(Judas Priest) Remasters that sound WORSE (and any other examples you'd care to warn everyone about).

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Was listening to some Judas Priest remasters today and I noticed they contoured all the phaser and reverb right out of the guitar and replaced it with a high-pitched average metal distorted guitar in the remastering process. If I listened real close, I could still hear the effects, but only because I knew they were there and was listening for them. The albums were "Screaming for Vengeance" and "Defenders of The Faith."

That guitar tone is one of the reasons Priest is so cool and different. The only JP remastered CD I have is "Point of Entry" and now I realize the remastering is the reason the guitar sounds more like AC/DC than Judas Priest. This pisses me off. It's like going back and "fixing" Star Wars.

Another weird thing about JP is they released 2 versions of Rocka Rolla that are barely different at all aside from a harmonica and some verse changes. I guess the harmonica version is supposed to be the "final" version (with bottle cap cover), but I think there is another slightly different version on the Hero, Hero comp. Rocka Rolla was both remixed and remastered for no apparent reason. If you're not paying attention, they sound exactly the same.

― asdf troll, Thursday, 25 November 2004 03:14 (twenty-one years ago)

Just the idea replaced rhythm section thing on the remastered Blizzard of Ozz bugs me so much I can't even bring myself to listen to it.

ZZ Top put dumbass echo drums on their 70's CD reissues.

― It's hard to kill a horse with a flute (AaronHz), Thursday, 25 November 2004 03:22 (twenty-one years ago)

Just the idea OF THE

― It's hard to kill a horse with a flute (AaronHz), Thursday, 25 November 2004 03:23 (twenty-one years ago)

I probably have that Blizzard of Ozz and didn't even know it. I'm sure I do, I just bought the CD a few years ago. I hope I don't have those ZZ Top reissues (6 pack?).

It's revisionist history, I tell ya. JP has always been self-conscious, anyway, trying to fit in and be all things to all people. You can clearly see it in the evolution of their music, but changing the guitar like that is just wrong.

― asdf troll, Thursday, 25 November 2004 03:29 (twenty-one years ago)

I like the 'Turbo' one where everything's replaced with acoustic guitars

― dave q (listerine), Thursday, 25 November 2004 03:35 (twenty-one years ago)

Turbo is pretty bad as it is.

― asdf troll, Thursday, 25 November 2004 03:44 (twenty-one years ago)

"Wild Nights, Hot and Crazy Days" vs "To Live and Die in LA"

― dave q (listerine), Thursday, 25 November 2004 03:46 (twenty-one years ago)

do they have unreleased songs produced by stock ,Aitken and Waterman
p.s. "Painkiller " is the bomb

― jason astley and rick dononvan, Thursday, 25 November 2004 06:42 (twenty-one years ago)

Weren't the Cocteau Twins remasters really awful? Does anyone have the full story on them?

― derrick (derrick), Thursday, 25 November 2004 07:13 (twenty-one years ago)

Judas Priest: remastered for retards

― contribute, Thursday, 25 November 2004 07:24 (twenty-one years ago)

Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain

(all extra bonus stuff aside)

― donut christ (donut), Thursday, 25 November 2004 08:40 (twenty-one years ago)

ok, i just listened to both of them back to back.. I think I'm too tired.. they sound exactly the same.. although I swore I thought the new remasters of CRCR sounded weaker for some reason.... scratch that!

― donut christ (donut), Thursday, 25 November 2004 08:49 (twenty-one years ago)

the cocteaus remaster of treasure doesn't sound good, I didn't bother with the others. too bass heavy (the albums were plenty bass heavy as it was) and all the dynamics were gone. I don't know what he was thinking. they've unfortunately replaced the original versions too, so those are getting hard to find.

― kyle (akmonday), Thursday, 25 November 2004 23:41 (twenty-one years ago)

When are people gonna come to their senses with this stuff? It's the ultimate shooting yourself in the foot type thing.

Making your reputation-creating albums sound like shit + Making the versions that people liked in the first place unavailable = THERE GOES YOUR FUCKING LEGACY MORON

― It's hard to kill a horse with a flute (AaronHz), Friday, 26 November 2004 00:08 (twenty-one years ago)

too much top and not enough bottom
i like the start and the end but not anything in between

― painboys, Friday, 26 November 2004 00:13 (twenty-one years ago)

I figured after the ZZ Top box came out (which contains the original 1970s versions of their songs, without the electronic drums, just cleaned up and sounding very, very good), they'd release the individual albums properly on CD. So far, no such luck.

Am I to assume that the guitar sound has been changed on the Judas Priest Metalogy box, too?

― pdf (Phil Freeman), Friday, 26 November 2004 12:00 (twenty-one years ago)

People keep warning me about the Replacments remasters. So far I've avoided getting any of them except for the one I didn't have on CD yet.

― Sean Carruthers (SeanC), Friday, 26 November 2004 14:26 (twenty-one years ago)

The Moody Blues - Days of Future Passed doesn't hold a candle to its vinyl version.

Neither does that godawful very-heavily-hyped 2CD reissue of The Who Sings My Generation that came out a couple years ago.

― Mr. Snrub, Friday, 26 November 2004 16:44 (twenty-one years ago)

CBS's (or Sony's or whoever) '98 remaster of the Mahavishnu Orchestra's The Inner Mounting Flame sounded possibly even worse than the original - or, at best, bad in a different way. Too much bass; guitar barely audible except while soloing. In fact, I have yet to hear ANY superior-sounding jazz CD on Sony.

― Myonga Von Bontee (Myonga Von Bontee), Friday, 26 November 2004 17:31 (twenty-one years ago)

has anyone heard the new Beatles Capitol box set? packaging aside reports seem to be that they sound AMAZING.

