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What Difference Does Remastering Make?
Wed., Dec. 8. 2010 9:58am EST
The tracks on the 11 new ApologetiX Classics CDs were remastered by our producer, Bill Hubauer. You often hear about classic albums getting remastered then re-released to great fanfare -- what does remastering mean?
Remastering is not remixing. The main purpose of remastering our previously released songs is to provide a more pleasant listening experience for the fan. Keep in mind that the songs on these CDs were originally released over a 15-year span, and our skills and technology progressively improved over the years. By remastering the tracks, we were able to make the songs sound more like they all belong together.
One of the things we did was balance volume levels, because the industry had pushed for louder levels over the years. If you've ever had a playlist on shuffle on your iPod, MP3 player or computer (or if you made homemade cassettes of your favorite songs back in the day), you've probably had to adjust the volume multiple times. Not with these CDs.
Another things we did was to fix levels when we thought a certain instrument was too loud or not loud enough in the mix. For example, we always thought the drums at the beginning of "Born Above" sounded like toy drums compared to the thundering drums of the original Springsteen version. Those are fixed now.
Conversely, we felt the mix on songs like "I Have to Die First," "Come Out and Pray," "I'll Prepare for You" and "Welcome to the Judges" was a bit abrasive and overpowering. That's fixed now. Furthermore, we thought the mixes on songs from ApologetiX Hits: The Road needed to be enhanced so you could hear all of the instruments better, so we attempted to do that on the songs we used from that CD.
Better is in the eye of the beholder, of course. All 203 tracks in the ApologetiX Classics series were remastered, but some songs will show more dramatic results than others, and some ears will pick up more difference than others. But we're very pleased with the results, and we think you will be, too.
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