You bet your bellybutton; I have things to say about this!
...Yeah; CDs are different than pretty much anything analog... They need to be mixed differently to achieve a good result. Heh, hmm... Here's a good example of a remix gone BAD:
Miles Davis - in my opinion, one of the greatest Jazz musicians in history - created, back in 1969 - IMMEDIATELY after Woodstock, nonetheless - an album called "B****es Brew," with the help of his producer, Teo Macero. (Man, the record is a thing unto itself, but that's another story.) Anyway... Teo really knew what he was doing with the editing, and the mixing; all was well. Then, one day at CBS, Teo got introduced to CDs. He said that CDs are too "light;" they need to be mixed right... Well, he was right - YHWH rest his weary soul, and Miles too, boy... (Gawd, ya know, I wish I could have met them...
) Anyway, back to "B****es Brew," and CD mixing... In 1994, Teo finally mixed "B****es Brew" for CD - this was a couple years after Miles had died - but, he said, in an interview - an interview that I find HIGHLY enlightening; I will post it in a minute because Teo makes a lot of good points that are my almost exact thoughts - that, the producers nowadays, they think it all makes it okay, from analog to digital, but, it doesn't... It needs to be mixed right. So, Teo mixed "B****es Brew" the way he would mix anything from analog to digital - he treated it like the old analog record, saying things like, at two minutes in, we have to add a little more bass here, then maybe some more later... It just wouldn't sound right otherwise. (I personally don't have quite the ears for this thing, unfortunately - or the equipment.) Anyway, it's the Columbia Jazz Masterpieces edition; it sounds really good, like you're listening to the analog record! It has some nice, soft bass; you could even crank it - sometimes you have to because of the quiet basslines - and you won't get your eardrums blown out! It's actually SOFT... A soft bass... Anyway, 1998 rolls around, and Sony decides to remaster - Yah forbid - the album, and "recreate" it, at that! Oh, because the master was worn out... Just copy it, you idiots! Anyway, they remaster "B****es Brew," and oh my god! It sounds horrible! Not only that, but, they create it on a boxset, a misnomer set called "The Complete B****es Brew Sessions;" four discs... Then, one year later, they take those remastered tracks, and remaster "B****es Brew" by itself... Oh god, it sounds... Tinny! It's too "open," also; there's too much distinction between the basslines - yes, multiple basslines - the horn echo starts out faster and stronger, but fades just as quick...! There's even a section they missed! :angry: In "Pharaoh's Dance," the opening track - about 20 minutes in length - there's a trumpet phrase that Miles plays, at about eight and a half minutes in. On the original - and the Teo Macero-approved CD version (CJM edition) - there is a, umm... Reverb effect? The phrase itself is looped OVER the first instance of itself, and made a little bit louder/"foregrounded" - oh god, it's beautiful - they lost that in the remix! :angry: :angry: Also, they added a "bonus track," "Feio," to the end...! Now understand me, I don't mind the concept of hearing something from Miles that we would otherwise never hear, but, I DO mind it when it's re-released onto a remastered album; in this case, it's even WORSE because the whole thing is tampered with! However, Miles Davis wouldn't have ever agreed to its release - especially on a complete album - nor would he agree with the methods that Bob Belden and Michael Cuscuna used to "remaster" his music. And neither does - did - Teo... You know, it's sad? But, when a record company decides to remaster ("destroy") a record, you know what happens to the good version? BOOM! It goes bye-bye. And guess what? You can't find that version hardly ANYWHERE, anymore! There IS a copy of it, in lossless FLAC format, online, but, ehh... The methods to obtain it are, um... Yeah - less than "honorable." But then again, there isn't any "honor" in what Bob Belden and Michael Cuscuna did to "B****es Brew," or "Kind of Blue," or "Big Fun," or ANY other record that Miles did - or anyone else did - for that matter... So, am I playing with a double-edged sword by admitting this to you guys? You bet your bottom dollar I am!! -_- <_< :angry: :angry:
...Tell you guys what, I'll link you to a page on my site, that will link to the Teo interview, and also, a behind-the-scenes look, sort of, article, at how that particular boxset ("The Complete B****es Brew Sessions") was made. (I'm doing it this way, because, one of the links has "b****es" uncensored as part of it, and I don't want to post it directly on here, for censorship reasons. Even though I don't think Miles meant for the album name to be derogatory...
) Oh, by the way, there's more to that set than the "B****es Brew sessions," too... Their criteria for determining what was a "B****es Brew session track," and what wasn't, was that, in March 1970, Miles Davis switched from using two Fender Rhodes pianos, to just one, and a very heavy guitar-based sound, for the session for the album, "A Tribute to Jack Johnson." (March 1970?! What a joke! The actual "B****es Brew sessions" were culled from merely three days of playing!) Well, you wanna know WHY that happened? He had no choice! Chick Corea actually wore them out! He had to "steal" the third Fender Rhodes from Teo! ...Not a very good definition, is it?! ...You know WHY they didn't just pull all the outtakes from the original "B****es Brew" master, and only those, for this boxset? (It probably wouldn't have "worked" for a boxset anyway, for the following reason...) Because, Teo KNEW about mistakes in a record, and he couldn't stand 'em! So, SOME of those outtakes actually got CUT right out of the master... (I can at least, LISTEN to outtakes, but I don't really like them...) And, the reason why Miles didn't want these other "bonus" tracks released - not just the extra "B****es Brew" tracks, but all the misnomer stuff as well - is because he felt they were inferior! That they would kill a complete record - and he was right!
...Anyway guys, here's the link... I gotta go eat dinner. The Teo interview is a very thought-provoking read!:
http://www.geocities.com/anewonline/lwsfr.htmlOh yeah, and, you may want to read my new signature as well... Heh...
