Out of the Moon remaster

By Michael Jones

February 2007

Goldenhorse

The Out Of The Moon remaster has a reworded cover for the remastered version.

Comparison waveforms: the original (top) and remastered versions of the title track (click for larger image)

In contrast, the waveforms for a piece of 1970s pop fluff, I Think I Love You by The Partridge Family. Note the considerably wider dynamics.

Any regular purchaser of CDs will be familiar with the concept of remastering, where a new version of a CD is brought out, often promising (and occasionally delivering) better sound. Albums from the 1950s through to the 1980s are often remastered. But seeing a remastered sticker on a local album that had been out for less than 18 months came as a surprise.

So when a new, remastered edition of Goldenhorse’s second album, Out of the Moon, was announced, I decided to investigate.

Out of the Moon has reached double platinum status since its release and is still selling well, approaching the triple platinum results from the debut album, Riverhead.

After its release Out of the Moon received some negative comments on the AudioEnz forum – not for the music but for the sound of the CD. Curiously, there was almost no bass on the CD, the dynamics were crushed (sadly, not uncommon these days) and the upper midrange pushed forward (again, not unusual these days).

Siren Records representative Tracey Magan explained that the band was going for a 1970s sound. The band wanted an “old school feel” to the sound, as this suited the style of the songs. Jeremy McPike, the studio manager of York Street recording studio, explained that Goldenhorse’s Geoff Maddock was “going for a 1970s, crunchier sound”.

Now these comments surprised me, as the mastering of original Out Of The Moon CD sounded nothing like what I’d expect from the 1970s. When I listen to music from the 1970s – even the silliest pop music from that decade – I hear music that breathes. I hear nothing similar to the mastering efforts of the first version of Out Of The Moon.

Music from the 1970s are among the best sounding recordings available. Some thirty years later albums from that decade are still often used as audio demo discs. Even much of the throwaway pop music from that decade sounds wonderful – even if the music can be a little naff!

It seems as if I was not the only one who disliked the mastering. “After listening to it for some time we weren’t exactly thrilled,” said Siren Records Tracey Magan. She added that they’ve received some negative comments from others as well.

Master of their domain

I contacted original mastering engineer Neil Baldock for his thoughts on the sound of the original CD. Neil was reluctant to say very much, but I was left with the impression that he wasn’t happy with the results.

From another source this writer has heard that the CD was sent back to Neil Baldock for mastering work a couple of times, with the instructions to remove more bass from the original recording and to make it more compressed. Mastering engineers are in a difficult position – bands and record companies keep asking for their CDs to sound “louder” (they’re not; just more compressed) which, as many mastering engineers will tell you, simply makes the recording sound worse. But if a mastering engineer doesn’t do what the client wants – even if it sounds awful – then they can lose work.

Neil Baldock wasn’t involved with the remastering of the album, by York Street studio manager Jeremy McPike was. “I thought it could sound better,” said McPike. Removing some of the upper midrange emphasis and removing a lot of the “brick wall” limiting (where the wave forms are literally chopped off) made a big difference to the sound.

Sound and vision

The differences between the mastering efforts are apparent to both the eyes and ears. The image shows the original waveforms for the title track, Out of the Moon, at top and the remastered version below (click on the image for an enlarged view). You can see that the original version has lower dynamics and that the peaks of the music appear to be chopped off. Below is the waveform for a 1970s piece of pop fluff, the Partridge Family’s I Think I Love You, for comparison.

[If you’re not used to looking at audio wave forms, then here’s an explanation. You see the left channel at top with the right channel below. The centre of each channel is zero, or silence, while the top and bottom edges are full value, or the loudest volume level that can be encoded onto a CD. The closer that the waveforms look like a solid piece of four by two wood, the lower the musical dynamics.]

Listening is the final test. An excerpt from the track Out of the Moon (mp3, opens in new window) is repeated, with the original first and the remastered version second. What you should hear, even through crappy computer speakers, is that the second sample sounds less tense, more open and has some bass. In contrast, the first sample sounds harsh and squashed.

You may also notice that you physically relax when the second sample starts. Highly compressed and limited sound, as found in the first sample, can cause the listener to tense up. If you’ve wondered why you don’t continue playing music after listening to a CD with "modern" mastering, then this is why.

But is this important? Surely it's the music that matters, not the sound? The problem is that the mastering techniques in use today affect the way that we enjoy music and respond to it. But that's a subject for a future article.

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