I seem to recall a thread about Dire Straits cd's remastered vs. the originals. I can't find it with a search, what is the consensus of the best sounding Dire Straits cd's? Thanks, Mike
I can only comment on the remastered Dire Straits cds I own. The remastered Love over gold, Communique' & the self titled 1st album sound great with defined bass, not mastered bright or seem compressed. Some of the best sounding cds I own. Just my opinion. Jim
For Making Movies the remastered is kind of OK, but the original Vertigo "Swirl" is one of the best CD's sonics-wise you will ever hear. I see there is a nice one on sale in the classsifieds: http://www.stevehoffman.tv/forums/showthread.php?t=137717&highlight=dire Rick
The remasters are OK, not bad. They are not strongly compressed & not very loud. I have some of them on Japan CD's & like them.
Agreed, Rick. The remaster of Making Movies is arguably the least desirable of the (remaster) series. To my ears it tends to distort in the upper treble range.
I had all the original releases and the remastered versions. I loved the remastered editions (and still do). The best of the bunch was "Love Over Gold" for the remastered and I would concur that "Making Movies" is probably the only one that doesn't sound as good. The first album sounds very good on the remastered as well but I really never did a shoot on it.
The only one Dire Straits I have both the original and the remaster is the 1st one. I don't think the remaster sounds bad at all, but the original, mine is a Japanese Target, sounds fine. Not having both of any others, I find the originals, either Vertigo Swirls or Targets sound fine but would nominate Alchemy for remastering only because it is extremely quiet. I've thought about ripping it and remastering it myself, just bumping up the volume a little.
On other threads I've read, the majority seems to be in favor of the West German Target for the first album.
I prefer the original Vertigo discs for the first three studio albums, and remasters for Love Over Gold, Brothers in Arms and On Every Street. ymmv
I have all the originals up to Brothers and to me they are fine. No need for me to get the remasters.
I believe you have to go with the remaster if you want the complete fade out version of Sultans of Swing. I'm pretty sure it was faded early on all of the previous versions.
You also need the remaster of Making Movies for a complete version. The remaster clocks in at 38:32 Made In Japan for US WB is 37:41 and WG swirl is 37:42 so we're missing something on the original pressings here too! JF
Just listened to the 1st album yesterday, original Vertigo with red (swirl-like) label. Put in the remaster in comparison. The original sounds better. Smoother, absolutely not harsh in any way, the music is more relaxt, more "alive" and "breathing", just more vinyl-like sounding. What you get to hear is music, just music, nothing else. The remaster is not really that harsh, but compared to the original it is a little bit harsher and sounds a bit more "powerful" or "kicking". I think this is the (typical) result of the use of compression. But of course it's still sounding very good. The only disadvantage of the original is the shortened version of Sultans. Btw: of the original Vertigo Dire Straits albums with the red swirl-alike label, there seem to be three different pressings: WG (PDO Hanover or just PDO), "Made in France", and "Made in Germany" (pressed in the early 90ies). I suppose they use the same mastering but I'm not sure about the French pressing.
Lots of talk about Vertigos and targets here... How do the good ol' original U.S. Warner Bros. releases figure in?
I think the early U.S. pressed cd of the 1st album has the full length Sultans of Swing - it was the West German and Japanese pressed discs that had the early fadeout during the final guitar solo.
Love Over Gold I find the remastering on Love Over Gold and their first album to be the real standouts. Fact is, Polygram did a pretty good job on the originals. Brother's In Arms was one of first high profile "new album" releases to CD. Neils Loughgren's (sp?) engineering is great on that one anyway. As an aside, I heard that Kate Bush's Hounds Of Love was "the" first pop or rock album released on cd before vinyl. I remember a common problem with that cd was the labelling would sometimes be smudged from over inking the label. The disc was made in Germany and was typically riddled with pinholes. So, chances are your cd player works overtime doing error correction everytime you play that original disc. Pinholes are one of the reasons Mobile and DCC, RCA, Ryko etc.. pushed the gold plating as many of you know. Brother's In Arms is so great and almost perfect in many ways, I find it too perfect. Sort of like Roxy Music's Avalon; you know, letter perfect with what sounds like no spontaneaty in the playing. You know they didn't record this one in a few takes
Which is the preferred version of "Alchemy?" The remaster or original? I hope it's the remaster, because it has extra songs.
I can tell you that the unremastered U.S. WB for s/t is the same mastering as the Japanese Target. . . The Japanese Target and U.S. WB have the full "Sultans". The shortened version is on the W. German discs. I have only heard the remaster for this title, but I find the remaster a little bright and hard and suspect the unremastered would be better since I like the sound of the other unremastered Dire Straits discs I have (the rest of the catalog).
Correct. Correct. Agreed. I'm not 100% anti-remaster, but I am a huge fan of the Vertigo pressings of the whole Dire Straits catalog. They sound phenomenal.
I've read in this forum that the French and West Germany Vertigo's are exactly the same. I have the French Making Movies and have a/b'd it to the West Germany and they do sound exactly the same. Rick