Remastering someone else's music?

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Guitarer

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I've got some old albums that I feel need to remastered, and I'd like to give it a go myself, since I don't think it'll be happening any time soon. This would be just for me, obviously, I don't plan on selling it or anything.

I was wondering if it's possible to get a hold of the individual tracks or the original project files to do so.

What would be the best way to go about doing this?

-Holden
 
I can sell any of the originals that you'd like ... thousand bucks a piece. Paypal. No refund.

PM me if you're interested!

:D

On a side note, I wonder how the credits would work on that. Would you be able to give yourself a Mastering credit? Hmmm.
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ignore chess
are you talking about professional albums from big time musicians? then forget about it. any record company will refuse to give them to you or charge you a crap load (thousands and thousands of dollars).

And if they are actually albums (vinyl)...they won't be session files. They'll be on tape most likely. So you'll need to get a 2" tape deck to play them back. And good luck finding one of those cheap.
 
Remixing or remastering?

You can just go buy the CD, load up the WAV files and mess with them. Don't bother with the MP3s...

Some bands like NIN (I think) have some entire project files you can download. But the majority won't.
 
bennychico11 said:
ignore chess
are you talking about professional albums from big time musicians? then forget about it.
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Ignore Benny. He doesn't know what he's talking about.

There's a huge push at the big record companies to release the original pre-masters to random, anonymous 16-year old kids who want to get their feet wet in the field of mastering.


.
 
danny.guitar said:
Some bands like NIN (I think) have some entire project files you can download. But the majority won't.
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That's exactly what I was thinking. Trent Reznor puts his project files on his website to allow people to remix.

I've heard of programs that will divide tracks by frequency, any info on that?
 
Guitarer said:
That's exactly what I was thinking. Trent Reznor puts his project files on his website to allow people to remix.

I've heard of programs that will divide tracks by frequency, any info on that?
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as far as I know NIN only offered one track to do that. And it was for a remix competition.

There is no program that can divide tracks by frequency. Think of it. A piano and guitar can share the same frequencies. How is it going to divide that? Mixing an album is like mixing a cake. Once you bake the cake you can't pull the sugar out.
 
danny.guitar said:
You can just go buy the CD, load up the WAV files and mess with them.
Click to expand...
Seriously, there are too many CD's where the sound is totaly wrecked in the mastering process, unfortunately. Comon malpractice like excessive compression or clipped samples.
Infamous examples include Red Hot Chili Pepper's "Californication" which is excessively overdriven and thus clipped, ie. RMS = -5 dBFS sine. The album "By The Way" is slightly softer, about -7 dBFS RMS sine, though multiband compressor on this sounds even more evil than the worse radio stations. (btw. my signature explains this issue with a demo!)

I did several remasters myself, also private use only. The sources vary.

If you're lucky, you can get hands on a good studio bootleg. For example, there is one around from that "Californication" album, not excellent, but much better a source than a ripped CD nevertheless.
Here is an example of it: http://www.abmischung.de/mixdemo_RHCP_-_Around_The_World.ogg
Another remix from a studio bootleg in Dolby Prologic: http://www.abmischung.de/mixdemo_Kraftwerk_-_Autobahn.ogg

Also 5.1 surround DVD tracks can be a good source for a CD remix/remaster. A comparative example, first you hear a regular downmix, after that the remixed and remastered version: http://www.abmischung.de/dregs.ogg
And yet another example from a DVD source: http://www.abmischung.de/mixdemo_Rosenstolz_-_Eine_Frage_des_Lichts.ogg

Sometimes, the vinyl record got a way better mastering than the CD version, thus restoring from vinyl can be worth the effort.
Also here I have an example: http://www.abmischung.de/mixdemo_RHCP_-_Dani_California.ogg

And eventhough ripped CD tracks are usually a cosiderably bad source like I said, there are exceptions to this, ie. the ABBA gold seems to be sampled directly from the master tape including all dropouts etc. Absolutely no restauration, compression, EQ'ing, no anything seems to be done to it, yet it is still the best version of the ABBA hits around. It was a great source for a remastered. Here is an example: http://www.abmischung.de/mixdemo_ABBA_-_Super_Trouper.ogg

Also note that all my examples have a total RMS of -14 dBFS sine, which works quite well with most genres.
 
