, I concluded that it must have been a mistake at the factory. With Gibson having made over ten thousand electric guitars that year, the odds of the mistake showing up in Green’s guitar seems incredible. But strangely enough, Joe Bonamassa recently acquired an original ’burst with the same condition!

Much to my surprise, the story of my examination of the Green/Moore guitar has now entered the lore surrounding the instrument, which explains the stream of inquiries. As for the Peter Green tone—here’s one more sidebar. Not long after our meeting, Moore received delivery of a guitar we’d built for him. It was equipped with Slammer humbuckers designed for me by Steve Blucher. Standing on the shop’s loading dock, I took a call from Moore who was almost screaming with enthusiasm. “What pickups are in this guitar?” he demanded. “They sound better than Greenie’s guitar!” He asked me to ship him a half dozen sets immediately for his other guitars. I agreed and hung up the phone, but the depth of his statement didn’t sink in for a few days. I laughed as I realized that tone is often “Greener” on the other side.

(Steve Blucher is "the" guy at DiMarzio pickups- funny story, one of my two or three favorite Les Pauls that I own is a triple pickup '77 Custom sort of re-issue, with DiMarzio pickups straight from the factory, and the combination of the bridge and center is really quite special...) (another is a Les Paul Standard with Seymour Duncan Custom Shop pickups designed to sound like Joe Bonamassa's favorite 1959 Les Paul. Gibson didn't have very good quality control on windings and magnets, so there was a lot of variability in how the instruments in the late 50's and early 60's sounded, and some were more special than others, in terms of the tone and clarity for some kinds of music).

[JonMarsh]

BTW, I've listened to "Surfacing" several times, and it's quite good sounding, cleaner and less edgy, but I didn't have time to do critical listening (was working on other things) and I have NOT compared it with the standard issue version.

However, I have to say, if they re-issued more of hers using this method (which strikes me as being an updated SBM technique) I'd probably pop for them, as I did for those three 60's era Fleetwood Mac albums which I'm quite happy with. I'm certainly happy to have this version on my music server.

[Chris D]

Huh... i've never even heard of a SHMCD.

[JonMarsh]

Huh... i've never even heard of a SHMCD.

It's a Japanese thing, like the SHM-SACD's- not just on one record label, but a whole production process, extremely meticulous. Of course, once you get the bits off the disk, that part doesn't matter so much... but the mastering production is supposed to receive equal attention.

[jim1961]

It's a Japanese thing, like the SHM-SACD's- not just on one record label, but a whole production process, extremely meticulous. Of course, once you get the bits off the disk, that part doesn't matter so much... but the mastering production is supposed to receive equal attention.

Not that the Steve Hoffman forums are the official litmus test, but many folks over there are not taken by the SHM CD's. They point out that like CD's in general, the remastering process determines the sound, and while there are some that are liked, many are not. Overall, that forum seems up and down, and mostly down on whats coming out in SHMCD. They claim some/many are brickwalled, compressed and suffer from too much noise reduction like many "loudness war" masterings. But I do recall there were some gems though.

At this point, I am cautious. And I wouldnt recommend to anyone replacing your CD collection with SHMCD's for the sake of it. In fact, I find very few across the board improvements tied to a supposed new technique, process, or mastering company. The closest to this would be the Audio Fidelity/DCC (Steve Hoffman) remasterings. I've yet to hear one that didn't sound great. MFSL and SBM have some great ones, and others that are within hairs of previous masterings and do not justify the extra expense.

Just my take.

Jim

[JonMarsh]

Very good points, Jim. It's one of those things, best to listen and decide for yourself. I'll stand by "Then Play On", though... :W

[jim1961]

http://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threads/k2-hd-mastering-cds.237840/

Here is the thread at SH wrt the K2 releases.

[jim1961]

Renaissance - Scheherazade and Other Stories - Audio Fidelity - AFZ 183

http://www.audiofidelity.net/content/renaissance-scheherazade-and-other-stories

Steve Hoffman does it again.

[JonMarsh]

Renaissance - Scheherazade and Other Stories - Audio Fidelity - AFZ 183

http://www.audiofidelity.net/content/renaissance-scheherazade-and-other-stories

Steve Hoffman does it again.

Thanks! bookmarked for future purchase (got some travel coming up- not practical to order now!)