Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Stereo Why many older cds don't sound too good.

I have been listening to some of my "older" cds again.

It occurred to me, that much of the problem with these cds is not the mix..........(as many often say), most of the time it seems to be two things.

The problems are the way the drums, and bass are recorded.
If you listen to one of the older, less enjoyable cds...you will find the drummer sounding like he's thrashing away on a drum kit of all snare drums, or a drum kit made from empty milk cartons....recorded with one mic., in the next room.
The bass sounds like the treble on the amp. is all the way up, and the volume is down low.

The rest of the recorded tracks usually sound pretty good, vocals, guitar, etc.
This makes the whole "record" sound sub-par, when everything is mixed down to the two-track stereo mix down tape, and mastered.
It's too bad more time, and $$$$ were not spent on these classic albums.

When one listens to Pink Floyd"s: DSOTM, Eagles: Hotel California, or Elton John's: GBYBR, etc. we can see what COULD have been, with most of the "classics".

i was listening to a few older cd's last night that sounded real good.

it was 'kansas', greatest hits, 'bad company', greatest hits, and the original 'boston' self titled cd. these wernt the re-mastered cd's, just the original recordings. all were real good, abut the boston was a little better than the others. of course, thats not hard to believe being that most of the band members were audio engineers. i was about to put on 'bostons' third stage cd, but the wife got home, and i had to turn it down.

speaking of old recordings.. has anyone seen the story of the guy who is suing sony for the 'diary of a madman' cd he bought? apparently, he bought the ozzy cd, which is a remastered version, and he thought it was what the cover said, remastered.. but apparently, it wasnt remastered, it was redone.. ALL the drum, bass, and guitar parts were completely re-recorded, and the only original element is ozzy's voice. so, he felt it was false advertising by sony, and is suing them. i dont know for how much, but i thought the concept was interesting. make s agood point though.. when you buy a cd of one of your older favorite artists, do you want the original recordings that have been improved.. or do you want completely new songs with none of the original band members.?

food for thought...

bigjohn

I like your taste in Music bigjohn

B.J.

The "older" cds , I ment were from about 67' to 79'. After that period the recordings started to get "muddy" with so many tracks to record on, (at least 24) that the strides made in the 70's were all but erased, with exceptions, of course.

dude, i listen to just about everything..

i got doo-wop stuff from the 50's.
peace and free lovin stuff from the 60's.
AM smoothies and story tellers from the early 70's.
disco fever and roller rink favs from the late 70's.
i got almost ALL of my albums from the musically confused days of the early 80's.
all the super heavy metal from the late 80's.
my grunge stuff from the early 90's.
all the way up to today.. throw in some country here and there, little bit of bluegrass, a shake or two of rap, a hint of raggae, and you got my whole collection.

EDIT- LT61, yes i agree with what you are saying. ALL of my KISS stuff sounds absolutely horrible. my lynard skynard(sp?) can be hard to listen to at high volumes, and i got a stepphenwolf album that sounds like they recorded it in a bathroom stall..

bigjohn

You basically have described my tastes also, although the only Rap I ever liked was the Boogie Boys and some Run DMC back in the later 80's. Also, I'm not to much into some of this new head banger stuff.

why not just upgrade your cd's see link here
upgrade cd post

Nyuk, nyuk, nyuk..........

I tried that gizmo on my cds...it didn't work.
BUT....I accidently left it on top of my TV......and now my old TV is HD!

I dislike your taste in music, John. Well, not really, but seriously, dude... Boston?

I cannot believe that someone would DARE remove Randy Rhodes from an Ozzy album. That's just sacrilege. I've got the gold remaster disks, and they're the original recordings, remastered. I guess Sony wanted to milk more money out of it.

What is wrong with Boston? Ok, maybe the newer stuff "Walk On" for example, as Barry is not with the band anymore. It is hard to replace that talent. I don't know to many people that don't like Boston: Boston, Don't Look Back, or even Third Stage, unless they are to young to know the band