Love It To Death - 40th Anniversary

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DIMMA
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Re: Love It To Death - 40th Anniversary

Post by DIMMA » Sun Jul 03, 2011 4:00 pm

pitkin88 wrote:
"You are forgeting the first two albums though I doubt there's much that can be done to make these any better."

Yes. Although I like both albums (EASY ACTON especially), I don´t think that Steve Hoffman´s remasters would make all that much difference to the Rhino remasters in terms of clarity and sound.
I could be wrong though in the case of EASY ACTION.

The problem with PRETTIES FOR YOU is not so much the mastering as the fact that it was just poorly recorded, with very little or no separation between the instruments, as Dennis explains on the OLD SCHOOL documentary DVD.

However, if Steve Hoffman were to remaster those first two albums as well, I would definitely buy them.

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Re: Love It To Death - 40th Anniversary

Post by Gunner » Sun Jul 03, 2011 8:07 pm

I find that re-mastering offers minimal improvement really, again, I think it is often more of a marketing ploy than anything else.

'Ballad of Dwight Frye' would sound immense with a modern recording treatment in my opinion. I think it is often over nostlagic to give it the 'can't improve the original' thing, songs are played again and again and agian live...oooh but don't touch that studio version whatever you do!!!! To re-record doesn't 'disrespect' the original, it's just a snapshot in a different era, people are too sentimental about things like that I feel.

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Re: Love It To Death - 40th Anniversary

Post by RemarkablyInsincere » Sun Jul 03, 2011 9:16 pm

Gunner wrote:I find that re-mastering offers minimal improvement really, again, I think it is often more of a marketing ploy than anything else.
It's relative. Sometimes remastering offers an improvement, sometime not.
Gunner wrote: 'Ballad of Dwight Frye' would sound immense with a modern recording treatment in my opinion. I think it is often over nostlagic to give it the 'can't improve the original' thing, songs are played again and again and agian live...oooh but don't touch that studio version whatever you do!!!! To re-record doesn't 'disrespect' the original, it's just a snapshot in a different era, people are too sentimental about things like that I feel.
First off, considering one of the key people involved in this album isn't even alive, I'd consider it a moot point and actually in bad taste to go re-record an entire album and release it with different players.

That said, I've yet to hear any re-recordings of iconic classic stuff that are really improvements. Sure, some may have better sound quality due to technological improvements, but they almost always miss the magic of the original performance.

I actually think a "remixing" might make more sense and be more what you're thinking of when you say 'modern treatment'. I've often heard big improvements in the resulting sound when engineers have gone back to the individual multitracks and mixed a new master with modern technology and a proper budget.

It's most worthwhile when the original master is deemed extremely subpar (which is not really the case with any of the AC albums). A few remix projects I'm aware of off the top of my head are Chicago's "Chicago II" album, the Megadeth catalog and The Doors catalog (40th anniversary mixes).

In regard to Megadeth, Dave Mustaine went back and remixed the entire Megadeth catalog a few years back. I think the earlier albums really benefit from it, the newer ones not so much. He also added some things that were mixed out originally in places, so in some ways they are different.

Keep in mind, even this is sacrilege to many. However, if they stay faithful to the original mix, it doesn't bother me as it's the original performances just sounding the best that they possibly can.
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Re: Love It To Death - 40th Anniversary

Post by Jason » Mon Jul 04, 2011 5:26 am

pitkin88 wrote:
DIMMA wrote:I hope that Audio Fidelity gets permission to do remasters of Billion Dollar Babies as well as Muscle Of Love on 24 karat Gold CDs.
Steve Hoffman´s remasters are excellent and it would be nice to complete the ACG collection.
You are forgeting the first two albums though I doubt there's much that can be done to make these any better.

