?'s for Andy on Remastering

[rubthebuddha]

Andy - Big fan of all your work, and wished you had produced the new Nevermore. These may have been answered before and may seem naive, but here's are my questions:

What exactly does remastering do to enhance the sound? Could something like Metallica's new piece of crap, er disk, be remastered to have a sound similar to And Justice For All... Or once a piece of music is that far along is it too late to change it that drastically?

Also, who actually really sets the direction for the sound, the Producer, the Engineer, or someone else? I remember some of the metal from the 80's (even from good bands) would have a horrible muddied sound and was just curious as to whom is ultimately responsible. Another example would be from Megadeth, where Peace Sells had a tight sound, but So Far, So Good, So What had a really echo-ey sound to it. I realize that there are differences in the quality of instruments, boards, mics, etc., but ultimately a human was behind it all.

Thanks in advance for your reply, and keep up the great work.

 

[Hellalpha]

seeing as Andy hasn't answered,..

1. A disc cannot sound drastically different if it is remastered. you can alter the volume level, and add subtle post-mix changes, but ultimately, the sound after mixing wont change much. So using your example; no, if st. anger was "remastered", it can not and will not ever sound like ..and justice. re-mixing, however, is a different matter. Though I would think that if we ran the ..and justice tapes back through our new and better technology, that would be an unbeleivable sounding record. Much better than st. anger could ever be.

2. Essentially, the producer is responsible. The producer (influenced by the band) wants to create an album with a particular sound, and he gets the sound of the kick drum, for example, through an engineer. Quite often the producer will even do this himself, eg. Peter Tagtgren.

3. Technology has changed, and the muddy sounding records, much like Killing is my business, can sound FANTASTIC...you've heard it for yourself!..personally, I think peace sells IS a tight record, with performances far superior to that of So far so good, but it does sound crap. As you well know, the peace sells record was remixed and remastered very recently by none other than Mr. Mustaine. Just wait until you hear this, my friend, this will blow Killing is my Biz away.

4. Do not underestimate the antipower of a bad performance - "So far so good"; the musicianship was quite bad. Pay attention to intro of the left guitar track on "Liar", and tell me that that is a record-worthy take. But damn. Ellefson rips.

Humbly awaiting the Rust in Peace remix.
Matthew.

 

[Andy Sneap]

Matthews spot on, remixing is the only way to go really. Remastering can help some stray frequencies, say there's a touch to much low end, but you can't do anything too drastic

 

[Genius Gone Insane]

Do you really think RIP needs a remix? i like the way it sounds

 

[Andy Sneap]

so do i actually

 

[Hellalpha]

Haha. I never said that I thought it needed to be remixed, lest we have this album on Pic LP just because it sounds worthy enough to be on Lp..I am just very curious as to what it would sound like remixed!

 

[rubthebuddha]

Thanks for the replies, guys. And Andy, the new Exodus is the best sounding thrash record of the last decade. I know Gary speaks very highly of you on his forum and in interviews, but you really got the best sound and performances out of the band.

Cheers!

 

[Genius Gone Insane]

RIP is one of my fav albums of all time but just recently I realized that in fact, the mix isnt that great.