Schmoelling in wonderland wrote:Hi Flashpoint,
How do you know that the 1995 remaster of THIEF is "not made from the Masters of Safety but at least was a somewhat low gen tape" ?.
How can Virgin can do a remaster from a low source ?
Most of the time, when a real remaster is done, it's done with the Master (as you call the Master of Safety) ?
Also, do you mean that the original THIEF cd sound better than the 1995 remaster ?
Thanks for the infos !
Masters of Safety - spelling error it is supposed to be Master
OR Safety tapes. You are correct most of the time it is done with those tapes. But the recent Estoeric and Perseverance remasters were made from old high gen analog tapes. Apparently they do not have even have 1610 digital dubs made from the masters in the 80's ?? So Thief for example was made from a High Gen tapes that sufferer from damage/decay due to time. The bad results of Perseverance's finished Thief CD prove that.
How do you know that the 1995 remaster of THIEF is "not made from the Masters or Safety but at least was a somewhat low gen tape" ?.
The sound tells me. It has some tape based replicative frequency loss that was not present in the older CD versions and then they crudely tried (and failed) to cover up the the distant and hissy high gen sound with dynamic multi-band compression and noise reduction. Although I guess it's possible that the needles Noise Reduction they applied maked it sound like different tapes were in use? True professionals in the industry have not used noise reduction in 20 years as no matter how carefully it's done it always removes high ends frequencies + music and leaves behind digital sound artifacts.
How can Virgin can do a remaster from a low source ?
They probably have 1610 copies from their 1980's CD efforts. Virgin owns those copies. They have no obligation or financial gain in loaning them to other labels like Esoteric and Perseverance.
Therefore Mr. Froese would be the only source for better tapes, in his case the original masters, to labels like Esoteric and Perseverance and he has stated he does not let anyone use his masters. I am sure there are also many legal machinations at work as well but rather than speculate we can tell as fact from the overall bad sounding post-Virgin results that inferior high gen tapes are being used. Which is probably why these labels put so much effort into the linear notes. As for me personally I care only about the sound and not a few pages of "pretty" words on paper that I can read on the web anyhow.
Also, do you mean that the original THIEF CD sound better than the 1995 remaster ?
That of course is my opinion. I think the 1995 is much better sounding than the new Perseverance for example. But the original CD sounds close the Vinyl. The 1995 has a lowered roof due to the possible use of noise reduction. The original has a spacious wide sound real life sound which as I said is close to the vinyl and the 1995 Definitive and especially the more recent remasters are artificial and very cold.
My opinion for those who want a good sounding Thief is, if not too late, use your money on the original CD or the vinyl. In fact even the 1995 Virgin Definitive Edition is a much better purchase choice than this newest remaster which likely was transferred from damaged high gen tapes as it has those types of audible defects.