[166848]

when i got back into buying cds to have a back up if something crashes, i jumped all on the "remastered" thing. thinking it was better than the original (im sure some is). but alot of them seem....... i dont know........ different. true some are "louder" (in a good and bad way). i can take a cd that is 20 years old (or not remastered) and it seems i might have to turn the volume up to hear it better. it sounds sometimes like the music is farther away. while some of the remastered cds seems as if things clip more like the bass is bottoming out (no rap only rock). 
 
so did they screw things up or am i going crazy? i read alot about the loudness war thing but i guess everytime i bought a remastered cd i was hoping it wouldnt happen.
 
like i said some sound good while others im not to happy with.
 
did they do the loudness thing because everyone (most people) are using mp3's? hoping it would at least make up some of the "loss" in the music?

 

[LFF]

You're not crazy. There are many threads dedicated to this topic in one way or another.
 
The loudness craze has been going on for quite some time but got really bad in the 1990's. It's even worse today. The loudness craze started since the days of vinyl when engineers would try to cut the vinyl records as loud as possible. With the advent of digital, it became more prevalent as it was easier to do and it sounded good in the car and supposedly, on the radio as well.
 
Sadly, the original first pressing CD's usually sound better than their subsequent remasters with a few exceptions. Usually companies like DCC, Audio Fidelity, Analogue Productions, Audio Wave, Chesky and MFSL reissue many albums with great quality and you can count on them releasing remasters that are properly done.
 
Another indication is the credits. I can go to the bank when I see one (or more) of the following names:
 
Steve Hoffman
Alan Yoshida
Roy DuNann
Barry Diament
Kevin Gray
Joe Tarrantino
George Horn
Paul Stubblebine
George Massenburg
Keith O. Johnson
Bob Ludwig
Bob Katz
Larry Walsh
Doug Sax
Ron Furmanek
Bill Inglot
 
Hope that helps....

 

[wuwhere]

I try to buy AAD CDs. But I guess nowadays they are mostly ADD or DDD.