EMI Masters
Sat, Jun 9 2012, 12:23PM
Anybody checked out the new EMI Masters series for sound quality?
Specifically does the Previn Rachmaninov 2 sound any better than the previous dire CD incarnations?
Also, would it be worth replacing Klemperer's German Requiem with the new release. (Although I know Walter Legge actually encouraged a bit of distortion on massed choral recordings as he thought it more dramatic!)
I'm assuming that the series title means these are newly remastered releases?
(I have been told that there was such pressure to get analog recordings onto CD in the early days of the new medium that every available sound engineer was roped in to man the sound desks! In many cases these are still the transfers on offer today and a Mozart Serenade might have been remastered by a Pink Floyd enthusiast!)
Sat, Jun 9 2012, 3:20PM
#2
RE: EMI Masters
In fact looking at back cover of the EMI Masters Rachmaninov/Previn on Amazon shows the digital remastering was published in 1999. The same as the GROC disc. Only the artwork etc is (c)2011.
Ed
Tue, Jul 17 2012, 2:01PM
#3
RE: EMI Masters
I too, am curious to know what EMI did differently (if anything) to remaster these recordings. I will admit that technology has progressed a lot over the past decade. But, is that enough to produce audible differences on stereo systems that aren't of audiophile standards?
Tue, Jul 17 2012, 2:30PM
#4
RE: EMI Masters
I too, am curious to know what EMI did differently (if anything) to remaster these recordings. I will admit that technology has progressed a lot over the past decade. But, is that enough to produce audible differences on stereo systems that aren't of audiophile standards?
As I tried to explain above, they haven't done anything for this particular series. They have simply repackaged earlier reissues (according to their own copyright blurb on the back of the boxes).
Ted
Sun, Jul 22 2012, 8:20PM
#5
RE: EMI Masters
Apart from the cover art, are there any differences in the packaging of the new vs old "EMI Masters" series?
Specifically:
1) Are liner notes included with the new series?
2) Does the new series come in normal CD cases, or in some kind of cardboard packaging?
Bluto
Despite the impression given in the marketing blurb for this series, the reissue date information on the back of some of these suggests that they are just repackagings of earlier remasterings. I haven't checked the Previn Rachmaninov disc but it is presumably just a re-packaging of the GROC disc.
That's also what you expect if you consider the huge cost of serious re-engineering a large reissue programme like this versus the relatively low potential sales.
Ted