Channel Title: Respectful Remasters by Metalmucil Channel Description: This channel is purely for experimentation. This is a hobby for me in my spare time. I take older albums I love and try to see what they would sound like with more modern mastering techniques applied to them. That's it. I post a description of what I did and why I did it in each video. If you like the music, go buy the album from the band! The bands deserve your money for making this fantastic music. Side note. This page is called Respectful Remasters for a reason. This page is NOT called "Make everything super loud and kill all dynamic range like a modern radio song Remasters" I try to make the album sound as good as I can while correcting any issues I feel it has with modern tools. I do not try to simply make them loud. Again, this is all for experimentation's sake and not for any type of monetary gain. I do this to see what albums I love could possibly sound like given a more modern treatment. <video> Alice In Chains - Three Legged Dog Remastered HD Description: I've always loved this album and its atonal beauty. I've always hated the way the mix sounded. It sounds like the music and vocals were mixed completely separately and then shoved together afterwards. The musical balance between the instruments is great. The vocal mix is great. But they don't meld well at all. The vocal mix is so big that it often just eats up everything. And not just up the center where most vocals live. The vocal mix here is so huge that it eats up the entire stereo field at times. It must just be Toby's style, as the Fear Factory album he worked on has the same types of mix issues. So that was my main area to tackle. I tried to downplay and control the vocal range a bit with mid/side EQ and multiband compression, and bring out the instruments using those same tools. I also applied some overall EQ to the entire mix to even out the tracks a bit more (tracks like Brush Away and Over Now sounded a bit different than others) and take out some of the mud as the album sounded a tad muffled to me. Per usual with me, just a tad of modern style limiting to catch peaks from all the EQ. This album was plenty loud already, so don't expect this thing to just be blasting loud now. That would ruin it. Anywho, critique away in the comments! </video> <video> Bootsy? Player of the Year Remastered HQ Description: Another funk classic by that master of the low end. This albums sounds amazing as is, so me remastering it was not really needed so much as I just felt like tinkering with it. Very basic stuff here though. The album is SUPER spacious. You really need to turn it up to get the full effect of everything. And that effect is fantastic. All I really did was add a small bit of modern style tightness to it with very light multi band compression (a db or 2 extra on the upper-mids) and a small touch of modern limiting (never ever more than 2-3 db. Usually it would just touch it and back off) and try to smooth out the extreme highs with some light EQ because I felt like they were a bit too loud. </video> <video> Alice in Chains - Facelift Remastered HD Description: This one was interesting. I almost shelved my attempts at remastering but then a commenter requested it so I decided to try and push through on it. I think it turned out pretty well. This is a great sounding album from the get go, but it does have some quirks/issues that I tried to correct a bit. And 1 thing that I couldn't do anything about. The first thing I tried was taming the low end. Its a bit hit or miss. On a few track, the bass guitar has a decent amount of low end, and on others, it is quite literally non-existent below about 60 hz. I mean, its a BASS. Why would you do that? Anyway, at least the bass has mid/high content, unlike some albums *cough ...Justice... cough* So I whacked everything below that mark with some healthy compression to try and bring out the extreme lows and even it out a bit and then tried to EQ them in. It worked out for the most part, but there are still a few tracks that lack proper bass content. Another quirk is the vocal mix. While they vocals sound great, they sometimes completely dominate the mix in an odd way. It sounds like Dave Jerden was maybe riding the fader on the vocals instead of using compression, which is a great thing for keeping dynamics and sounds fantastic, but there are a few spots where they get away from the mix a tiny bit. No big deal, but I did try a bit of soft compression on the upper mids to keep them in line. The only other oddity I ran into was something I couldn't even try to fix. Well, I guess it wasn't an oddity since it was intentional, but I still don't like it. The snare sound. I just hate the snare on this album. It sounds like a cheap midi kit off of a Casio keyboard. Plus, on certain tracks like Bleed the Freak, its super low in the mix for some reason. I can't change the snare sound, but I did try to give it a little more body through some limiting/EQ over the low mids. I think it comes through OK, but I still hate the sound of it. But that's on me, its personal taste. Other than that, just a bit of overall light compression to tame some of the EQ changes I made when evening out the tracks a bit. I hope you enjoy it! Remember to support the artists and buy their fantastic music! All remastered music posted here is for the purposes of entertainment and experimentation only. I am simply exploring modern mastering techniques and their effect on great albums from various eras. I love these