[Deep Funk]

Tubular Bells 1973 by Mike Oldfield, great for clarity and presentation.
Thriller by Michael Jackson, check out the intro of Thriller!
93 Till'Infinity (Acoustic Version) by Souls Of Mischief, the normal version is good too although I prefer their instrumentals.
Toxicity by System of a Down, their musical transitions really surprise you sometimes.
The Mix-Up by the Beastie Boys, it's a simple album with purely instrumentals.

 

[cRodz]

These dudes deserve a picture in this thread

(Mos Def and Talib Kweli are) Black Star - Black Star
Thieves in the Night is their best track.

I find it's distressin, there's never no in-between
We either niggaz or kings
We either bitches or queens
The deadly ritual seems immersed, in the perverse
Full of short attention spans, short tempers, and short skirts
Long barrel automatics released in short bursts
The length of black life is treated with short worth

 

[LFF]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Razeus /img/forum/go_quote.gif Any of the Blue Note jazz CD's featuring the re-mastering work of Rudy Van Gelder. Absolutely superb.

Are you serious!?

Those are some of the worst remastering jobs I have ever heard. Stick with the McMasters or better yet - get the Hoffman/Gray remasters.

 

[Razeus]

Quote:

Originally Posted by LFF /img/forum/go_quote.gif Are you serious!? Those are some of the worst remastering jobs I have ever heard. Stick with the McMasters or better yet - get the Hoffman/Gray remasters.

Care to elaborate?

 

[Deep Funk]

Indeed, please explain before I might buy a compilation with bad sound quality...

 

[LFF]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Razeus /img/forum/go_quote.gif Care to elaborate?

Sure.

They suck! How's that?

Seriously though - I have nothing against RVG and consider him to have done a great job back in the day. However, these new remasters leave much to be desired in terms of sound quality. You have to remember that almost all RVG sessions were recorded live to two tracks. The stereo image on the master tapes is wide and the separation is very clear. Almost all sessions were recorded with a reed on the left, piano/bass middle and horns/drums on right. Moreover, the tone of the instruments is awesome. There are huge dynamics present as well. None of those qualities are present on the RVG remasters. If your lucky - one of these might be there, but most are all missing.

Most RVG stereo remasters sound monophonic. The tone of the instruments is off. The dynamics are either totally squashed or limited. Sad, but true. Unless you have absolutely no alternative, stay away from RVG remasters. Your money is better spent tracking down the remasters by Ron McMaster or Larry Walsh.

When I have time I'll post some samples to better illustrate my point.

 

[LFF]

OK! Here is proof of what I am talking about. The only thing that I changed was that I volume matched the sound samples. The pictures show what the actual wave forms look like with no modification. The sound samples are only a part of the full song for obvious reasons.
Some RVG fans argue that it was only his early releases from 1999 – 2000 were bad and had their faults. Well…this is from a 2006 release.

Lee Morgan - Tom Cat (RVG Remaster)

RVG SOUND SAMPLE

Lee Morgan - Tom Cat (LFF's)

LFF SOUND SAMPLE

 

[muad]

Pink Floyd the wall and Beatles Love are perfect sounding! At least with my ears on my setup

 

[Razeus]

I'll look into this. Good research.

 

[vcoheda]

anything by mapleshade or chesky.

 

[Razeus]

Any CD from the jazz group Fourplay.

 

[Razeus]

Quote:

Originally Posted by LFF /img/forum/go_quote.gif OK! Here is proof of what I am talking about. The only thing that I changed was that I volume matched the sound samples. The pictures show what the actual wave forms look like with no modification. The sound samples are only a part of the full song for obvious reasons. Some RVG fans argue that it was only his early releases from 1999 – 2000 were bad and had their faults. Well…this is from a 2006 release. Lee Morgan - Tom Cat (RVG Remaster) RVG SOUND SAMPLE Lee Morgan - Tom Cat (LFF's) LFF SOUND SAMPLE

I've been reading more into this. The "sound war" the call it. This could explain why some of my CD's sound like crap (my rock CD's especially, for instance Californication - which is a shame because John's playing is spectacular on that CD).

 

[Chuke]

Quote:

Originally Posted by LFF /img/forum/go_quote.gif Sure. They suck! How's that? Seriously though - I have nothing against RVG and consider him to have done a great job back in the day. However, these new remasters leave much to be desired in terms of sound quality. You have to remember that almost all RVG sessions were recorded live to two tracks. The stereo image on the master tapes is wide and the separation is very clear. Almost all sessions were recorded with a reed on the left, piano/bass middle and horns/drums on right. Moreover, the tone of the instruments is awesome. There are huge dynamics present as well. None of those qualities are present on the RVG remasters. If your lucky - one of these might be there, but most are all missing. Most RVG stereo remasters sound monophonic. The tone of the instruments is off. The dynamics are either totally squashed or limited. Sad, but true. Unless you have absolutely no alternative, stay away from RVG remasters. Your money is better spent tracking down the remasters by Ron McMaster or Larry Walsh. When I have time I'll post some samples to better illustrate my point.

Thanks for the info...I'm going to have to go back and do some research on the original vs. remasters. I've been listening to a few RVG's lately but mainly Hank Mobley's Roll Call which I really like. I'm going to have to spin the original and compare.

 

[Razeus]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chuke /img/forum/go_quote.gif Thanks for the info...I'm going to have to go back and do some research on the original vs. remasters. I've been listening to a few RVG's lately but mainly Hank Mobley's Roll Call which I really like. I'm going to have to spin the original and compare.

Let me know what you find.

 

[LFF]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Razeus /img/forum/go_quote.gif I've been reading more into this. The "sound war" the call it. This could explain why some of my CD's sound like crap (my rock CD's especially, for instance Californication - which is a shame because John's playing is spectacular on that CD).

Yup! The loudness wars have really taken a toll on great music and I get to see it happen again and again. I can't tell you how many times I have received a loud mix, then I fix it and then the client is pissed because the music lost it's "punch" or it's "body" or it's too quiet.

Musicians are soooo touchy too. They like to believe that they can hear better than anyone else and are easily persuaded by family and friends...even if they are completely wrong.

I have actually been getting into the habit of volume matching samples so clients don't freak out when they hear the after and compare it to the before so they can actually hear the huge differences.

It's also becoming more and more common to see mix engineers master music because the band can't afford a real mastering engineer or because they don't think they need one. Then you have all the wanna-be mastering engineers who do nothing more than compress and limit the hell out of mix.

Go to any "pro" site and see and listen to what they do...it's really, really sad. I wish I could slap most of these people and make them wake up.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chuke /img/forum/go_quote.gif Thanks for the info...I'm going to have to go back and do some research on the original vs. remasters. I've been listening to a few RVG's lately but mainly Hank Mobley's Roll Call which I really like. I'm going to have to spin the original and compare.

Mobley's Roll Call is also much like the top example.

Sad because it's also one of my favorite albums not to mention one of the finest in all the Blue Note catalog. The only RVG's I can tolerate a bit are the actual real mono releases - still loud and compressed, but tolerable. All the stereo releases leave so much to be desired.