Excellent CD Masters

[formdissolve]

Just thought I'd start a thread to post some excellent CD masters I've come across. I know the CD format has seen better days, but after recently visiting a local record store and seeing the pink and green haired Gen Z kids digging through the used CD racks instead of vinyl made me slightly nostalgic. Yes, it seems Gen Z is now interested in CD's!

My posts won't be very scientific (and mostly subjective) but sometimes dynamic range reports don't lie

The first one I pulled out was the 1994 SBK release of Slowdive's Souvlaki. This was the US release that included bonus tracks from various EP's and to my ears sounds cleaner than the UK Creation release. Dynamic range for the SBK release is listed slightly higher at a max of 14 compared to the 12 of the Creation. Either way, both of those masters sound better to me than the reissue which suffers slightly from Loudness Wars.

The second is one I totally forgot I had which is the 1997 MoFi release of The Velvet Underground & Nico. This has had hundreds of digital versions over the years, so it's fairly easy to compare. There's something about this master that makes me come back to it more than any of the High-Res versions I bought. Maybe it's the lack of excessive tweaking? To my ears it sounds very warm, not fatiguing if you will, pleasant to listen to and "analogue-like". This album didn't have the best recording quality in the studio anyways, so probably best to not tinker with it and leave it as is - which is what this master sounds like to me.

 

[Anthony LoFi]

Excellent idea as I still use my CD player as I have around 300 CD's which only a few have been digitized and replayed from my Mac.
Unfortunately Im having difficulty finding second hand CD commercial resellers. I guess this will vary from country to country.
I see entire collections on private for sale forums but tracking down specific CD titles has eluded me.

I have been impressed with the YES album Relayer re-mixed by Steve Wilson.
It conatins the original red book CD and a bluray CD version in surround as well as demo tracks.

Yes - Relayer

View credits, reviews, tracks and shop for the 2014 Blu-ray release of "Relayer" on Discogs.

www.discogs.com

 

[formdissolve]

Excellent idea as I still use my CD player as I have around 300 CD's which only a few have been digitized and replayed from my Mac.
Unfortunately Im having difficulty finding second hand CD commercial resellers. I guess this will vary from country to country.
I see entire collections on private for sale forums but tracking down specific CD titles has eluded me.

I have been impressed with the YES album Relayer re-mixed by Steve Wilson.
It conatins the original red book CD and a bluray CD version in surround as well as demo tracks.

Yes - Relayer

View credits, reviews, tracks and shop for the 2014 Blu-ray release of "Relayer" on Discogs.

www.discogs.com

Interesting - I'm surprised they even included a CD in there! I've had luck finding reasonably priced discs at various music stores or popup sales. Lots of crap though too!

 

[Chrispy]

By cd master you just mean differently mastered cds? A cd isn't particularly a "master"....

 

[tmtomh]

By cd master you just mean differently mastered cds? A cd isn't particularly a "master"....

Yes, the OP is talking about particular masterings that have appeared on CD and that are especially good-sounding.

 

[Chrispy]

Yes, the OP is talking about particular masterings that have appeared on CD and that are especially good-sounding.

Rather hear that from the OP, but okay I can see that, just worded oddly.

 

[formdissolve]

Rather hear that from the OP, but okay I can see that, just worded oddly.

Indeed, I mean an album that is mastered for a particular CD release, in a particular year or region, or both. How you play that back (disc, rip, etc.) isn't the question - it's about the mastering for the specific CD format.

 

[Chrispy]

Indeed, I mean an album that is mastered for a particular CD release, in a particular year or region, or both. How you play that back (disc, rip, etc.) isn't the question - it's about the mastering for the specific CD format.

Thanks. A master to me isn't the resulting cd particularly. Have you a particular database for determing the particular mastering for a given cd?

 

[KaeliKoo]

Excellent idea as I still use my CD player as I have around 300 CD's which only a few have been digitized and replayed from my Mac.
Unfortunately Im having difficulty finding second hand CD commercial resellers. I guess this will vary from country to country.
I see entire collections on private for sale forums but tracking down specific CD titles has eluded me.

