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Flood of Good Classic Rock Remasters

I have been very impressed recently with the latest releases of remastered rock classics. In the mid 90s Bob Ludwig pointed the way with his excellent remasters of the Virgin catalog for the Rolling Stones and more recently his
Tom Petty 2 CD Anthology continues his high standards.

Judas Priest has just started releasing remasters of their classic 70/80 Cds. Only a couple are now out but I tried
"British Steel" and was blown away. Selling at super saver
price level with extra bonus tracks this great stuff, bass and drums have emerged from the murk providing great kick and drive, detail has been enhanced noticeably without the usual grainy/hard treble some remasters produce. Little known is that the "metal works" anthology from early 90s
had remastered tracks which improved upon originals, but not as good as current remasters, rock lovers don't hesitate
to grab these!

Black Sabbath has started to release remasters of 60/70s Cds, but they are full price and contain no bonus tracks,
what a rip! So I went ahead and got "masters of reality"
which now has cardboard sleeve, and it is a successful remaster with drums and Tony Iommi's massive sonic slabs of riffing coming into clearer light. I probably won't get 1st
two CD remastered versions because existing Cds sound OK,
and I'm not paying full price for 30yr old music!

Kiss "double platinum" has new "album replica" cardboard sleeve remastered CD. CD folds out with embossed reliefs
of band members, kewl! Sound is successful about 75% of the time, many of these had murky masters with thin treble, and although the remasters clean up drum and bass, some tracks the vocals and cymbals now have treble glare/hardness, a double edge sword but on the whole worth buying.

Just ordered today Cheap Trick remasters, 1st three albums in box set with bonus tracks on all Cds at super saver price. will have to report later.

Any comments?
128x128megasam
megasam's avatar
megasam OP
798 posts
 
Nelsjay agree with you about Moody remasters, I got remastered "Question of Balance" CD and sound is great considering the age.

Just found out Tom Petty's Dam the Torpedoes & Hard Promises
CDs were remastered 3/01 so ordered them as these are 2 great CDs. Unfortunately I am rebuying CDs I already own,
but many remasters including these are super saver price
and usually do noticeably improve sound over old CD. I minimize the cost by selling old CD, although once a remastered version has been released the used value of old
version CD drops alot.
megasam's avatar
megasam OP
798 posts
 
Just listened to new 3/01 Tom Petty remasters, Dam the Torpedos/Hard Promises and they are 100% sucessful. These
are remastered by Joe Gastwirt, same guy who did great job on Tom Petty's 2 CD Anthology. The hardness/grain present in Tom's high pitched voice has been removed and treble in general is much cleaner/smoother, and percussion has tremendous kick and drive now, these really rock! Joe Gastwirt and Bob Ludwig among others are really doing great work with these rock classics.

These are super saver priced, no bonus tracks but enhanced
graphics with complete lyrics in liner notes. Keep the remasters coming......
bob_bundus
1,834 posts
 
Mega thanks for your rec's these are great & I would like to get most of them for our collection too. Now a dumb question: what are these super saver releases that you're referring to & where can I order them? thanks...
megasam's avatar
megasam OP
798 posts
 
Bob, "super saver" just refers to lower price level and is a fancy name record companies invented to you you think you are getting great deal, usually they put sticker on CD that
says super saver or nice price.

You can get these anywhere that sells CDs, I use www.cdconnection.com mainly because the prices are good and
shipping is very cheap or free if you buy more than $100.
Remastered Dam the Torpedos is selling for $9.86 and Hard Promises for $8.88
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