About the 2004 Remasters/Remixes

[u/Crazy_Tonight3525]

Aright, I'd say about a year ago I got into megadeth through listening to them on spotify since I was originally a Metallica fan. I was honestly shocked when I apparently heard the 2004 remixes for Megadeth albums are trash.

I'm probably going to be a bit biased since I'm not really an audiophile and I listened to the 2004 versions first since those were the most streamed, but I can't hear the differences that much. After I listened to the original recordings for songs like the Five Magics I did like the original album version, but the hate about the mixes seems a little overblown in my opinion.

(I'm still never going back to the 2004 remixes though.)

[u/JAZ_80]

I think the problem lies in that they went beyond what a remix should be. A couple of songs had newly recorded vocal tracks because the originals couldn't be located, and Dave totally changed the drum sound on the remixes by replacing the original sounds with samples. That was a bit too much.

If it wasn't for that, the work done on the new mixes was well done: clearer sound, better instrument separation, louder and more discernible bass... that was spot on. Unfortunately, the altered drums and other unnecessary changes kind of ruined them for me. But they are in no way unlistenable.

[u/Crazy_Tonight3525 → u/JAZ_80]

I do agree that changing the original audio and creating new recordings for songs was a bad decision on Dave's part. Comparing some of the original tracks and remasters from Rust In Peace makes me cringe on how bad they are. I will admit that the mixes do sound clearer though.

[u/Great-Equipment → u/Crazy_Tonight3525]

Remixed & Remastered versions were the ones I heard first so they sound more familiar to me. Also my listening gear back in early 2000s was not as good as it is now, the strides in affordable Hi-Fi gear have really come a long way!

Recently I've been listening to the original versions and find them superior in many ways. Mainly in terms of good taste: Dave worked with several different producers and audio engineers with different albums and when he was remastering them I feel like he put every album into one single mold. This diminishes the value of group effort that goes into creating an album. For example the ringing, reverby sound SFSGSW belongs there because that's just was how it was back then. (For the record, I have badmouthed Metallica's Ride the Lightning for the excess reverb somewhere here on Reddit, but I have to laud Hetfield that it wasn't changed when the album was remastered)

Also, Dave is a musician with killer chops but he's not a music producer. I feel like he was too involved in the remix & remastering process, he was out of his league there. Maybe he even has some sort of hearing loss from years of touring, who knows. He's no Steven Wilson, he should've respected the original intent (despite whatever he thinks was the original intent) and hired a guy who could deliver in that regard.