bands and their music and am in no way seeking to monetize anything about this. All rights are with the original artist and no infringement is intended. </video> <video> MinorThreat - Out Of Step Remastered HQ Description: Another fun one that was suggested to me. I'd not delved into these guys at all before, so this was cool. The album actually sounded great, except for one thing, the 2nd worst kick drum sound I've ever heard on a professional recording. (#1 goes to Slipknot on Vol3, the whole album sounds amazing except for the kick, which sounds like someone snapping their fingers with zero thump to it, super weird). The main thing I tried to do was open it up a bit on the top as it sounded kinda chunky to me. So some light EQ all around. I also just tried to reign in the jumpiness of a lot of the tracks. I know its not very punk rock do to that, but it irks my ears how sometimes stuff just slaps you in the face (aurally anyway) and then disappears. So some light selective compression. I include the top end in that since, when I opened up the airy-ness a bit, it needed a bit of a tighter grip to not sound tinny. I think it turned out well. Its also interesting to compare to the official remastered version. Because of my insistence on control, mine sounds way more contained and less spacious. So its a good study in what mastering can do. The official version if definitely larger sounding and more "punk" and mine, based on personal preference, is much more modern metal. Feel free to not like it. </video> <video> Parliament - The Clones of Dr. Funkenstein Remastered HQ Description: Sorry for the re-up. I don't know why YT took most of my stuff down, I received no notices or communication and no responses to my inquiries. So let's just try it this way. This is actually a better version of the one I had previously uploaded. So I guess there is a silver lining there. I just love this album. The main challenge in trying to do a remaster was trying to get cohesion as all of the tracks sound rather different from each other. The honestly all sound as if there were recorded and mixed in different sessions. So that was my main focus here. I did do a bit of spatial processing as well to open it up a bit, but nothing much. Mostly just control compression and evening out the EQ between tracks to something a bit more modern. Enjoy and make sure to go pick up the album to show support for the artist. Parliament is one of the greatest bands ever. All remastered music posted here is for the purposes of entertainment and experimentation only. I am simply exploring modern mastering techniques and their effect on great albums from various eras. I love these bands and their music and am in no way seeking to monetize anything about this. All rights are with the original artist and no infringement is intended. </video> <video> Tragic Hands - Predicament Description: So, my friend in Tragic Hands just released an album, which you can pick up here https://tragichands.bandcamp.com/album/pillow-on-the-sofa , and was nice enough to let me have a go at mixing a song. These 2 mixes are the result. The 1st mix is a modern style mix. Everything isolated, EQ'd, compressed, blah blah blah, in line with modern techniques. The 2nd is heavily inspired by Black Sabbath's album Vol. 4 and just lets it all rip. No gating at all, crazy playing around with room sounds and the stereo field, everything just wide open and treating it all as an almost live mix. The results are very different and those differences are awesome. Also major shout out to Jason Orris at the Terrarium who recorded these tracks. These raw tracks were truly a cut above. 0:00 Mix 1 3:58 Mix 2 </video> <video> Bootsy Collins - Stretchin' Out in Bootsy's Rubber Band Remastered HQ Description: Sorry for the re-up, channel issues All right, here's some more funk for all the funkateers out there. Another classic by the master of low end. The album sounded great but for two problems I had. 1 - the vocals were really overpowering on some parts 2 - the highs were a bit too sharp for my tastes So, I tried to reign in the mids on the vocals with some band specific compression and EQ the highs a bit to soften them. I also EQd the tracks overall to match a bit more to modern tastes and added some punch on the lows with some hard ratio compression there and some modern style limiting. Hardly brick-walled, just a few db to bring everything out more. Not much more to say on this one really, very good original sound, so not many problems and a very straightforward remaster on my end. Enjoy! </video> <video> Metallica - Metallica (The Black Album) Remastered HQ Description: I love this album. It sounds beastly. My only real complaint was that I always thought the balance between the frequency bands skewed too high. It was a bit tinny, lacked mids. The bass frequencies were great, so I left those mostly alone. I re-balanced the highs and mids though. The original was just too cymbal heavy and had a peak around 10k with a dip around 1k. You know, like that smile curve people love to do on heir home system or in their car. Other than that, I really wanted to make sure the impact of the drums was left intact. I mean, this is a Bob Rock album. Say what you will about him and what he did to Metallica, but that man knows how to make massive sounding albums. I tried hard not to lose that and, really, to accent it where I could. No real compression on here, just a small bit of multi band to catch peaks where I heavily EQ'd things. A couple