Thanks for the info Logic :D

I actually had Californication in mind the other day...I was listening to it, and I'm thinking to myself, "Stadium Arcadium is done so perfectly, everything is clear and the snare is sharp...", I haven't listened to Californication is ages, probably not much since it came out, but the way it was mastered just seems unbearable to me now.

The main thing I really want to remaster is Piece of Mind from Iron Maiden. I really want the sound to have a shine to it, the way it is I feel like the sound is trapped.
 
Guitarer said:
and I'm thinking to myself, "Stadium Arcadium is done so perfectly
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My version or the original CD? Eventhough, it is considerably better than "Californication", it is still somewhat overdriven (not quite that worse, though). The main differences are the mic'ing and mixing technics between those albums. While they played a lot with effects in "Stadium Arcadium" (yet they managed to give each individual instrument its place) they just did "garage sound" on "Californication". Except for "Easily" (which has bad comb issues) the remastering worked out quite well.

Also on topic, Red Hot Chili Pepper's "By The Way" badly needs a remaster. Unlike the other albums, this CD is totaly multiband compressor wrecked. I have studio bootlegs of some of the tracks, though they are missing some instruments rendering them rather worthless.

Btw. just in case you have missed this: Red Hot Chili Pepper fans should sign the remastering petition: http://www.petitiononline.com/RHCPWBCD/petition.html
 
You can just go buy the CD, load up the WAV files and mess with them.
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that isn't going to work....applying mastering processes to already mastered tracks is probably only going to make things sounds shittier, especially if you want to correct issues with over-compression.

and if you want to master a maiden album, take a crack at the latest one - my understanding is that there was NO 2-buss processing done after the tracks were mixed, making it one of the few commercial releases that anyone could "master" without access to the original mixdowns
 
Just ignore me, I don't know what I'm talking about :D
 
LogicDeLuxe said:
My version or the original CD? Eventhough, it is considerably better than "Californication", it is still somewhat overdriven (not quite that worse, though). The main differences are the mic'ing and mixing technics between those albums. While they played a lot with effects in "Stadium Arcadium" (yet they managed to give each individual instrument its place) they just did "garage sound" on "Californication". Except for "Easily" (which has bad comb issues) the remastering worked out quite well.

Also on topic, Red Hot Chili Pepper's "By The Way" badly needs a remaster. Unlike the other albums, this CD is totaly multiband compressor wrecked. I have studio bootlegs of some of the tracks, though they are missing some instruments rendering them rather worthless.

Btw. just in case you have missed this: Red Hot Chili Pepper fans should sign the remastering petition: http://www.petitiononline.com/RHCPWBCD/petition.html
Click to expand...

Red Hot Chili Peppers is my favorite band, and I'd be the first to defend anything they do, but I honestly thought By The Way was lacking in the writing compartment. Some songs on it are decent at best.

Anyway, back on topic, I'm in love the way Stadium Arcadium was done (The original CD)...It seems flawless to me. There are some bands that I listen to and just think, "what the hell was this producer thinking?" you can't hear the vocals well, guitars don't stand out, bass is virtually nonexistent, etc.. With Stadium Arcadium I hear everything the way I should, and every instrument sounds great in it's own right as well as in harmony with the others.
 
To me, Blood Sugar Sex Magic stands as a shining example of exceptional production ... for an exceptional rock record.

Everything else they've done ranges from horrendous to "pretty good."

.
 
chessrock said:
To me, Blood Sugar Sex Magic stands as a shining example of exceptional production ... for an exceptional rock record.
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For the music, it's certainly a matter of taste. For the mixing and mastering, that album is an excelent example of good mastering for sure, no clipping and no excessive compression, just perfect clean sound. That's what CD's are made for. I wish, all Red Hot Chili Pepper albums were done that skilled.
Same thing goes for many other bands. The best mastered CD's are usually made in the late 80th and early 90th.
 
There's no room left to do anything on modern records, so if you want to experiment with commercial releases, your best bet is to work on older stuff, pre-loudness wars, and not re-mastered.
 
chessrock said:
To me, Blood Sugar Sex Magic stands as a shining example of exceptional production ... for an exceptional rock record.

Everything else they've done ranges from horrendous to "pretty good."

.
Click to expand...

Pretty weird too, 'cause since Blood Sugar Sex Magik it's all been produced by Rick Rubin. You'd think he'd be able to stand up to his own work.
 
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