So you’re hanging out with a bunch of brilliant sound engineers, right? And they’re super bored. All they can do is sit around and bitch about how there’s nothing to do right now. “Okay, chumps,” you say, “if you’re so bored, why don’t you remaster…”
For me, the choice would be Prince’s “Dirty Mind.” This is unfortunate, because that will most likely never happen. The mix really isn’t the greatest, and of all of Prince’s albums, this one would probably benefit the most from a little cleaning.
Kate Bush - The Dreaming. She pushed the limits of the available technology, and it shows. But not just “remastered”, but go back to the multitrack tapes and duplicate the original mix but with modern technology. And could they do a 5.1 mix while they’re at it? Thanks!
I don’t really know much about the recording process. Is this question essentially identical to saying, “Name an album that was produced horribly the first time around that you’d like another shot at”? I think I always imagined remastering as kind of a limited thing – a little buff and polish, but nothing major.
All of the Sisters of Mercy’s early singles, along with “First, Last and Always.” I recently described them as “recorded in a water tank and mixed by tone-deaf hobos.”
Wu-Tang Clan - 36 Chambers. I’m not the biggest fan, but whenever I heard this it just bugged me that the mix is so muffled. It’s not even that old. It’s hip hop, where is the bass?
Jussi Björling - His collected works. I just want to be put in, like, a sound chamber with awesome strobic equipment and listen to his interpretation of “Che gelida manina” from La Bohème, remastered to perfection, overpower the neuronic capacity of my brain.
I was thinking more about albums that were crammed onto too-small vinyl so they told you to play them loud… Todd Rundgren’s “A Wizard, A True Star”, maybe.
I usually don’t care, but work definitely needs to be done on Flanders and Swann’s At a Drop of a Hat. It was live, but the speakers were badly placed, so the audience overwhelms the music (especially one guy who laughs loudly throughout). I’m surprised they didn’t just record it again, but George Martin (yes, that George Martin) probably didn’t have the money.