db of modern style limiting as well, but nothing over 3db. Again, just evening out peaks and holding up those drum attacks so they smack you around a little bit. Bring on the haters and enjoy! This album for sure needs to be just cranked. </video> <video> Plasmatics- New Hope For The Wretched Remastered HQ Description: OK, this one was a fan request. I had never heard of this band before, but it turned out to be super fun to do and I ended up really digging the band. Now, fun does not equal easy. I was unable to find a high quality version of the original release to use, so I was forced to use the atrocious sounding 2001 re-issue. (ps, if anyone has a HQ copy of the original, I'd be happy to re-do this!) I mean, it's bad. Like really, really bad. Apparently, "mastered for CD" means running the original album through a TC Electronics Finalizer at full bore to the point of distortion and calling it good. No corrections between tracks, no actual "mastering" whatsoever. Ugh. Onto what I ended up doing. So really, I essentially DE-mastered this. Luckily, it doesn't seem like too much compression was used when they screwed it up, just a LOT of limiting, so much of the dynamics between the instruments was intact. But, in order to get back some life, the first thing in my chain was something I'd never tried before. I used a multi-band compressor with a ration lower than 1, essentially turning it into an multi-band expander. It worked really well, surprisingly. I got back 2-3 db of life, which was just enough to make this work. Next up was a regular EQ to sort of spot check the mixes. I just did a little corrective work of a couple db on a couple frequencies that were sounding annoying. Then on into Ozone’s neat little “active EQ” plug-in. I used this mainly to control the highs that just blare out and keep them a little more tame. Then, I went into a multi-band enhancer to clean up the upper mids a tad. Just a tad to soften them and add some depth since they sounded slightly harsh and flat. Lastly, I went into a another round of standard EQ to re-adjust anything that wound up sticking out oddly with the processing I had done. So, there you have it. Am I happy with it, not really. If I could get a hold of the originals, I am certain I could do a pretty good remaster. Does it sound better than that absolutely horrible CD release that is currently available? Yes, quite a bit I would say. It doesn’t hurt to listen to any longer and there is some additional depth and dynamics in there now. Remember to support the artists and buy their fantastic music! All remastered music posted here is for the purposes of entertainment and experimentation only. I am simply exploring modern mastering techniques and their effect on great albums from various eras. I love these bands and their music and am in no way seeking to monetize anything about this. All rights are with the original artist and no infringement is intended. </video> <video> White Zombie La Sexorcisto: Devil Music Volume One Remastered HQ Description: Great sounding album, but I always felt it just sounded a bit flat. By that I mean the center of the mix, specifically the kick, snare and main vocals, just stuck out too far in a spatial sense so the rest of the mix was forced to take a back seat. It never enveloped the listener and almost had a bit of a "mono" quality to it. I mean, it sounds great, and has lots of fun panning and stereo effects, but just never really gelled, like it gave up cohesion for punch. Totally valid decision on Andy Wallace's part, as he's a fantastic mixer, but It never sat right with my ears. So what I did here was try to keep the butt-kicking punch, but also up the spatial factors a bit. Compression was crazy small, a bit on the lows to bring out Sean's bass because its so important, and a bit on the high mids to tame the crazy samples and bring Rob's vocals more "into" the mix rather than on top of it. 3b or less on each of those bands with a stiff ratio. just to slap them around a tiny, tiny bit. The real work can in the form of a bit of mid/side processing. I upped the sides of the mix (post the aforementioned super tiny bit of compression and EQ) by 0.4db along with 0.5db of long, slow, low ratio compression. It may seem like too small an amount to do anything, but if you compare this version to the original, you can hear how it really helped the balance out to feel like a fuller mix, especially in headphones. I did do a bit of EQ to modernize it in that regard, but not much, a little bottom octave and some taming of the upper mids to even them out, and bring them in line with the mids. Also, just a touch of limiting to catch peaks, but nothing more than that. I think I succeeded in keeping the punch but bringing out the sides of the mix. Let me know what you think in the comments. </video> <video> Gerard McMann / G. Tom. Mac - Cry Little Sister (Theme From The Lost Boys) Remastered HQ Description: Cool and very unique song that I thought could use a little love. I did this on a whim as I was mastering something for a client and it turned out pretty nifty. Not really much to say here. I did my thing with a little nip here and tuck here, a tiny tweak here and a boost there. Its a very dynamic song, so I wanted to make sure to keep that. However, the original version sounds very muffled, so I tried to clear that up a bit. Not much of a volume difference here, I didn't try to make it super loud and modern or anything since I think that would ruin a track like this. I hope you