Digitally remastered records of classic albums always arrive with some fanfare. Think of massive re-releases from legendary acts such as the Beatles, Bruce Springsteen, Led Zeppelin, and Dire Straits emblazoned (sometimes rather conspicuously) with a “digitally remastered” logo. But what does “digitally remastered” really mean? And does it guarantee an improved listening experience?
A Brief History of Digital Remastering
To understand digital remastering, we need to hop in our DeLorean and travel to the mid-1980s. Back then, an emerging technology was popping up on the shelves of your local Sam Goody or Tower Records: the CD — a shimmering 120mm disc, sleeping in a clear plastic case, snugly tucked into an inscrutably long cardboard box. The CD promised a bright, new future of musical enjoyment. Gone were the days of flipping over records or rewinding a cassette tape to listen to Men at Work’s “Down Under” for the 14th time in a row to try to figure out what “chunder” means. Now, you just slip the disc into a CD Walkman, select a track, and go! Plus, you could shuffle songs, play them on repeat, and enjoy the pristine sound of digital audio.
Except there was a hitch.
Early adopters of CDs noticed that their new, expensive discs (around $17, which translates to $40 in 2021 dollars) sounded . . . well, underwhelming. Instead of being greeted with a warm embrace from their favorite albums, they were met with an ear-straining harshness. So, what was the reason?
Primarily, it was because of the sound of the first generation of digital conversion, which was in its infancy. Also, engineers were just beginning to understand the capabilities and limitations of this new technology. The advantage of having absolute silence (known as “digital black,” equal to negative infinity, which meant an absolute absence of sound) between songs instead of tape noise was intoxicating. Hearing a musical downbeat emerge from total silence was something rarely heard before in a recording. And the absence of wow and flutter was something most engineers had only dreamed of. But there were other issues such as the graininess of those relatively primitive (by today’s standards) converters, which were sometimes 16-, 18-, or 20-bit (some even 14-bit). So, when the analog albums were being transferred to CD, the mastering houses frequently used the same analog masters that had been used to produce the vinyl, and, lo and behold, they didn’t translate. Enter the digital remaster.
Around 1984, labels began to slowly release digitally remastered reissues of classic records. “Digitally Remastered” became a buzzword for labels and an easy (and affordable) way to sell the same recording to fans of those albums. “Digitally Remastered” was not unlike the Sony and Philips slogan emblazoned on the back of their CDs: “Pure, Perfect Sound Forever.” It sounded promising and sold lots of CDs. Aimed at audiophiles, digitally remastered records, such as the “Original Master Recording” compact-disc series from Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab, set a new standard of sonic quality. Six years later, Led Zeppelin brought the term “digitally remastered” to the mainstream with the Remasters compilation. Since then, it has become a selling point for re-reissues, though not without a degree of controversy — more on that later.
The Digital Remastering Process
When an album is digitally remastered, it’s typically for one of two reasons: restoration or to bring an old recording up to modern loudness standards.
Restoration is the more involved process of the two and is generally relegated to very old material with damaged or decaying master recordings. For instance, in a 1992 article from Music Technology, famed Abbey Road mastering engineer Peter Mew described the process of remastering from old 78 records, some of which had even been broken and glued back together. Using cutting-edge (for the time) digital tools, Peter was able to remove the crackle from deeply scratched vinyl and the “chunking” sound of a needle moving over a repaired crack. The digital restoration technology in 1992 consisted of dedicated hardware and software systems, including the Sonic Solutions NoNoise system and the CEDAR (Computer Enhanced Digital Audio Restoration) system. Thirty years later, audio restoration tools are more sophisticated and more accessible with comprehensive software solutions, such as iZotope RX 9 Advanced, available for your computer.
While restoration is an interesting and important aspect of digital remastering, the digital remasters you’re more likely to encounter are created to keep up with contemporary audio standards in terms of loudness and frequency range.
