Remaster decision

[Stephen Swann]

HERBERT119 at DELPHI.COM writes:
>
> On 29-APR-1996 11:23:58.0 BOC-L said to HERBERT119
>    >These new remasters break that rule.  Take _Doremi_ for instance - if I
>    >didn't know Hawkwind - if someone just played the new EMI remaster for
>    >me, I would think that Hawkwind was some retro psychedelic Monster
>    >Magnet type band, and I was listening to their new album, recorded in
>    >1996.  The guitars are so intense that they'll burn holes in your
>    >ears.  The hiss is *gone*, despite the fact that the treble has been
>    >*increased*.  The whole album used to sound like it was recorded
>    >through microphones wrapped in wet felt.  Now it sounds like it was
>    >recorded in a modern digital studio.  You've probably heard what Mobile
>    >Fidelity Sound Labs can make old vinyl-age recordings sound like.
>    >These new EMI releases sound *better*.
>
> I haven't even heard these remasters yet, so I'm not really judging them,
> but with the sound being so drastically different from the originals,
> doesn't
> it bother anyone?

In a word, no.

>I mean, sure the production of Doremi from a techincal
> standpoint was atrocious, but that's just the way it was, it's still a
> classic album, partly BECAUSE of the raw production,
> and I feel like
> I'd be uncomfortable if it actually had a more modern sound/production. How
> much can an album be messed with, with it still being the same album?

It's not like the music is any different, it's just that you can hear
it now.  I'm sorry for any "muffled sound" nostalgia that people might
feel for it, but really, I don't want to go back.  :)

By the way, I was wrong when I said the hiss was *gone*.  On some of
the quieter passages in _In Search of Space_ (like the intro to _Master
of the Universe_, if you listen on a good pair of headphones, Mr. Hiss
is still there.  Or at least his empty cloak is still hanging there,
flapping ineffectually before the rising storm of MotU.  ;-)

Steve