dig it, I hope Mr McMann digs it too. Bonus links of the stuff YT doesn't like for those of you that actually read descriptions: monstrous young men an official document to be sick https://mega.nz/#!JzQQCYKK!c45gnpPbTVNqEmxZiMZu9QZ5LxKAELt_7oddOn1Je04 monstrous young men a small shop owned by paul https://mega.nz/#!5vRxTTTY!vGrJsBpFqtSrI2t98EUQgsRYxt6Vp5v4hhLi4n0-jRA a cat that can't hear up and not wet https://mega.nz/#!Mi4gDLZa!o6wdGK-pOkImIlOmVGMcM4zhAyMLMt-WUHnGAaAbrfw a cat that can't hear keep going well past daylight https://mega.nz/#!kmB3RLgY!Asnf8QfFtvEm7yMpxOiMZjufNPzcmV72Er4Ucf9MnZ0 females do not dislike him that thing people used to listen to music on https://mega.nz/#!8ygyRACY!7nXk10WIneoeN9ptVOC9FWzKPYbZiAbVF8Bf1G0Hqow females do not dislike him less small and cannot hear even moreso https://mega.nz/#!duBmSACR!TpO1N0pqSP70-JgGdD9Zbn3u81nk9KfAA-Iic7Z4Ji8 A city in Massachusetts - the next stage after 2 https://mega.nz/#!drBHHI5b!4-gxV6FQfsdsA_gg0m0WBlf9WTjIOj0dzenfuRIDMcQ A river in Egypt - angry plant beginings that are the opposite of white https://mega.nz/#!Z7ZRDJqJ!NP7MCY4DVB6Gu_vjvwmvtFwJrn0iqhTbSScq22b7uyo spicy vegetables - red stuff, sweetness, intercourse, spells https://mega.nz/#!l7gCCAiQ!o75uDUlouUEOUtN4cMd6ZdEPk5z-U5v1tC6CM8kkoBs </video> <video> Dread Machine Contest - Mix and Master by Respectful Remasters Description: So, I decided to try my hand at this. A little different for the channel as its actually a full mix and master I did for a contest. To find out more about the contest, to download the files, and to hear the people that beat me (oh well!) go here: http://www.oiart.org/mix-contest Plus people often message me asking if I do mixing and/or mastering and what I am capable of in those circumstances, so this a bit of a response to that as well. Anyway - I had full control over the mix and master on this one. I did not record it however, and some of the tracks had baked in effects, so there were some decisions made before I could do anything. Beyond that, this is my take on this song done by a bunch of famous Youtube musicians. There is WAY too much to talk about in the description here, so if you have any questions about how I got a sound or what I did for a particular track, please ask in the comments. I think it turned out pretty well myself. Please criticize, applaud, critique, comment, and ask questions to your hearts content. As a side note, I am particularly proud of the bass guitar tone and different guitar solo tones I achieved here. </video> <video> Promidal- Let It Burn (ChristZilla Remix) Description: All right, here is a remix I did for Promidal. I fully performed, engineered, mixed, and mastered the entire thing except for the vocals, which were taken and edited from the original track. Fair Warning, the ending section has a sub-destroying oscillator drop kick drum. Make sure to check out the EP this is on and all of Promidal's music here: https://promidal.bandcamp.com/album/a-taste-of-madness-2 </video> <video> Dark Times - Turning Point full mix and master by Metalmucil Description: So, another mix contest. I thought it turned out pretty good. I guess the judges disagreed though since I didn't even get a mention. Oh well, at least it doesn't sound like a generic, overly processed, heavily squashed modern day metal mix and has some actual life to it. All live drums and instruments here, btw. </video> <video> E-40 - The Mail Man Remastered HQ Description: Again, sorry to everyone. I still don't know why Youtube took down nearly my whole channel. No response, no help, nothing. I honestly doubt even this one will make it up as they are blocking everything I try to do. Anyway, this one was a fan request. Fun little 90's rap EP. It wound up being a really quick remaster as the mixes here were great and everything was very consistent. I applied some overall compression and EQ to get the mixes to sound more in line with modern recording and then engaged a nice, snappy limiter to beef up the overall volume. It is still several db quieter than most modern masters (as I like to keep them!) so there are still solid dynamics there. Enjoy! Bootsy collection https://mega.nz/#!U640iSJA!HEt9adydaPcKplF29434rWbeTxpFD5CLuaH0rbnfMsA P-funk collection https://mega.nz/#!Z6gnFKZR!ciX5dCT7du78Rk8z97jR-pkiZtqdMHWDLYog3nB1bkQ not yet king - post indicating the millennium https://mega.nz/#!Q2BXEKaT!XDvxuZiSba1jyRRfXONb0u6FYXbBOZMUxczVRdIdgTc a thing you use to do things - water pulling you under https://mega.nz/#!QzBXwS4a!ksn--LWYMAUqjW1buZUI3OYfNuouvlRAFBTQNPMSpsI </video>

Contacts and Links

Description

This channel is purely for experimentation. This is a hobby for me in my spare time. I take older albums I love and try to see what they would sound like with more modern mastering techniques applied to them. That's it. I post a description of what I did and why I did it in each video. If you like the music, go buy the album from the band! The bands deserve your money for making this fantastic music.

Side note. This page is called Respectful Remasters for a reason. This page is NOT called "Make everything super loud and kill all dynamic range like a modern radio song Remasters" I try to make the album sound as good as I can while correcting any issues I feel it has with modern tools. I do not try to simply make them loud.

Again, this is all for experimentation's sake and not for any type of monetary gain. I do this to see what albums I love could possibly sound like given a more modern treatment.

Videos from channel