Signals and noise

摘要

Recently I heard a remastered version of 'Maneater', the '80s-era hit by Hall & Oates, in my opinion their best song. I'm glad I didn't buy this one - what the remastering engineer had done was boost the top and bottom octaves and add a little reverb to the vocals to make it sound very 'now'. In no way was it an improvement over the original. It was actually far worse. In my music collection are many reissues, including Kind Of Blue, the Miles Davis masterpiece that over the decades has been tackled and tweaked by multiple golden ears. I also have the original CD of Cheap Thrills by Big Brother & The Holding Company, with Janis Joplin's immortal performances of 'Summertime' and 'Ball And Chain', plus a more recent remastered CD. The first CD sounds very much like the original LP. The remastered version, rather like 'Maneater', has been manipulated to open up the soundstage but it too is not an improvement.