Remix and Remastered ...what's the difference and does it matters

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KCLam


Some of the new re releases of old recordings are remixed. I would have prefer to purchase a newly remastered album or CD.
Are the two words used interchangeably and do they mean the same thing?

I just purchased Remix Paul McCartney's Tug of War and Remixed Alanis Morissette's Jagged Little Pill.

Will remastered be replaced by remixed in the future? I would prefer the original music that I have been hearing and that is familiar to me, without any additional instruments added to it.

Will recording companies offer both remix and remaster in the future, or will remix be the trend? Or will consumers be left with no option ....

dflee

From what I understand
Remix is a recreation of the original tape to go from one concept to another say from mono to stereo.
Remaster is a tweaking of the original adding nothing but enhancing one thing or another that you may not
have even heard on the recording before and cleaning up any blemishes that can be done due to new technologies.

charmerci

Also a remix can also add new instruments/sounds. The Beatles' Love is a remix.

Larkston Zinaspic

It will probably matter to you only if you can't accept anything other than the original mix. As a familiar example, Steven Wilson has done the remixes on a bunch of classic prog albums recently. It's kind of a toss-up. I still like the original mix for King Crimson: Lizard, while the new mix sounds a little dry to me. I think SW missed some of the dynamic cues of the original mix when he did Larks' Tongues, but the gritty distortion from the original mixdown is now mostly gone. And some of those 'alternate' mixes are quite interesting. But in most of these releases you can hear both renderings right in the same package, which is very cool.

A remaster, in the digital age, has just become a way to repackage the original mixes, usually of a classic album that is probably a couple of decades old, and often with a large caption on the front that says "Newly Remastered" so that you might think it's something you don't already have. You might notice some sonic manipulation on the remaster, but hopefully it was done judiciously, with the best sources and technology available. But I don't think it's ever just a straight transfer...which might not sound as good as you'd expect, in some cases.

*Scotty*

A check of the "Newly Remastered" album on the Dynamic Range Database will frequently show that there has been a substantial amount of compression applied to the remastered version of the old album. Instead of getting the benefits of hopefully a 24/96 remastering job we get a big dose of compression which more than offsets any possible benefit of a higher bit rate transfer. This amounts to vandalism IMO.
 The Steve Wilson remixes are exempt from my rant, a check of the database shows no additional compression applied.
Scotty

KCLam

Has any Jazz, Classical or Musical recordings been remixed, except that it is used for dance clubs, DJ's and producers to market a dated recording?

I cannot imagine any serious Classical recording be remixed. Many of the composers and conductors would turn in their grave.
Classical listeners with their stiff upper lip would certainly pooh pooh the concept.

So why not offer remaster and remix and let the consumer decide...to buy both if they chose to.

I guess many of you know what my preference is....the original; "cleaned up" with today's technology and with nothing added or removed.