Depeche Mode remasters

Who bought them? What do you think of them?

I just listened to Music for the Masses in my car and I was very impressed by the sound quality, especially on Behind the Wheel. Yet, I read on a DM board that the sound quality improvement is obvious on the other two albums (Speak & Speel and Violator) but not on MFTM. If this is true, it must be striking on those albums!

I was very skeptical about the remasters (pure marketing or real enhancement?). Now I'm convinced that New Order's back catalogue would deserve the same treatment.

By the way, why the hell did they put the bonus tracks on the DVDs only and not on the CDs? This is stupid! The more so since you need to use the DVD's menus to play them.

Nobody, really?

i didn't. blue eyed might have.

Er... I bought them.

As far as remasters go I think they have set the benchmark. The remastering has been done well and the albums are given a new lease of life.

The 5.1 mixes may not be everyone's cup of tea, however they are nicely done and are created from the original multitracks - there are some clear differences between the 5.1 mixes and the original LP versions. Plus they include a DTS 96/24 mix, which sounds particularly good.

So, well packaged, well thought out - do you think Warners are taking any notice?!

Let me guess...

Pash wrote: Er... I bought them.

As far as remasters go I think they have set the benchmark. The remastering has been done well and the albums are given a new lease of life.

The 5.1 mixes may not be everyone's cup of tea, however they are nicely done and are created from the original multitracks - there are some clear differences between the 5.1 mixes and the original LP versions. Plus they include a DTS 96/24 mix, which sounds particularly good.

So, well packaged, well thought out - do you think Warners are taking any notice?!

Let me guess...

i'm not so sure that studio albums should be heard in surround sound.

Saw them yesterday in HMV. Violator seemed to have the why is it only those three albums though?

[black]STEVE[/black] one wrote: Saw them yesterday in HMV. Violator seemed to have the why is it only those three albums though?

They'll release the other ones later: two or three at a time on a quarterly basis. Next batch of 3 is foreseen this summer. The titles are still unknown.

Pash wrote: The 5.1 mixes may not be everyone's cup of tea, however they are nicely done and are created from the original multitracks - there are some clear differences between the 5.1 mixes and the original LP versions. Plus they include a DTS 96/24 mix, which sounds particularly good.

Now, that's a strong incentive to invest in a 5.1 DTS amp for my NAD stereo. This plus the missing loudspeakers are unfortunately much too expensive...

Will be buying them soon..the European version is SACD and the North American version isn't..can someone explain the difference??

No Ben no shed wrote:

By the way, why the hell did they put the bonus tracks on the DVDs only and not on the CDs? This is stupid! The more so since you need to use the DVD's menus to play them.

My thoughts exactly. What a missed opportunity. Also, there doesn't seem to be any unreleased tracks in any of the bonus material.

Pash wrote:

So, well packaged, well thought out - do you think Warners are taking any notice?!

Let me guess...

The first 3 are due for US release June 6. No info on packaging, the one-sheet states boxlot = 30, so I bet they come in slimline, double SACD jewel boxes.

FAC 51 wrote:

No Ben no shed wrote:

By the way, why the hell did they put the bonus tracks on the DVDs only and not on the CDs? This is stupid! The more so since you need to use the DVD's menus to play them.

My thoughts exactly. What a missed opportunity. Also, there doesn't seem to be any unreleased tracks in any of the bonus material.

Worse than that: I read on a DM board that, on the Speak & Spell documentary, you can see them play an unreleased track (at Top of the Pops I think) but you can't hear it as the video is only used as background for an interview.

No Ben no shed wrote:

FAC 51 wrote:

No Ben no shed wrote:

By the way, why the hell did they put the bonus tracks on the DVDs only and not on the CDs? This is stupid! The more so since you need to use the DVD's menus to play them.

My thoughts exactly. What a missed opportunity. Also, there doesn't seem to be any unreleased tracks in any of the bonus material.

Worse than that: I read on a DM board that, on the Speak & Spell documentary, you can see them play an unreleased track (at Top of the Pops I think) but you can't hear it as the video is only used as background for an interview.

Probably lisencing issues. BBC has a horribly per-minute rate fee.

shedNOOLigan wrote: i didn't. blue eyed might have.

No. The quality of Music For the Masses and Violator doesn't bother me. Speak and Spell is a throwaway album, with the exception of "Photographic" - which sounded better in live versions after Alan joined. However, if NO decided to remaster Brotherhood, I'd buy it.

Speak and Spell is a throwaway album, with the excepti

C'mon! What about that classic track "Whats Your Name"? P-R-E double T-Y...

Speak & Spell was mostly written by Vince. This ain't nodisco, baby!

FAC 51 wrote:

Speak and Spell is a throwaway album, with the excepti

C'mon! What about that classic track "Whats Your Name"? P-R-E double T-Y...

Speak & Spell was mostly written by Vince. This ain't nodisco, baby!

I realize that. But I also don't like Erasure. New Life isn't bad and Photographic is good, but the rest is pure fluff. Give me Black Celebration and Alan Wilder any day.

Hi Ben

At that time, I've just got the Violator remaster only. The other 2 are ordered...

I regret that they put the bonus tracks only on the DVD too. Violator is 47'05 long. The remaining half an hour on the CD could be used...