I have been impressed with the YES album Relayer re-mixed by Steve Wilson.
It conatins the original red book CD and a bluray CD version in surround as well as demo tracks.

Yes - Relayer

View credits, reviews, tracks and shop for the 2014 Blu-ray release of "Relayer" on Discogs.

www.discogs.com

Steven Wilson re-mastered the first 5 Yes albums. He's also done Jethro Tull re-masters and Gentle Giant and some other classics.

 

[formdissolve]

Thanks. A master to me isn't the resulting cd particularly. Have you a particular database for determing the particular mastering for a given cd?

A lot of times you can objectively tell the difference on a master, such as with an obvious loudness increase, you know it's a different master. The next thing to do is rip it and verify the dynamic range and compare the waveforms against another version of that CD. Then you can tell for sure.

 

[tmtomh]

Thanks. A master to me isn't the resulting cd particularly. Have you a particular database for determing the particular mastering for a given cd?

Many albums have multiple masterings. It's obvious the OP is talking about different masterings that have appeared on CD. It's not a complicated concept.

And it doesn't matter if you'd rather hear from the OP. It's not either-or, as the OP's subsequent confirming reply illustrated.

 

[formdissolve]

Thanks. A master to me isn't the resulting cd particularly. Have you a particular database for determing the particular mastering for a given cd?

Here is a good source, although it's far from exhaustive. https://dr.loudness-war.info/

 

[Chrispy]

Here is a good source, although it's far from exhaustive. https://dr.loudness-war.info/

Meh, that site has a lot of issues.

 

[Chrispy]

Many albums have multiple masterings. It's obvious the OP is talking about different masterings that have appeared on CD. It's not a complicated concept.

And it doesn't matter if you'd rather hear from the OP. It's not either-or, as the OP's subsequent confirming reply illustrated.

Just the wording. I was leaning towards this outcome but hard to know without clarification, which is best from the OP.

 

[formdissolve]

Meh, that site has a lot of issues.

Some of the reports aren't consolidated into a standard, but even a basic DR rating isn't that hard to create. Not all brickwalled CDs sound like crap, but the vast majority do to me. Outside of that, it's a good resource to start your search. I avoid the vinyl ratings on there though.

 

[Chrispy]

Some of the reports aren't consolidated into a standard, but even a basic DR rating isn't that hard to create. Not all brickwalled CDs sound like crap, but the vast majority do to me. Outside of that, it's a good resource to start your search. I avoid the vinyl ratings on there though.

Sometimes it's just a matter of how it's captured and the basic media involved....comparing two digital formats would possibly be more reliable.

 

[formdissolve]

Sometimes it's just a matter of how it's captured and the basic media involved....comparing two digital formats would possibly be more reliable.

Yeah that's why I said I'd avoid the vinyl score. But for a CD, they aren't capturing anything in the analogue domain for a DR rating. It's reading the PCM data, so bits will be bits.

 

[Anthony LoFi]

Steven Wilson re-mastered the first 5 Yes albums. He's also done Jethro Tull re-masters and Gentle Giant and some other classics.

Yes I nominated this specific release as I have it personally so can comment on its validity to the OP as an example.
There could be others that have been re-mastered and re-issued at a later date using better technology not available at the time it was first released.
Any recommendations by forum members can then be evaluated by others and may be a good resource for those of us that need a favorite track to datum any new component or DSP improvements.
Just saying Its not that complicated really!

 

[Chrispy]

Yeah that's why I said I'd avoid the vinyl score. But for a CD, they aren't capturing anything in the analogue domain for a DR rating. It's reading the PCM data, so bits will be bits.

Don't discount the ability of poor data?

 

[Mart68]

Meh, that site has a lot of issues.

I've been using it as a guide to find the best mastered CDs for about a decade now and it's never steered me wrong yet.