[Resurrected]

[uwe]

Which is sad considering they spent so much time in the studio with it until they lovingly, transparently to each other and jointly got the voice/music balance just right.  Not to forget "honing" their fine live performances.

The Heaven and Hell and Mob Rules remasters weren't so bad, does cramming more music on a CD actually affect sound quality (as it did with vinyl) other than that they become more skip prone towards the end? 

[OldManC]

Uwe, I wasn't happy with the election results but this board isn't the place I go to talk about that stuff. Either way I'll survive. That being said I'm not on here as much as I've been in the past (and when I am it's usually a quick look). My kids keep me pretty busy these days and I'm the only one attending to their needs, so I'm busy teaching them to tell Pink Floyd from Aerosmith from Ozzy. They already know KISS and the Beatles when they hear them so I'm off to a good start.

I don't mind remixes or messing with the original so long as I already have the original, too. I'm enough of a trainspotter with music I like that having 10 versions of the same song is fine with me if there's something noteworthy to listen to in each one. I have 60 hours of various Beatles albums and bootlegs (and about half that of KISS material) ripped into my computer and I'm not even done loading them all in. As I said, I like the new remaster, it just falls short (IMO) even with the limitations of not working with the original tracks. There's no excuse for them having shipped CDs with an editing mistake.

For the record I thought the solo in Sweet Pain sounded ridiculous too, but I highly doubt it was anything more than a scratch pass. Ezrin talks nice in those liner notes but he had a hard on for years about Ace's not being up to par in the studio. Bob's been slagged for so long in KISSnerd circles (for using Wagner, not to mention for The Elder), I wouldn't be surprised if he included that version just to shut everyone up. Ace's work on other tracks on Destroyer and elsewhere (especially his own) shows he certainly had the skills when he wanted to use them.

And I hated RNRO's production back in the day but it definitely grew on me over the years. Love Gun absolutely stands up sonically with Destroyer so it's not like Kramer couldn't do the job. RNRO's raw production was a choice (good or bad). Where I think Kramer dropped the ball was the live stuff on Alive II. Peter sounds like he's playing trash cans and the guitars and bass aren't much better. Alive was so much better sonically that I couldn't listen to Alive II for years except side 4, which might be the best the original band (for the most part) ever sounded.

Kissnerd out.

[uwe]

I don't even think the editing mistake made it to European shores. I though I read that it can be exchanged against a fault-free CD in the US without any hassle? Frehley sounds on that solo like he was drunk or disgusted and he was probably both.

I know your busy with more important things than the LBO and I hope everything is working out well. Just show a sign of life then and now or I might be worried that the Obama-SS has deported you! 

[Psycho Bass Guy]

does cramming more music on a CD actually affect sound quality (as it did with vinyl) other than that they become more skip prone towards the end?  

So long as it's Red Book standard: stereo, PCM, 16 bit, 44.1 kHz sampling rate, 80 minutes of audio fits on a standard 700 MB CD. In order to be sold with the "Compact Disc" logo, all commercial CD's must meet this standard. Using various compressions (mp3 etc), can save space, but because manufacturer compatibility standards and copywrite law, cannot be sold as a commercial musical release. There are various sound effect libraries and other sample media that do use mp3 on CD's, but these are explicitly labelled as such.

The problem with CD remasters of older material usually boils down to the competence of the mastering engineer. In the early days of CD's, analog master tapes were dubbed to Sony U-matic 1630 digital videotape machines, which included a built-in upper midrange EQ emphasis curve and a VERY shitty sounding AGC (automatic gain control) and the CD's were produced from the resulting digital tape. This practice continued until the early 1990's, when record labels began using dedicated audio digital format masters. That's why there were so many remastered albums that were released at that time, but many were 'rush jobs,' employing less-than-stellar (to be kind) mastering engineers supervising the transfers from the original analog masters. Many of these so-called "mastering engineers" were label coffee-jockeys whose only qualification was being able to thread the machines.

