I don't know too much about them. The only one I know I have is Pearl Jam - Ten and I like it quite a bit over the original. Are remasters generally much better quality than the original?

Specifically wondering about the self-titled Violent Femmes album and the upcoming Beatles albums.

I think a Remasters quality really depends on the production quality of the original release.

The stuff that I have that is remastered (KMFDM releases) the volume is louder and some background sounds are clearer.

En Esch (former member of KMFDM) had a solo CD that that could use some remastering, the lyrics are muddled and the sound is really low.

It also really depends on whether the new version is affected by the loudness war or not, and to what extent.

I'd say that about 90 percent of the re-masters I have sound better than the original version CD's that were released of them. This is mainly because many early CD releases were just rushed out to meet demand, and not a lot of thought was put into properly preparing them. The recordings were more or less just transferred from one medium to another, without anyone really checking to make sure they sounded as good as they could.

Since then, some consumers and artists noticed this, and demanded better sounding product, so, folks went about fixing things. With the advent and popularity of mp3 players, people started noticing the volume difference between different releases - most noticeable on discs that had been re-mastered vs. those that hadn't, and thus the "loudness wars" were ushered in.

Mainly, a great deal of it depends on who is doing the re-mastering, and whether the process was well thought out an planned, rather than just be done to do so. It's usually the latter that falls victim to the loudness wars issue.

I'd also have to say that a remaster also depends on if it is from a major label or a smaller one.

I don't mind an album having louder sound, but I don't want that done just for the sake of being louder.


And I don't think albums from the past 10-15 years (generally) do not need a major remaster (unless initial production was piss poor).

Yeah, I'm mainly wondering about the Violent Femmes CD. The remaster is a double CD and it's like $22 new. I really just want the original songs. I'd like to play it and have it sound good, not turn the volume half way up and barely hear it like now.

Thanks for the input guys, I may just have to trust that it's better and take the plunge.

i really hate when they only remaster the "hit" songs and leave the albums sounding still like shit (old anthrax, GNR's Appitite)

When did Appetite get a remaster?

Appetite doesn't need a remaster.

Have you checked to see if yourmusic.com has it? You may be able to find it much cheaper than $22.

Edit: Found it for $14
http://www.yourmusic.com/browse/album/49404.html

Also, I think there is a coupon code floating around that may bring it down to $12.