That wouldn’t be a mastering issue though
No?
I’m not an expert,
What is it then?
I feel like every album, every song from my youth is being ‘fixed.’
Mastering is the final stage of the process once all the songs have been mixed down and brought together. It’s generally involves pretty minimal processing tonal and dynamic adjustments to make the songs match one another and wouldn’t involve changes to any of the individual components of the songs. Any changes to the song would be during the mixing phase. Theoretically in this case re-editing the part or using a different take.
What examples of songs being fixed are there?
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You’ve put me on the spot now.
The only real example I can think of that I’ve listened to lately is the live version of ‘Say Goodbye To Hollywood’ from Billy Joel’s Greatest hits.
It’s all wrong.
It’s the same song, but on the original he hits this weird low vibrato note at the end of the line, and it’s…just been replaced.
I guess it’s possible they changed the track, he must have recorded a lot of live versions of that song.
But other songs, it’s little things. Like I remember the bass being right up front on a track, and I hear it now and it’s…just nice.
And every time that happens, I check and it says ‘Remastered.’
And I try to find the original release.
Remastered would refer to dynamics of the overall recording, but sometimes artists will go back in and re-record or edit parts without mentioning it - under the banner of remastering.
George Lucas style
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Here’s a fun fact. About 20% of all Australian releases are mastered on a desk that came from Abbey Road Studios when the Beatles recorded there.
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I just got a copy of the Abbey Road studio book - re. the entire history going back to the 20’s. Fantastic book.
Mainly because EMI used to own that mastering studio/desk (and Abbey Road of course)
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What format is the original on?
Most original recordings were done on magnetic tape (and a lot still are today). It was the process of going from the original master tapes to vinyl where a lot of changes occurred. As you can imagine depending on the quality of any of the process it could ‘add’ bits in that were never there in the original. As most of the processes are now digital when you ‘rip’ the song off the tape again you get a more original and cleaner version. On top of this the mixer will be using better equipment and speakers and depending on who is remixing it have different ears (so remixes to their own taste as opposed to remixing to sound like the original). If they have separate tracks for all the instruments (so on a drum kit you’d have a mic for the kick, snare, toms, symbols and probably a stereo pair on top to cover it all) they can process them further with modern EQ and compression. As a comparison, the Beatles only had 4 track tape available. So once they were happy with the four, they merged them all into one track so they can use the 3 spare tracks to record more stuff. So in this case their stuff can’t be fiddled with as much as someone using modern 24 / 48 track tape or digital recordings. Once it’s merged, you can’t demerge.
Hope that helps 
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Even to this day we are stuck with hand me downs. I’m pretty sure we still only have one SSL and two Neve desks in Australia for pure music purposes.
They’re not hand me downs, they’re vintage
There used to be a lot more of them but there’s not as much money in recording studios as there once was
Yeah, the sort of thing you are referring to wim, would be under the heading “Remixed” strictly speaking, … but, when you see the “Remastered” tag today, what that means 99% of the time is, “Digitally” Remastered, which is the process of getting all the original “Master” tapes from the recording session, and digitising them into a 'puter, so someone can fk about with them in Pro Tools and other weird and wonderful DAW’s & assorted plug ins.
This means they can do far more than just “Master” the tracks, they can edit, add overdubs, doubling etc etc et fkn cetera, and if there’s something the artist was originally unhappy with, (back past a decade ago, the vast majority of talent had virtually zero creative control or sway over the final released product), they can change it to what they always wanted it to be, … or in other cases, it can just be the new distributors, or record company, or just the guy at the desk himself who institutes the changes.
Most of the time, it’s for the better, and, as in a “directors cut”, of a film, if the change is initiated by the actual artist one could (should?) defer that it IS always better, if that’s the way he/she/they wanted in the 1st place, but sometimes it’s for the worse, and is instead someone with no real authority, let alone taste, instituting the change just coz . reasons.
Having said all that, I can’t think OTTOMH of anything like that, that I’ve noticed, except, (& I wonder if this might be the reason for your T Heads gap time issue), everything digital will always be in true time, whereas, some stuff I used to play on LP or Cassette, was subject to the foibles of the turntable/deck of it’s day, and I often find I prefer it with the old tape hiss, or dirty head provided lo-fi, …or the speed it played at due to a slipping/loose belt.
If you first heard (& endlessly played) SMSense as vinyl or tape, … maybe???
Little Creatures. 
And I know what you’re saying, but no.
I remember a significantly larger pause between ‘and we’re not little children…and we know…what we want’ than the rest of the piece.
It’s not tape speed.
It may be me goin silly.
lol.
Actually meant “Road to Nowhere”, but the THeads post in the SYHHIY’s thread yesterday sent me to watch SMSense dvd last night. Fk they were good.
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Whats the Great Australian Dream exactly?
■■■■-farting around and doing nothin while watching footy and getting ■■■■■■.
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My son in Guatemala has asked me how come Essendon played at Princess Park (against Adelaide) in Mark Harvey’s last game.?
I have no idea, thought someone here would know why
Princess Diana was killed and they closed the MCG out of respect.
Or… PP was used regularly for lower crowd games at that time if I recall correctly.
Thank you, Dingus will go with the lower crowd one.
(I remember they announced Diana’s death at 1/4 or halftime)