Usually a renmastering job just consists of taking the old masters, and - for all intents and purposes - cranking the overall volume a bit. Maybe raising the treble a hair and boosting the bass. Essentially, it's just a repackage job to get you to buy the damn thing,

But occasionally there are releases that come out remastered that take old songs and really shed some new light on music that you already know backwards and forwards.

I'm listening to
Rolling Stones - Forty Licks
right now and, DAMN if this doesn't sound so much better than anything I've ever heard! Even "Satisfaction" sounds fresh and new again. And that's saying something, as often as we've all heard it.

Another series that sounds pretty damn good are the Brinsley Schwarz remasters; although I cannot say that I've ever heard the original versions for comparison. The ones I have are just damn good-sounding CDs.

Anything that you've heard remastered that really does make it worth it to pick up the new package? Or at least to give some creedence fot the whole practive of remastering?

But the Stones... wow.

I wasn't crazy about the remastering on those Beatles Capitol Albums box sets. Maybe I'm just wrong, but I thought the remastering of "Yellow Submarine" was amazing. Just to A-B-C the original '87 CDs to the '99 reissue to some of the tracks that are duplicated from the ones released on the Capitol Albums sets...it's pretty clear that the '99 remaster is the best. I sincerely hope that the upcoming remasters follow the lead of Yellow Submarine.

Those '87 Beatles CD's are just horrible though. It says a lot when thne vinyl needle drop tapes of the LP's sound ten times better than the 'remastered' CD's did

Right. The new remasters don't sound much different than the '87 editions. Especially in Volume 1 of The Capitol Albums.

The Van Halen remasters from a few years back sound light years better than the original CD's.

The remaster of DRI's Dirty Rotten LP (as Dirty Rotten CD) is pretty tight. There might have been some remixing going on there too.

What is a drop tape?

the bob dylan sacd discs

talking heads brick

Good call.

for the metal heads out there....

the re-masters of the early Queensryche records were a wonderful wonderful thing. 'The Warning' was unlistenable, but now back in my rotation!

They reissued a bunch of Can records a few years ago, right? Without having heard them, I'll vote in that direction because the original version of "Tago Mago" that I picked up last year sounds like aaaaaaaaasssss.

Yeah, the Can remasters are some of the biggest improvements I've ever heard via remastering. They're especially impressive when you consider that their early albums were recorded directly to 2-track stereo.

Agree that the Bob Dylan and Talking Heads ones sound great. The This Heat ones from last year are big improvements, too.