Let’s address the frequency range first. Back when albums were recorded with vinyl reproduction in mind, they were mixed and mastered to accommodate the limitations of the medium. While vinyl has a theoretically wider frequency range than CDs, extreme high- and low-frequency information presents a challenge during the cutting process and during playback on standard turntables. As an example, frequencies under 40Hz can cause the stylus to jump grooves, especially if they’re not centered to mono, and frequencies over 20kHz will likely overheat a cutting head, causing distortion. On top of that, the frequency range of vinyl differs from the outside groove (nearest the record’s outer edge) to the inside groove, softening high frequencies as the needle moves toward the center of the record. Digital masters and remasters, on the other hand, do not exhibit the same limitations. So mixing engineers have more freedom to play with the full frequency spectrum, which is why many digitally remastered albums have a markedly enhanced low end.
The second and most common reason for digital remastering is to bring an older album up to current loudness standards. Since the mid-1980s, music has gotten progressively louder, spurred on by competition between record labels and artists. The reason mixing and mastering engineers started pumping the volume is simple: all things being equal, a louder song will sound better than a quieter song — up to a point. Even a small difference in volume can alter your perception and trick you into thinking that a louder track is sonically superior. That’s why, when shooting out gear for recording and mixing, it’s vital to level match your comparisons. Of course, this trend ultimately led to the loudness war during the late ’90s and the early ’00s.
Another impetus for digital remastering is a desire from artists to gently tidy up old recordings, removing tape hiss, wow and flutter, and other artifacts from tape-based recordings. One method for doing this is the Plangent Process, a hardware and software system, which uses a wideband tape head and DSP to read a tape’s ultrasonic bias and correct for analog nonlinearities. This process was used on the Bob Ludwig digital remasters of Bruce Springsteen’s first seven LPs. Purists may argue that eliminating the tape-based imperfections of original recordings strips them of their character, but, if done well, it can improve clarity and provide an arguably more satisfying listening experience.
Digital Remastering and the Loudness War
You can’t discuss digital remastering without addressing the elephant in the room: the loudness war. As noted, the average loudness of music has dramatically increased over the last 20 years. And, to make their masters louder, engineers have relied on compressors, limiters, and maximizers. These tools are great when it comes to maxing out decibel levels, but they limit the dynamic range of music, leading to homogenous and fatiguing songs and albums. Case in point: Michael Jackson’s Thriller. The 1982 vinyl release has an average dynamic range of 15dB, while the 25th-anniversary remaster reduces that to just 8dB — a significant difference if you consider that a 6dB reduction halves the original volume.
The loudness wars came to a head with Metallica’s 2008 album, Death Magnetic. In an odd bit of serendipity, listeners were made aware of how significantly compressed the album was because of an alternate, more dynamic version provided for the video game Guitar Hero 3. Many die-hard Metallica fans complained that the official release was unlistenable, and they began sharing the Guitar Hero 3 version with each other on internet forums. The loudness wars became something of a cultural conversation at that point, and it led to a renewed focus on fidelity over volume. Add to that the loudness caps on the most popular music streaming services, and dynamics are back in fashion. Given that we can expect record companies will continue remastering and reissuing our favorite records until the end of time, the conclusion of the loudness war means that we may be treated to the best versions of those records yet.
But How Does It Sound?
The pro-audio community is always engaged in invigorating and contentious debates: analog vs. digital, vinyl vs. CD, WAV vs. FLAC, and on and on. It’s part of what pushes the art forward, and, like all things, there’s no one clear answer to the question of whether digital remasters are sonically superior to the original releases. Without even accounting for subjective measures like nostalgia, the answer is that some digital remasters offer an improvement and others miss the mark. Much of the success depends on the practitioner rather than the technology. Bob Ludwig has created some magical digital remasters for Elton John, the Rolling Stones, and Bruce Springsteen that give new life to the material, and the recent stereo remix and remaster of the Beatles’ Let It Be is a joy. Plus, digital remastering and audio restoration tools have ensured that rare, old releases are preserved for new generations of music lovers — and that’s a win for everyone!
