So, the discussion of
Vapor Trails over in
the "black sheep" thread got me thinking about the elusive HD remaster of the
original Vapor Trails mix, and today I hunted that down. It was apparently released to HD download services in 2013 a little before
Vapor Trails Remixed dropped, and many of those services flat-out replaced the HD remaster with an HD version of
Remixed instead, but some of them continue to offer the original. The place I went to get my copy after a bunch of corroboration was
7digital.
For $17.50 I got non-DRM'd, 96KHz/24-bit FLAC files of Andy Van Dette's HD remaster of the original mix. This remaster increases the dynamic range slightly, and all of the clipping and crackling from the original CD pressing is gone as far as I can tell. There are parts that are still more compressed than they probably ought to be, but the objective blemishes appear to be gone while preserving the punch of the guitars and the emphasis on the high melody lines during the vocal harmonies, which were the two things that drove me nuts about
Remixed.
I'll need to listen to this a few more times to be sure, but this certainly appears to be the definitive version of
Vapor Trails to me, even after downsampling to 320kbps MP3.
EDIT: Yep, after multiple listens and some A/B-ing it’s pretty clear to me that this is the best version of the album. If you’re a fan of the original release, I think the HD remaster upgrade is worth it. I just wish I’d pursued it earlier…