The good point is the documentary. I didn't know the existence of the videos for Halo and Clean.

IMHO The Cure remasters are better done: The 2nd CD is full of rarities, demos, live stuff.

[orange]In A Lumpy Place[/orange] wrote: Hi Ben

At that time, I've just got the Violator remaster only. The other 2 are ordered...

I regret that they put the bonus tracks only on the DVD too. Violator is 47'05 long. The remaining half an hour on the CD could be used...

The good point is the documentary. I didn't know the existence of the videos for Halo and Clean.

IMHO The Cure remasters are better done: The 2nd CD is full of rarities, demos, live stuff.

Yep, there are videos for those songs, although they were never singles. Pimpf, from MFTM, also has a video. The Halo and Pimpf videos could use a little more Alan and less Dave, though.

[orange]In A Lumpy Place[/orange] wrote: The good point is the documentary. I didn't know the existence of the videos for Halo and Clean.

I think they were released on the Strange Too VHS.

As much as I'd like to see NO's albums remastered and reissued, I wasn't terribly impressed with the sound quality on 'Singles'. It's tiring to listen to, and the low end is a mess. I'd describe it as 'thuddy'.

Having recently picked up a copy of that Canadian CD issue of the 1981–1982 EP, I was surprised at how much better it sounded than the corresponding tracks on Substance 1987 and Retro. The mastering is definitely different, with Bernard's vocals sounding particularly more natural on Temptation.

No Ben no shed wrote:

[orange]In A Lumpy Place[/orange] wrote: The good point is the documentary. I didn't know the existence of the videos for Halo and Clean.

I think they were released on the Strange Too VHS.

Yeah I've got Strange Too.And the HALO video features one of the dancing girls who is none other than...Jenna Elfman (Dharma & Greg)!

They should have put Strange and Strange Too as bonus material on the MFTM and Violator CDs. Hope they'll release them soon on DVD. I never had the chance to watch them.

No Ben no shed wrote: Nobody, really?

I would like to hear the remaster of Speak & Spell.

But nope, haven't heard anything yet.

Rian wrote:

No Ben no shed wrote: Nobody, really?

I would like to hear the remaster of Speak & Spell.

But nope, haven't heard anything yet.

On the remaster of Speak and Spell, you can clearly hear that Nodisco is actually Notesco: Move me Tesco / Baby don't you let go / This is notesco. Must have been dedicated to Mike

No Ben no shed wrote: They should have put Strange and Strange Too as bonus material on the MFTM and Violator CDs. Hope they'll release them soon on DVD. I never had the chance to watch them.

They should be on DVD, as well as The World We Live in and Live in Hamburg. But, I was at some goth record store in Philly in the winter, and in a video box, they had all three on VHS. So I bought Live in Hamburg. But, perhaps all three should just be made into a double DVD. The Hamburg show is excellent.

This blue-eyed boy that wants to be wrote:

No Ben no shed wrote: They should have put Strange and Strange Too as bonus material on the MFTM and Violator CDs. Hope they'll release them soon on DVD. I never had the chance to watch them.

They should be on DVD, as well as The World We Live in and Live in Hamburg. But, I was at some goth record store in Philly in the winter, and in a video box, they had all three on VHS. So I bought Live in Hamburg. But, perhaps all three should just be made into a double DVD. The Hamburg show is excellent.

Is this the show that was also released as a series of 12" singles or maxi CDs (maybe as B sides - I don't remember well)?

No Ben no shed wrote:

This blue-eyed boy that wants to be wrote:

No Ben no shed wrote: They should have put Strange and Strange Too as bonus material on the MFTM and Violator CDs. Hope they'll release them soon on DVD. I never had the chance to watch them.

They should be on DVD, as well as The World We Live in and Live in Hamburg. But, I was at some goth record store in Philly in the winter, and in a video box, they had all three on VHS. So I bought Live in Hamburg. But, perhaps all three should just be made into a double DVD. The Hamburg show is excellent.

Is this the show that was also released as a series of 12" singles or maxi CDs (maybe as B sides - I don't remember well)?

I'm not sure, but it's their first concert video, from the Some Great Reward tour. It's mostly songs off that album, with the exception of It doesn't Matter and Stories of Old, and older hits, like Everything Counts, Just Can't Get Enough, Told You So, and Photographic. Actually, I believe the version played in this concert of Master and Servant is the extended version and Just can't Get Enough has a different ending that goes into a key with a lot of flats.

Yesterday I tried to extract the bonus tracks from the MFTM DVD (since they aren't on the CD), with the idea of burning a CD containing the album + bonus tracks. As I always do, I used Imtoo DVD Audio Ripper for this purpose and I selected the PCM stereo channel of the DVD for extraction. But it didn't work: the resulting wav files were 1) truncated and 2) slower (as if you would play a 45rpm record at 33rpm).

The slower issue can be solved with any sound file editing tool, simply by changing the sampling rate property. However, as the sampling rate is unknown (obviously none of the standard 44.1, 48 or 96 kHz but in the range of 66 kHz), trials & errors must be used to find it.

I couldn't solve the truncation issue, however.

Did anybody ever have such experience? Would you recommend trying another ripping tool?