POLL: does the latest remaster sound better than every previous release of the album?

Does the latest remaster sound better than every previous release of the album?

  • Total voters
    7
Forostar

Forostar

Ancient Mariner
Please VOTE. @Mosh @bearfan @Cornfed Hick and everybody else who has heard one of these remasters.

http://www.blabbermouth.net/news/iron-maidens-acclaimed-remasters-get-cd-digipak-treatment/

Following on from 2014/2017's black vinyl releases and 2015's "Mastered For iTunes" project, "The Studio Collection - Remastered" will be released on the digipak CD format, with the track listing matching the original U.K. releases. The recordings are taken from the same remasters as the 2015 hi-res digital releases. The albums will be released chronologically in batches of four, across a nine-month period superseding the previously available studio catalog and all titles will also be made available on streaming platforms. As a bonus for collectors, one CD from each batch of releases will also be optionally available in a specially artworked box featuring a 1:24 scale figurine and exclusive patch. In the November 16 batch, this will be "The Number Of The Beast".


MAIDEN founding member and bassist Steve Harris says: "We've wanted to revisit these for a long time and I was delighted with the remastering we did in 2015. I thought it was the best that our albums have ever sounded and it was only right that we made them available on CD now too."
 
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I don't think I ever listened to non-remastered versions of 80's albums. And I don't hear the difference between 1998 and 2015 remasters.
 
Forostar said:
Cheers @Mosh

4 YES's:

Fear of the Dark
The X-Factor
Virtual XI
Dance of Death
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If there were any I'd particularly like to see with better sound, these would be right up there as they aren't the best sounding comparatively. Some of the albums don't necessarily need touching too much, while i reckon these would really benefit.
 
I voted no on everything except FOTD, X Factor, Virtual, and DoD. Keep in mind though that my experience with these are exclusively the vinyl versions, but they are probably going to be the same on CD, maybe less dynamic range.

Powerslave isn’t included in the poll but that happens to be the only one I’m not familiar with. For the 80s albums though they’re pretty hit or miss. I was really unimpressed with Killers and especially NOTB. Other ones are decent and probably an improvement over the 90s remasters at least, so might be worth getting if your only experience is with those.

Also worth mentioning that these are all available on iTunes afaik.
 
Mosh said:
I voted no on everything except FOTD, X Factor, Virtual, and DoD. Keep in mind though that my experience with these are exclusively the vinyl versions, but they are probably going to be the same on CD, maybe less dynamic range.

Powerslave isn’t included in the poll but that happens to be the only one I’m not familiar with. For the 80s albums though they’re pretty hit or miss. I was really unimpressed with Killers and especially NOTB. Other ones are decent and probably an improvement over the 90s remasters at least, so might be worth getting if your only experience is with those.
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Thanks for the information.
 
Haven't heard the digital version of these remasters, don't see the point of having high quality digital versions when I don't have any high quality dgitial audio equipment to play it on! If you're listening to high quality audio on your pc and a pair of headphones that's like watching a bluray using a CRT television!

So I will make judgement on this when I hear the CD's. Hopefully, we get a good master of DOD which is badly needed.

However, the reason I'm throwing my tuppence worth in now, is that it's a good thing that a kid trying to buy the albums for the first time has a better option than the 98 remasters, which sound worse than the original masters and have the wrong tracklisting for the first 3 albums, and incorrect transitions from BITV to Powerslave. Although, will a kid buy a CD:lol: Maybe future generations of hipsters kids will discover CDs.
 
Mosh said:
I voted no on everything except FOTD, X Factor, Virtual, and DoD. Keep in mind though that my experience with these are exclusively the vinyl versions, but they are probably going to be the same on CD, maybe less dynamic range.
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I am pretty much in the same boat, I have only listened to the vinyl remasters ... and I only got No Prayer through Final Frontier. I still have the original vinyl of the earlier albums which I liked batter than the 90s re-releases. So I cannot really compare. I agree with @Mosh that those 4 sounds best, but I would add AMOLAD. But I am not sure there is really a massive difference on any of them, they sound like small tweaks
.