Well a remastering would improve the sound, wouldn't it? Just like any other album. I do realize that, as DIMMA pointed out, that especially PFY would not benefit much from remastering. I've always liked the sound on EA. Neal Smith has said that he didn't like the sound because it was too dry sounding etc. I'd buy them if they were to remaster those first two albums. Of course, it'll never happen and I'm of a slim minority. And yes, like DIMMA, I hope Hoffman does B$B and MOL.
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Re: Love It To Death - 40th Anniversary

Post by RemarkablyInsincere » Mon Jul 04, 2011 2:55 pm

Jason wrote: Well a remastering would improve the sound, wouldn't it?
Not necessarily. First off, it depends how good the original mastering was. And second, it depends who's doing the remastering and the techniques they're employing. Many modern remasters actually sound worse than their original counterparts due to modern trends in mastering.
Jason wrote: Neal Smith has said that he didn't like the sound because it was too dry sounding etc.
A remaster would not change this all that much if at all. A "remix" as talked about above would be able to address this most likely, but that's unlikely to happen.

Tnhat said, I happen to like the Rhino "Easy Action" CD. It sounds very analog-y to me which I like.
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Re: Love It To Death - 40th Anniversary

Post by MonsterDog » Tue Jul 05, 2011 9:53 am

Thanks for the wallpaper, WYM.
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Re: Love It To Death - 40th Anniversary

Post by Toronto Bob » Tue Jul 05, 2011 12:30 pm

My dream 40th Anniversary LITD issue would include....

CD 1
Original album

CD 2
Demos of the LITD tracks + Fields of Regret
audio tracks from TV appearances (Tubeworks, Barry Richards)

CD 3
Complete live show from the tour including RotS, maybe the Roostertail show or the Nov 2 Cardin Theatre Paris or even an uncirculated show, if one exists

In a better Alice Cooper world this type of thing would be no problem

As far as the Steve Hoffman re-masters go, imo they are a waste of money. While I was glad he didn't brickwall, the benefits of these re-masters are still not self-evident to my ears. Even a super easy fix like a click heard on the WB cd on Black Juju (approximately 05:00:238) is still there on the SH edition (approximately 05:00:472). I couldn't compare with my vinyl because none of my copies are silent enough to detect a small artifact like that. Not that such a small detail ruins my listening experience, it just makes me wonder how much care and attention to detail was taken if I spotted such a thing with 1 listen. I won't bother going into detail about the audible hum on the SO tracks.

IMO, if you haven't taken the plunge on the re-masters, the cheap WB are a much better value (note: I said better value not better sounding). The SH discs sound marginally better to my ears - just not $30 better.

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Re: Love It To Death - 40th Anniversary

Post by RemarkablyInsincere » Tue Jul 05, 2011 2:00 pm

Toronto Bob wrote:Even a super easy fix like a click heard on the WB cd on Black Juju (approximately 05:00:238) is still there on the SH edition (approximately 05:00:472).
Steve keeps everything in the analog domain, so if there is a defect in the master, it's going to be on the CD. He'd have to copy it over to digital to fix issues like that and he prefers not to do that in order to keep the signal as pure as possible.
Toronto Bob wrote: IMO, if you haven't taken the plunge on the re-masters, the cheap WB are a much better value (note: I said better value not better sounding). The SH discs sound marginally better to my ears - just not $30 better.
I think your mileage will very. The better your equipment, the more you tend to appreciate Audio Fidelity remasters IMO.

That said, the original Warner Bros. discs are pretty decent except for the drop out in "Be My Lover" on the original KILLER which *is* fixed on the Hoffman disc.
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Re: Love It To Death - 40th Anniversary

Post by Jason » Tue Jul 05, 2011 9:30 pm

Toronto Bob wrote:My dream 40th Anniversary LITD issue would include....

CD 1
Original album

CD 2
Demos of the LITD tracks + Fields of Regret
audio tracks from TV appearances (Tubeworks, Barry Richards)

CD 3
Complete live show from the tour including RotS, maybe the Roostertail show or the Nov 2 Cardin Theatre Paris or even an uncirculated show, if one exists

In a better Alice Cooper world this type of thing would be no problem

That'd be a wicked set! I wish......
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