jimfisheye
2K Club - QQ Super Nova
- Joined
- Jan 8, 2010
- Messages
- 3,516
Naked had the overall dull and dynamically flat sound of an old tape where the high end never comes back. The original Spector album just popped and sounded really hi fidelity next to it.I'm not really hearing the radical difference in sound quality you describe between the original stereo mix and the 2021 remixes. In fact, I actually think the drums & bass sound better on the remix. Naked sounds a bit over NR'd in places, but I wouldn't call it bad-sounding either. Can you point to a specific passage where this tape damage is apparent?
I think the mastering eq balance in this new set is pretty on point overall, honestly. It just has the sound of struggle with degraded tape. There's genuine effort in this. The first thing that grabbed me was how dynamically flat the acoustic guitars sounded in Two Of Us. They pop and grab you on the original. It sounds like transient dynamics just aren't on the tape anymore. It sounds a bit mid scooped next to the album though. Like can happen when you struggle with high end attenuated tape and try boosting high end back up.
I don't hear any grossly crude stuff like those Al Stewart releases or the recent Lennon stuff to be fair. More of a healthy generation loss hit vs the original.
Maybe the bright and mid scooped mastering eq aesthetic is just in vogue right now and this is a mastering disagreement?
This is still more of missed opportunities. Including a needle drop to showcase the original fidelity and a little messing around to make some de-Spector-ized versions could have gone a long way. Then the surround mix as included might have come across like a nice addendum.
I think the mastering eq presentation of the Nagra reels version is overall on point too. But I also think it's overly bright and fatiguing. I prefer the troubled minidisc copy even with the obvious artifacts and generation loss.