Zappa.com

First off, I'm not an audiophile, so it's difficult for me to express myself technically. I bought BTHW from iTunes because I wanted to see if there was any noticeable difference between a given 2012 digital master and its Ryko cd counterpart, even after reading that the digital masters should be identical to the 1995 Rykos.

I've probably listened to BTHW dozens of times, so I'm pretty familiar with it. The 2012 sounds somewhat cleaner and fuller to my untrained ears.

My question is this: Am I just imagining this, or are there actually improvements to the new digital masters? I'm curious to hear from someone who's given a new digital master a listen. As much as I wanted to just stick w/ the 2012 analog masters, BTHW is making me re-think this.

I never liked the mixes of the '88 material. The unnatural spreaded horn section, the way to loud bass guitar, the shitty drum sound, etc. There is some "eightiesness" to the performances and recordings that makes those albums almost unlistenable for me now. The material needs a remix instead of just a remastering.

Th.

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Active forum member since 2005 - R E T I R E D from this forum in 2013

Wait a minute, I've got it, there's no hiss on the master -- a major drawback a lot of FZ's recordings suffered from during the late 80s, thereby rendering his late output virtually unlistenable compared to 1/2 inch 4-track.

The problem is not hiss or no hiss. The problem is, FZ ruined most of his CD reissues of the analog masters when he was trying to get rid of the hiss with useless attempts of noise reduction and reverb orgies.

I mean, listen to the hacked up piano intro of LHIUTLI on BWS with its fluttering noise level on the old version vs. the new version.

Not to mention Chunga's Revenge or Zoot Allures.

Th.

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Active forum member since 2005 - R E T I R E D from this forum in 2013

Hehe, I knew you'd be willing to kill me for that one, Th., and I couldn't resist. Nice fretlessness on your avatar, BTW, congrats.

I know I'm in the minority, but I think the digital masters sound better on the 2012 discs too. I get that they are the exact same mix. Digital transferring technology has certainly improved though, maybe that's the difference? We're getting a better sounding digital master compared to what came out 15 odd years ago due to the technology in transferring and manufacturing being better?

I don't know, maybe my spending $10 on the new discs has improved my hearing...

A simple 1:1 digital transfer without any additional tweezage producing any sonic differences would be an astonishing miracle.



That would be a possible explaination. And suddenly with this reissues people are listening very concentrated again to music they haven't heard for years.

Th.

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Active forum member since 2005 - R E T I R E D from this forum in 2013

All I can say is: PHEW!
Thanks for the expert opinion.