Modern masters now take the other tack and are often made at higher resolutions and then dithered down to CD format. IMO, this has its drawbacks as well, but is the industry standard.

In the case of a remix and remaster, which is completely different, the competence, motivation, ears, and ego of the producer summarily to that of the mastering engineer affect the finished product. There are lots of guys with enormous credibility that have no business butchering mastering music anymore due to hearing loss, age-induced or otherwise.

[Highlander]

That last paragraph...

[Hörnisse]

I'm going to post a picture of my Hotter Than Hell inner sleeve.  Uwe would find it "interesting" I think. 

[Freuds_Cat]

[Highlander]

[Hörnisse]

Received the CD in the mail today.  Played it through my old Fisher system with small Advent speakers.  Gene's bass sounds so much clearer now and I really like the strings on Beth.  Uwe was right!

[nofi]

it's a shame what has happened to the average home stereo system. the reciever, power amp, pre amp speakers etc have been replaced by hugh plastic monstosities that look like space garbage and sound about as good. there is something to be said for being old.

btw, nothing smelled as good as new audio components being switched on. or maybe that's just me.

[uwe]

Amen, Nofi, amen!!!

[4stringer77]

Hi Fi systems are out there but they're all priced out of the reach of most average folk's budget. Would be sweet to have an analog tube driven stereo system but I'm not Bill Gates. I saw Wilson speakers at one place that can cost as much as a  new porsche

[uwe]

Received the CD in the mail today.  Played it through my old Fisher system with small Advent speakers.  Gene's bass sounds so much clearer now and I really like the strings on Beth.  Uwe was right!

Yup, Beth sounds almighty now! Played it this morning and even Edith was impressed (and she generally only rolls her eyes at the mention of Kiss, though being "The Wall"-addict she is, production by Bob Ezrin is a saving grace for her).

I don't care if it sounds like a Chicago tune (it sure starts like "If you leave me now Part II") or - as one English critic wrote - "limp enough to make Smokie*** sound like the MC5", it's a lovely arrangement, I've always liked Peter Criss' voice on it and the lyrics are not any more cheesy and self-indulgent "rock star away from home"-blues than Bob Seger's Turn the Page, actually I thought that Criss captured that "going on stage when you really would like to be at home"-dressing room feeling quite well. And of course his "a-haaaah ..." (now spoilishly included twice on the remix) is 2 die 4!!!

*** Another Yuropean phenomenon for you from the seventies, liebe Amerikaner, Chinn/Chapman penned "hit-after-hit" countrynesque lightweight pop, needless to say I liked most of their stuff too!  

[nofi]

yeah, that stuffs for the well heeled audiophile lunatic bunch. i've known a few of these guys in my life and have reached some conclusions.

they care more about constantly upgrading their hardware than actually listening to music.

they tend to hoard mobile fidelity and like recordings and keep them sealed! if any record was ever meant to be played these are the ones.

the more you spend on a hi fi system the less bang you 'percieve' for your dollar.

the systems i have listened to (50-100K), don't sound all that much different than my Project turntable, Polk audio speakers, Sony set up. at least not many thousands of dollars more. of course i don't have a 35k turntable like my neighbor...


your results will vary i'm sure.

[uwe]

Yeah, but that is so with any product, diminsihing returns. The last 5 % of getting it just perfect cost as much as the first 95%.

I'm not an obsessive, but I can hear the difference between a 200 Euro and a 2.000 Euro CD player. No, it's not ten times as good, but at least twice as good, the music is just more pleasant to hear, the treble never abrasive, the sub bass more focused. My streao system is (or: was) in the 10-15k range and any 5-7k stereo system of today probably beats it. I like the way it sounds though and people who consume music mostly as mp3s over Apple products sometimes do mention that they have forgotten "how good a real stereo can sound" when we are having them for dinner.

I smile when people enter the realm of para-electronics, like "cleaning up the electrical current" before feeding it in their system so the music sounds better because, you know, "evening electricity" is somehow impure due to the sudden increase from households.  

Does the finish of the CD player influence sound too?