― kyle (akmonday), Friday, 26 November 2004 18:01 (twenty-one years ago)

The Led Zeppelin remasters were abhorent.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Friday, 26 November 2004 20:57 (twenty-one years ago)

Why? What did they sound like?

― Pangolino (ricki spaghetti), Friday, 26 November 2004 20:59 (twenty-one years ago)

Years ago I sold all my early King Crimson albums to get the remasters, and then never could be bothered to get the remasters. Ever since then I'm off the whole remaster thing.

No wait!!! The Iron Maiden remasters sound awesome.

― Jordan (Jordan), Friday, 26 November 2004 21:01 (twenty-one years ago)

And I still want to get James Brown's remaster 'In the Jungle Groove'.

― Jordan (Jordan), Friday, 26 November 2004 21:02 (twenty-one years ago)

Why? What did they sound like?

Like shit.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Friday, 26 November 2004 21:04 (twenty-one years ago)

The new Can remasters are a mixed bag. Tago Mago may be better than the old CD, but Soundtracks and Ege Bamyasi are definitely worse. Haven't heard the new Monster Movie, and not sure that I want to now either.

What about those first four Scott Walker albums that were remastered circa-2000? Any better than the 1992 CD issues? Is it worth buying these damn things yet AGAIN? (I will if I have to.)

― Majooba, Friday, 26 November 2004 21:04 (twenty-one years ago)

the latest King Crimson remasters sound fucking amazing (the DGM ones). The earlier 91 "definitive" remasters weren't bad, but had a lot of dumb thproblems (missed bits of songs, etc). If you're a fan I'd say it's worth shelling out for the DGM versions. The Can stuff gets remastered tooooo often, they're on their like fourth versions or something, they all sound the same to me too.

― kyle (akmonday), Friday, 26 November 2004 21:55 (twenty-one years ago)

Point of Entry was a move, maybe a conscious one, in the direction of AC/DC. I think they may have been influenced by a tour they did with them around that time. asdf troll, do you have the unmastered version of POE? Have you done a comparison?

― the music mole (colin s barrow), Saturday, 27 November 2004 18:15 (twenty-one years ago)

music mole, that's good to know about POE. I never heard the non-remastered version of POE, but I do have the originals of SFV and DOTF and when I compared those I came to the conclusion, perhaps incorrectly, that this must've been what happened with POE, too. Listening to the remastered POE now, the drums are not very JP, either. Gone is the flat, cool almost new wavey drum sound. It has been replaced by something bigger and more stadium-like. I will be snatching it up as soon as I see a used copy somewhere and whichever I like best I'll keep.

― asdf troll, Sunday, 28 November 2004 03:32 (twenty-one years ago)

I love Point of Entry. It was my first Priest album, and it's the one where Sony US finally put its foot down in opposition to the druggy abstract disco album covers coming from the Euro side of things. Check the US response: a roll of computer paper unfolding to oblivion across a vast expanse of nothing. You can't see the feeder holes in this little pic, but that's computer paper.

Don't remaster it, recapture it. Send Ian Hill into the sauna with Christina Lindberg, a pack of cigarettes, and some of those remanufactured Quaaludes and let's get to work...

What's that about acoustic guitars on Turbo? A funny joke, or an even funnier reality?

― Ian Christe (Ian Christe), Sunday, 28 November 2004 15:08 (twenty-one years ago)

http://www.collectable-records.ru/images/GROUPS/judas%20priest/point%20of%20entry/front.jpg
http://www.lyred.com/covers/judas_priest_-_point_of_entry.jpg

― Ian Christe (Ian Christe), Sunday, 28 November 2004 15:09 (twenty-one years ago)

Yeah , I wish mine had the Euro abstract cover. It reminds me more of Stained Class, which is cool. Just what does a computer paper highway have to do with Judas Priest? The other cover is just more likeable to me.

― asdf troll, Sunday, 28 November 2004 15:35 (twenty-one years ago)

Not really remasters, but those mono mixes, that were not even the original ones, used on the first four Beatles album were not quite up to the standards of whatever was available before on vinyl.

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Sunday, 28 November 2004 16:04 (twenty-one years ago)

twelve years pass...

Really sucks to hear that people hate the Cocteau Twins remasters because those are the only ones I've heard and I love them.
Same for Celtic Frost and Judas Priest (although I'm not as big a fan of them as I am of Cocteau Twins).

Think I'll mostly avoid the Vangelis remasters.

I guess I'll avoid the Megadeth remasters?

Not sure what versions of Rudimentary Peni I should go for because I might just enjoy any versions just as well because I don't have an idea of how it should sound.

― Robert Adam Gilmour, Monday, 23 January 2017 13:37 (nine years ago)

Maybe that's true for a lot of remasters? They might sound better but just too different for a big fan?

― Robert Adam Gilmour, Monday, 23 January 2017 13:40 (nine years ago)

All this does illustrate how important mastering is in the whole process.

― earlnash, Monday, 23 January 2017 17:26 (nine years ago)

it's weird to me when even more recent stuff suffers. i've heard more recent cd versions of the red house painters albums from the 90's and they very definitely sound worse than the original versions. all you have to do is make a copy of an original cd and you would have a better version than the newer ones!

likewise with those horrible slayer remasters i heard a while back. that was so sad. those albums were near perfect on vinyl, cd, AND tape. and to fuck with them and make them worse....should be a hanging offense.

― scott seward, Monday, 23 January 2017 17:57 (nine years ago)

Considering getting earlier CD versions of Cocteau Twins Treasure and Garlands.

― Robert Adam Gilmour, Monday, 23 January 2017 18:18 (nine years ago)

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