I am also at a bit of a disadvantage that the majority of my Maiden listening lately has been MP3s on my phone while I am walking, driving, or flying, especially for X-Factor through Final Frontier, mostly because they were mainly released on picture discs which looked cool as hell, but did not sound that great and I really only listen to CDs in my car anymore and not even then all that much.

Long story short, I am probably not the best person to ask, all I can say is there was nothing "bad" on the vinyl re-releases of the post 7th Son albums and overall I think they are good.
 
Personally, the 2015 remasters are my favorites. Sure, they are technically very compressed (all of them are DR5–7) and should sound... hideous. The numbers are worse than the 1998 remasters. But, there is a "but" here... they don't sound like it. If I play them side by side with the originals using ReplayGain, I can't tell the difference as far as dynamics are concerned. EQ choices are great too, and make the overall sound much cleaner, brighter than any other Maiden releases. Major and most noticeable improvements were made to Iron Maiden (the bad production job is much less apparent), Piece of Mind (this remaster actually has bass, which the original CDs lacked greatly), Powerslave (sounds fuller than any other pressings, vinyls included, all of which sounded incredibly thin) and Dance of Death (much less muddy and compressed).
 
I'll hold off on voting until the CDs are released on November 16 and I can actually hear them. Question for @Forostar : Is your poll asking only about digital versions, or do you want us to compare the 2018 CDs to the 2014 (or original) vinyl LPs? I assume by "every previous release" you mean literally everything.

My assumption is that the 2018 CDs will sound a lot like the 2015 Mastered for iTunes versions, given that the band has said they are using the 2015 masters. As @Number 6 noted, the "DR ratings" for the 2015 digital versions are alarmingly low, but I think they sound OK, and definitely better than the 1998 versions, which were bad bad bad and suffered from distortion and clipping. But the 2015 iTunes versions are still loud and compressed, and don't sound as warm and rich as the original 1980's Capitol/EMI (or Castle) CD releases. My hope against hope (I'm skeptical) is that the 2018 CDs will retain the dynamics of the 2014 vinyl reissues, which were part of the same remastering campaign. The 2014 LP reissues of the classic 1980's albums sound GREAT, very dynamic and warm, and the U.K. versions I bought are well pressed with little surface noise (as compared to the U.S. pressings, which reportedly had more surface noise, IIRC). If the new CDs sound more like the 2014 vinyl reissues and less like the 2015 iTunes versions, then they could very well be the go-to versions, in any format, for the classic 80's releases. But again, I'm skeptical. To be clear, I'm not a vinyl zealot -- I prefer a well-mastered, dynamic CD to a vinyl LP, because no matter how good the LP pressing, it never completely eliminates surface noise, which bothers me. Some people think analog/vinyl ALWAYS trumps digital; that's not me. But I've found that quite a few artists/record companies will use a more dynamic mastering for vinyl and a louder, more compressed mastering for digital, and I fear Iron Maiden is no different. I'll reserve judgment until I hear them.

For later albums, I am actually pretty optimistic that the 2018 versions of Brave New World, Rock In Rio and Dance of Death should sound better than the originals. The sound quality on the original CDs was crummy -- DoD is particularly awful -- and the recent vinyl reissues sounded much, much better. Even if the new CDs are, as I expect, more compressed than the vinyl versions, they should still sound better than the originals.
 
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I'm not sure if it's been mentioned elsewhere, and I'm also aware it doesn't give a full reflection of the sound, but the 2015 remasters are on youtube under the Iron Maiden topic.
 
I have not yet heard the 2015 remasters. From the debut to FOTD I own the 1998 remasters, and everything from the X Factor to TBOS that I own was a copy that was made when the album was released. I think they all sound great apart from VXI and DOD. Maybe I should compare the two and see if there is an improvement.
 
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