Midnight Oil

Subject: Re: : Re: [powderworks] Midnight Oil Remastered CDs
From: suncrush01@yahoo.com
Date: 14/06/2014, 12:28 am
To: "powderworks@yahoogroups.com.au" <powderworks@yahoogroups.com.au>

I think Hercules is one of the worst remasters I've ever heard. In addition to the compression problems, they've scooped the eq aggressively, which obliterates any kind of subtle dynamic response, and turns the guitars to mud. Scooping also increases ear fatigue. 

I checked out PWAP and Countdown, and it seems compress and scoop was the order of the day. Only the Strong was an absolute atrocity, but these remasters all suck. 

Sent from my iPhone

On Jun 12, 2014, at 9:18 AM, "Chris seeker42@gmail.com [powderworks]" <powderworks@yahoogroups.com.au> wrote:

 

Very hard to double-blind this - you would need to perfectly match volumes or you'll tend to subconsciously prefer the louder one. Given that they've played with the compression, matching volume isn't really possible even if you had the gear to do it.

Of all the remasters, I'm most torn on Species - the remastered version is clearly overcompressed, and there are artefacts which sound like digital noise reduction to me. But the original master isn't very good either.
(To break it down further: Original version of Progress is better, new version of Hercules is better, I've no strong opinion on Blossom and Blood because it's always sounded like a b-side to me anyway, and I flip-flop on Pictures)

Of all the albums, Place Without A Postcard benefits most from the remaster. I didn't like it much before, I do like it now, that's a win!

- Chris


On 12 June 2014 23:03, Stuart Fenech stuart.fenech@gmail.com [powderworks] <powderworks@yahoogroups.com.au> wrote:
 

Brian - In what way did it suck?

I'm curious about all of these things; good remasters versus bad remasters generally. Some recent ones I've found fairly awful (eg. Latest Cold Chisel - East remaster) but I lack the finer technical understanding to pinpoint everything (in the Chisel example, I think they upped the higher frequencies too much, weakened the lower frequencies and reduced the dynamic range a bit... but I dunno...).

I'll probably pick up 10 to 1 and do a double blind test on it with a good setup.

Me

On 12/06/2014 10:57 PM, "Brian Jacobs suncrush01@yahoo.com [powderworks]" <powderworks@yahoogroups.com.au> wrote:


That's unfortunate.  I downloaded Species, and it sucked.

Sent from my iPad

On Jun 12, 2014, at 8:29 AM, "Chris seeker42@gmail.com [powderworks]" <powderworks@yahoogroups.com.au> wrote:

 

It's not 100% clear, but I think these are the same remasters as have
been available on iTunes since 2011.

On 12/06/2014, z_kevino@hotmail.com [powderworks]
<powderworks@yahoogroups.com.au> wrote:
> Sorry for being out of it, but will these be released in iTunes too?