[papomaster]

Am I the only one being tired of buying some lousy remastered, no-noised, dynamic-range destroyed versions of old cds?

I'd like (and I'm sure lots of people here would too) to gather opinions on :

Who makes good remasters ?

So when we see : "19xx, all rights reserved. 20xx remastered by ******", we know what to buy.

 

[Thelonious Monk]

steve hoffman is a big name in this respect. will edit post with links.

edit: http://www.stevehoffman.tv/discography/

great forum there too. the audio fidelity catalog is probably my favorite from him, but it's all top-notch stuff.

 

[MoreCowbell]

I agree x3.

I am a member of that forum. I like it for the most part. If you're into the Beatles then by all means head on over there. If you're not it's still ok but don't ever, I mean EVER disparage them, they'll come at you like dive bombers and you'll likely end up banned for a bit.

I do get tired of the freakin' Beatles sometimes...

 

[zotjen]

Bob Ludwig and Ward Marston.

 

[jjhatfield]

I like Bill Inglot (Rhino).

Hoffman of course. Anything by Mobile Fidelity, even the sometimes disparaged newer stuff. I've heard you can't go wrong with a DCC release.

 

[scompton]

x2 for Ward Marston. It's unbelievable what he can get out of historic recordings.

 

[Jahn]

I hope Hoffman gets the rights to the Beatles someday. That clip he played at the meet of his shot at it sounded AMAZING.

 

[papomaster]

bump for more suggestions

 

[corrosive_nf]

Rhino has been doing the Depeche Mode remasters, and they sound great. They rerelease the original album, the album upmixed to 5.1 and include b-sides, remixes and a short film on they band during that albums time period.

 

[gordolindsay]

Barry Diament is also highly regarded and I personally like a lot of his work. Bob Ludwig I think someone mentioned has done a lot of nice work.

I think Mr. Hoffman's work is the best there is, for the most part.

 

[Ocean Machine]

I just got one of the Journey remasters by Bob Ludwig, and it sounds great. It's one of the 1996 22 bit remasters. It's so good, that I'm hunting down the rest of the Journey 1996 remasters.

I also have a handful of Steve Hoffman discs. I really like his work. He gives everything a natural, neutral, balanced sound. I've been trying to pick up more of his DCC material, but most of the discs go for too much $ on Ebay.

 

[infinitesymphony]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jahn /img/forum/go_quote.gif I hope Hoffman gets the rights to the Beatles someday. That clip he played at the meet of his shot at it sounded AMAZING.

Huuuuuh? Tell us more. How did he get the original tracks? Which song did he play? How did it sound in comparison to the original? Will it be part of the video of his talk?

</questions>

 

[eyeteeth]

Doug Sax (of Pink Floyd catalog) is a name that warms my soul when I see it.

Something to keep in mind is that the mastering engineer doesn't always have free reign to make the CD sound as good to his ears as possible. He has bosses and he may only be following orders from above to compress the crap out of the music.

 

[markl]

Besides Steve and the MFSL guys, some honorable mentions that typically don't over-compress:

Vic Anesini
Dennis Drake
Barry Diament
Bill Inglot (mostly honest but often disliked for his typical treble spike)
Bob Irwin
Doug Sax


Generally good but often forced to add too much compression:

Bob Ludwig
Bernie Grundman
Joseph Palmaccio
Ted Jensen
Greg Calbi
Simon Heyworth
Paschal Byrne

 

[stewgriff]

Simon Heyworth's the guy that's mastered most of King Crimson's catalog for Fripp's independent record label, and the remasters sound great. Case in point: in the track Easy Money on Larks' Tongues in Aspic, the snares and triangles are lifelike and clear, and the dynamics aren't squashed at all. I also like Doug Sax's work with Pink Floyd--very clear, and with little compression.