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Are there any GOOD Dylan SACD remasters?

Wow, I've bought a few SACD only and HYBRID Bob Dylan remasters, and unfortunately all but Blood On The Tracks has been a let down? Is it that the engineers doing the remaster think they need to make it clearer, and therefore add top end? To me, it would seem you would just issue the same recording, same mix, same levels, on the new medium WITHOUT SCREWING WITH IT?? Isn't getting it in SACD going to give us better sound anyway?

Am I alone in this? Correct me if I'm wrong, the original master tape offers sonic's obscured by conventional CD technology. So an SACD allows us to hear the original master tape more closely to it's actual sound. Where in this process does it say that some rookie comes in and tries to make it sound better?

Jesus! Bob is in his 60's, and even if he was present on the remaster that wouldn't make me happy. All I want is more of what was originally recorded, offered naturally by SACD. It was a good recording to start with, and Bob can't hear as well as he did 25 years ago!

Yeah, some of my favorite later Dylan needs some help, Time Out Of Mind sounds like Bob is singing through a meggaphone frequently, extremely nasal vocals, and not even well recorded to begin with in my opinion. No remaster is gonna solve this. So how does the SACD HYBRID sound? Tom
trich727
pabelson
344 posts
 
Can we agree there was at the time of the recording there was a "master" tape?

No. You simply don't understand modern recording technique.

Also out of interest name me any 5 recent releases that have been remixed as part of the remastering process.

How many Dylan SACDs are 5.1? Those, for starters. Then all the others. Again, remastering generally consists of taking the original tracks (multiple, and never called masters), and remixing them into a new master.
ben_campbell
1,169 posts
 
Clearly making a disc multi-channel involves remixing I didn't think I had to qualify that.

You are still playing with words and to be frank it's silly-the common terminology is to refer to the original tapes that produced the released version of an album is the master tapes.
I suppose I'm just making that up?

In your world remasters would simply be known as New Masters and marketed as such.
Maybe you can start a campaign to keep dumbo's like me better informed.

This is a debate about semantics on one level-I use the term "master" you prefer source-let's agree there is an original tape of the recording and leave it at that.

However where you are fundamentally wrong is your cut and paste theory and that by some miracle there are all kinds of source tapes lying about that are used in the remastering process.
99.9% of all remasters use the original "source" or "master" tape which was the takes and mixes that the artist and producer decided should go on the album.

I most cases the remastering process is done to clean up the tapes and stay true to the original artistic statement.
As I concur above there can be changes which can lead to quite different sounding recordings from the SAME source (I give in)tape.

I get the impression you allude otherwise.
pabelson
344 posts
 
I use the term "master" you prefer source-let's agree there is an original tape of the recording and leave it at that.

No. There isn't A tape. There are multiple tapes, multiple tracks, and multiple takes. Remember, for the vast majority of records made in the last 40 years, there was no original performance. Records are made in pieces, with a rhythm track here, and a lead vocal track there. Nobody in the business calls these "masters." (I'll agree that many uninformed consumers do, but that reflects their misconceptions about recording generally.)

The job of mastering largely involves taking all these parts and deciding which channel or channels they should go in and how loud they should be in each channel. That's called mixing. Every master is mixed (at least in the pop music world).

Remastering involves going back to those original tapes and remixing them in a different way. That's why EVERY remaster is remixed--practically by definition. Remastering is not just about "cleaning up the tapes and preserving everything else." It's about making a different master. Sometimes that master sounds very close to the original release, and sometimes not.
ben_campbell
1,169 posts
 
As usual you ignore the parts of my post you can't really answer but anyway............

Each piece(vocal,guitar track etc.) that makes up any record has an original performance on it.
Most recorded performances have assembled these pieces very carefully.
This assembling plays a major part in how well the music works on an artistic level.

Remastering obviously just ignores these facts in your world of semantics.

Oh and I just pulled out my Doors The Complete Studio Recordings box set and guess what it says?

"Remastered from the original analog 2 track MASTERS to 96khz 24 bit digital by Bruce Botnick and Bernie Grundman at Bernie Grundman Mastering"

Oh and the Miles Davis Complete Jack Johnson box set "from the original 8-track 1" analog MASTERS"

So nobody in the business uses the terms "Masters"?
Oh dear.

More tellingly on the recent Springsteen Born To Run set.

Springsteen thanks Bob Clearmount for the mixing-this is the reference to the DVD video sound.
He then thanks Bob Ludwig for the great mastering on the actual album itself.
He doesn't thank Ludwig for the mixing nor does he even mention it.
Mmmm I wonder why?
pabelson
344 posts
 
A point to you on the use of of the term master, at least in material meant for consumers' eyes.

That said, please note the problem here: The term "master" is now being used for two very different things:

1) the final--fully mixed, EQd, and otherwise processed--tape used to make the disk.

2) Some earlier generation of tapes, either the original studio tapes or some processed and/or partially mixed descendent of them.

That creates all kinds of confusion, as our discussion here demonstrates. Remastering certainly does not involve #1 above, and I suspect that it usually involves some generation before the final mixdown--which means, of necessity, that it involves remixing. There are loads of obvious examples of this: the CD version of Layla, Let It Be Naked, etc. Perhaps the most common (positive) comment about a remastering is that it brings out or highlights or isolates a particular instrument or voice. That's most likely been accomplished by remixing.

Final thought: The information on remastering that's included on most CDs is very sketchy. You really can't assume anything about what they don't say.
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