'Remastered for iTunes' - All albums re-released! Discuss.

Unfortunately, the quote by Steve is utter horseshit. By definition, iTunes files are lossy, so even if the masters were captured at hi-res, the product you get from iTunes is relatively low definition, and far below CD quality in terms of bitrate. Moreover, just listening to them (as well as analyzing the files using DR and EAC, as others have done) reveals that they are digitally compressed and sound different (not as good) as the recent vinyl reissues, which presumably sound far more like the master tapes than what iTunes has prepared. Steve's definition of "better" appears to be "louder" -- and that's not what a decent producer or recording engineer would tell you. Steve is a great bassist and songwriter, but a horrible producer and engineer.

All that said, these are indeed an improvement over the horrid 1998 remasters that are being pressed and sold now on CD. Still, Maniac and jeffg have it right -- if Maiden were to just make the uncompressed hi-res capture available for digital download, THAT would sound pretty much identical to what the band heard in the studio. That's on my wish list.
 
Steve clearly mentions instruments and how he finds that the sound of these have improved. This has nothing to do with bitrate, or a simple "louder".

It sure is different, that was the purpose of this undertaking.
 
Forostar said:
Steve clearly mentions instruments and how he finds that the sound of these have improved. This has nothing to do with bitrate, or a simple "louder".

It sure is different, that was the purpose of this undertaking.
Click to expand...
Right, he thinks the sound improved because the guitars are "louder" and the drums are "more substantial" (i.e., louder). To quote Ian Gillen: everything louder than everything else. And that's how the clips I sampled on iTunes sound. Now, in fairness, those quotes are referencing the debut album, and I will listen to the clips from that album more closely. The problem with that album is that it wasn't produced very well to begin with, and while it's possible the sonics could have been improved, my guess is that it will still sound poorly produced, only louder and more compressed.

Generally, better digital mastering technology should allow the instruments to sound clearer and more defined relative to one another, which would be a plus. Again, if and when we get a hi-res download of the flat (uncompressed, un-EQ'ed, un-fucked-with) transfer from the master tapes, then I'll be much more excited. That should sound even better than the old 80s CDs, which are currently still the best available digital recordings of the classic Maiden albums. However, within the last two days Pono and HDTracks have been offering a hi-res (96khz/24 bit) download of the 2015 remastered Rock in Rio, and it is discouraging. Haven't heard it yet on a decent stereo, but it sounds "brickwalled" and the metrics seem to confirm that: See here. Based on this, I'm concerned Maiden will probably screw this up even if they do make the entire catalog available for hi-res download.
 
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So i discovered this yesterday while at work and I'm already 5 albums in. I will say i'm mildly annoyed that the versions I have so far from itunes are what are likely the 1998 remasters. They sound fine, but the mastered for itunes albums are always cool and are the same price.

However, I haven't poured through them too deeply, but I did notice the first few albums were missing songs like Sanctuary, Twilight Zone. I guess I ended up better off by getting more bonus songs for the same money.
 
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Seriously thinking about picking up the remaster of Iron Maiden, though. Is it just on iTunes?
 
So far, yes. But I think there's a decent chance of a CD/hi-res download reissue campaign in the not-too-distant future.
 
Bonus tracks I noticed were missing from these new itunes versions of the albums. Thank goodness I bought at least the first five when I did. I'm bummed I hadn't gotten to the other 10 yet.

Iron Maiden - Sanctuary
Killers - Twilight Zone
The Number of the Beast - Total Eclipse

It also looks like the new albums have higher quality, brighter album art. That is a positive that I wish I had, but I'll take 3 extra songs for the same money.
 
Now that I think of it, I'm interested in hearing DoD remaster... worst produced Maiden album, so hopefully they polished the sound for the better a bit. Won't buy it over iTunes though, not available in Serbia.
 
Yax did some work with DoD, and while it did clean it up a bit, I thought it actually lost something.
 
Wasn't me. I remember it though, and the original was better. I seem to recall there was some nasty 2 khz stuff going on with the "enhanced" version. Might have been better in some areas, but that's what I remember.
 
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For Dance of Death, I created a stereo downmix of the DVD-Audio 5.1 layer -- which I consider my greatest technical computer achievement ever, even though Handbrake makes it pretty easy, IIRC. The downmix is less fatiguing and more pleasant to listen to, though it is, in essence, a "remix" and sounds quite different than the CD. (Ripping the 2.0 layer from the DVD didn't help -- it pretty much sounds exactly like the CD, which one might expect.)

Based on the 90-second samples, the 2015 Mastered for iTunes version of Dance of Death does sound better than the CD. Still overly compressed, and there is still noticeable clipping/distortion on "Montsegur," which is very irritating, but nonetheless an improvement.

I've discovered that listening to only the free iTunes 90-second clips of each song on an album (click "Preview All" on the album page) is actually kind of fun. You get a good taste of an entire album in about 15 minutes.
 
I just listened to the AMOLAD remaster samples. It's a nice mastering job. I'll stick with the original though, but the mastering job is very well done, by the standards mastering are done nowadays.

And in the process I found some more sliiiight auto tune on Bruce's vocals. :D
I'll never be able to ignore it now. :facepalm:
 
Different World :D.

1:41 I might find...

03:04-03:06

03:23-03:25

3:38, same line.

3:49, Bruce is a little bit sharp and the tuning brings it down to the correct pitch.

Might be at 3:56 Feeling more confused, but it's not a given.
 
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While Maiden produce some great music why are they so bad at stuff like this? itunes is horrible in every way - it's apple it's compressed i'll never use it. Come on Maiden you are better than this. Save your money and locate the original CD's pre 1997 and rip them to flac.
 
I'm listening to the samples now, and I'm seriously thinking about getting Iron Maiden. It's much better than the 1998 version, which I have. I actually have most of the 1998 versions.
 
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