Joni Mitchell remasters on the way

@dpop Thanks for your reply. 

In the meantime, I've just gone an compared about a dozen tracks with the Joni remaster. Instruments sound fuller and more natural, dynamic range sounds expanded, and soundstage is larger and more articulate. The live album sounds less muddy.

What are others hearing? Do you hear more compression and limiting (as dpop says happens, usually) or do you hear something else? Curious to compare what I heard last night with your reactions.

My experience with Steven Wilson mixes of Jethro Tull -- wow! not compressed and limited at all. 

In my experience, remastering is not always a bad thing -- though it often is a way to put old wine in new bottles.

This is a great Box Set on CD for those interested.

 

Happy Listening!

@hilde45 Even though I have all of the original vinyl pressings of the Joni Mitchell releases we're discussing, I rarely ever play them, I won't even reference those, as I personally believe vinyl reproduction has its disadvantages compared to digital (even though digital of course has its disadvantages too). Let me pull a quote from another well known mixing and mastering engineer - Kevin Gray. "I think a lot of what people like about a phonograph record are artifacts. Audiophiles don't want to hear that, but it's just a fact. I deal with digital and analog all day long, and I know what happens in the transfer to analog."

For our discussion, I'm only referencing the original Asylum CDs. Of course audio is very subjective, and depends on the equipment it is being recorded on, played on and the ears and brain that is hearing it. Let's take for example the Miles of Aisles release. I just pulled it out, and played a good portion of it to refresh my memory. I can easily see why you would think this original release sounds muddy. Not everything has to be bright (bright - a term we use in the broadcasting industry to reference lots of high frequencies). Now from my perspective, I respect the mix and mastering of this original CD release. Lots of dynamic range, and yes, at times, high frequencies may seem subdued, but that was the norm at the time, and I can respect that, and enjoy it. I still respect the engineers (and probably artist) who wanted it that way in the first place. Others may not. I personally don't need a remaster...of anything. In respect to pumped up compressing and limiting, not only can I hear that on remasters, but I can easily visually see that with my metering. 

Kevin Gray - Stereophile interview

 

I have the full set of Joni's remastered HDCD titles (including Court & Spark and Hissing) and they sound very good. It will be interesting to compare the new versions on Qobuz with the HDCD versions.

Thanks for the tip, hilde45.

This is a very interesting discussion to me.

• It’s Joni Mitchell.
• The original CDs vary in mastering quality.
• The remasters supposedly have (sorta) high dynamic range.
• I have not had good luck with Rhino remasters in the past, generally because they had poor DR.
• Over a long career, Bernie Grundman has done some great stuff, and some over-compressed dreck.
• As pointed out above, brightness is often mistaken for accuracy, and it’s not easy to sort out. I bought a set of Elton John SHM-CD’s (brighter) a couple of years ago and sold the MFSL versions of the same titles (less bright, maybe a little dull in some cases), and I still wonder whether it was a mistake.

Some examples of the DR of Joni Mitchell on older CD's:

Song to a Seagull (Reprise, 1992) DR12

Clouds (Reprise, 1987) DR9

Ladies of the Canyon (Reprise, 1997) DR10

Blue (DCC, 1995) DR11

For the Roses (Asylum, 1990) DR11

Court and Spark (DCC, 1992) DR12

Hissing of Summer Lawns (Asylum, 1990) DR12

Hejira (Asylum, 1990) DR13

Don Juan's Reckless Daughter (Asylum, 1990) DR14

Mingus (Asylum, 1999) DR13

Wild Things Run Fast (Geffen, 1994) DR12

Dog Eat Dog (Geffen, 1985) DR13

Chalk Mark in a Rain Storm (Geffen, 1988) DR13

Night Ride Home (Geffen, 1991) DR12

Turbulent Indigo (Reprise, 1994) DR12

Taming the Tiger (Reprise, 1998) DR9

Both Sides Now (Reprise, 2000) DR10

Travelogue (Nonesuch, 2002) DR8

Shine (Hearmusic, 2007) DR8