hi,
is part of the reason that people complain about the quality of the queen cd's becuase they are mixed and mastered poorly and not queens own mixing of the songs. In particular the levels of the bass and drums and the overall loudness of the albums.
In the original vinyls not only is the bass louder and the drums louder, the albums themseleves just have more loudness. Im in australia and i dont know whos cd releases we get here, but is it the cd's remixes that are the problem rather than the original mix.
well thats up for debate, i dont want this thread being about whether vinyl or cd's are better, im talking about whether the current cd releases were mixed craply.
the current CDs are not mixed differently at all. The mixes are exactly the same as the mixes originally released b Queen.
They have over the years however released many different mastered versions (in my opinion the latest Japanese 'mini vinyl' series are the best sounding of the CD releases, although some are better than others).
Put very simply, the mastering process can accentuate or lessen specific different frequencies, and therefore depending on who is mastering the songs, what equipment and what frequencies they think need boosting or levelling off, the different masters will sound different, and you will hear certain parts that were present in the original mix but were 'hidden' somewhat because they were covered by other instruments and parts in hte mix covering them up so to speak.
If, for example, there is a floor tom part in a song that has the 'meat' of it at something like 120hz, the mastering process can be set to accentuate anything at that frequency and thereby bring out that particular drum but not boost or lessen any other frequency.
There is obviously more to it than that, but that's the general idea.
Hope that helps?
liam wrote: well thats up for debate, i dont want this thread being about whether vinyl or cd's are better, im talking about whether the current cd releases were mixed craply.
"current cd release quality vs the original releases", that's the title of your topic and the original releases were vinyl.
The differences between them that you discribe are not only because of a different mix but because of the different medium you listen to.
Drums and bass specifically sound a lot more spacy and more accurate on vinyl.
(btw. a good vinyl pressing sounding better is not realy up to debate anymore...)
It says, "current CD release quality vs the original releases". To me, he's wanting to know about cd's. But yes, s'pose it's open to interpretation! Maybe he should change the title.
As far as I'm concerned, the 1993/4 releases on cd are the best as they seem like straight transfers with minimal tampering to the original albums' sound.
The 2001 masterings went too far and I blame the use of Justin Shirley Smith. He radically changed the sound of the tracks and I don't understand why they don't employ a proper mastering engineer for the job. My brother said something that makes sense to me. They stick with the people they know and feel comfortable with. Not a great idea in this case.
On a side note, some peeps asked me to review a couple of the releases on here, so maybe search for that. I was very in-depth with my review.
Adam.
P.s. I'd probably agree about the vinyl ones sounding better. Wish I could get hold of them all in good nick.
Adam Baboolal wrote: It says, "current CD release quality vs the original releases". To me, he's wanting to know about cd's. But yes, s'pose it's open to interpretation! Maybe he should change the title.
As far as I'm concerned, the 1993/4 releases on cd are the best as they seem like straight transfers with minimal tampering to the original albums' sound.
The 2001 masterings went too far and I blame the use of Justin Shirley Smith. He radically changed the sound of the tracks and I don't understand why they don't employ a proper mastering engineer for the job. My brother said something that makes sense to me. They stick with the people they know and feel comfortable with. Not a great idea in this case.
On a side note, some peeps asked me to review a couple of the releases on here, so maybe search for that. I was very in-depth with my review.
Adam.
P.s. I'd probably agree about the vinyl ones sounding better. Wish I could get hold of them all in good nick.
Yes, the first batch of cd's WAS indeed a direct transfer of the original mixes. Though the sound of those cd's is (now) below standard and are full of mistakes. (Chapters cut at wrong place, intro's and outro's falling off because of weird fades etc...)
They sound a bit flat and don't make all the details audiable.
Still, I also prefer some of those versions to the latter remasters as I agree that a lot of those releases wen't too far in altering the mix and changing the character of the album that we were used to after listening to them on vinyl for years.
