Remastering your CD collection

[X-53mph]

Just wondering if anyone else apart from me uses their vast array of mixing and mastering programs to remaster their cd collection?

I recently remastered The Preston School of Industry (Pavement member's solo project) because the CD was so tiring on the ears. Someone had tried to get maximum loadness in the the mastering stage and the end result was harsh harsh HARSH on the ears.  I've managed to sweeten it up and make the whole album a joy to listen to on my Cowon M2. 

Jim O'Rourke albums are other offenders.

What about the rest of you guys?

Edited November 3 by X-53mph

[Colin Nicholls]

I've done this for certain selected CDs, and even written about the process. I've had mixed results to be honest.

[Shane_B.]

I thought this thread was going to be about LP's, those I have tinkered with but in the end I just scrapped them and left everything the way it originally was. I've never really tried to mess with CD's.

A long time ago there used to be a preset in the Sonitus Compressor that was listed as "Decompress". I have used that on bad recordings but not in a very long time.

[X-53mph]

11 hours ago, Colin Nicholls said:

I've done this for certain selected CDs, and even written about the process. I've had mixed results to be honest.

Interesting article. I do think that we are now so spoilt for mixing apps that you don't need to even open cakewalk.

I do my remastering in Ozone's stand alone Oxygen 9 app. You can easily do A/B comparisons, and, if the entire album has been mastered with a similar heavy hand, you can apply your tweaks album-wide. 

[kitekrazy]

On 11/2/2024 at 4:33 PM, Shane_B. said:

I thought this thread was going to be about LP's, those I have tinkered with but in the end I just scrapped them and left everything the way it originally was. I've never really tried to mess with CD's.

A long time ago there used to be a preset in the Sonitus Compressor that was listed as "Decompress". I have used that on bad recordings but not in a very long time.

Learned long ago this was a waste of time.  Anything you like just hope there's a CD.

 

[X-53mph]

3 hours ago, kitekrazy1 said:

Learned long ago this was a waste of time.  Anything you like just hope there's a CD.

 

...but that's the point of my original post... sometimes the CD version is mastered badly and I like to remaster it for my own listening pleasure. 

Do you ever feel the need to remaster CD versions of songs?

[craigb]

People still have CD collections?  I imported all of mine into my computer two decades ago...

[AndyB01]

I have loads of CDs, I ripped all the ones I really care about to FLAC years ago, but I don't presume to be able to do a better mastering job than the professionals who did the originals.

I'm not sure why I still keep them really, I sold all my vinyl years ago (I am not in the least bit sentimental about vinyl and don't miss it one bit) but I like to keep the CDs.

At least the CDs don't take up as much space. 😃

Andy

[Gswitz]

I send main outs through EQ in my interface. I regularly lift the high end b/c I'm a little handicapped there. So are the others I live with. But I don't leave it like that all the time.

I definitely don't 're-master', but I do EQ to taste.

Sometimes, when I can't hear the bass as I like, I use MBassador from Melda. This has helped me make bass audible through cheap headphones and inferior stereos. I think it doesn't do much that a tube plugin doesn't do.

Getting the bass right has been something I have struggled with since ever.

 

[paulo]

On 11/2/2024 at 10:04 PM, Colin Nicholls said:

I've had mixed results to be honest.

I see what you did there...😀