MR

Does anyone know why the classic Styx catalog hasn't been properly remastered?

It seems odd to me that much lesser bands have had remastered catalogs while all we get is these original substandard CD releases?

If they'd put me at the mixing board, I'd take a page from Dave Mustaine and Queen's respective playbooks. Instead of over-cooking the sound with overmodulation, I'd actually re-EQ everything and then peak limit the signal to the point where there is the slightest hint of clipping. At this point, I'd back off a few tenths of a decibal until there's no clipping at all. This way, you get that loud "hot" sound of today along with the clean sound and consistancy of the original.

Slap on a few "Bonus Remix" tracks at the end of each album and VIOLA!

PsychoSy wrote:If they'd put me at the mixing board, I'd take a page from Dave Mustaine and Queen's respective playbooks. Instead of over-cooking the sound with overmodulation, I'd actually re-EQ everything and then peak limit the signal to the point where there is the slightest hint of clipping. At this point, I'd back off a few tenths of a decibal until there's no clipping at all. This way, you get that loud "hot" sound of today along with the clean sound and consistancy of the original.

Slap on a few "Bonus Remix" tracks at the end of each album and VIOLA!

Your Hired get to it,

Couple of guesses and they are guesses is that with Styx out of exhistence during the "hiatus" they felt there wasn't enugh interest to invest.

But I do remember when the "Come Sail Away" compulation was being done that Ludwig said the master tapes were in really good shape and that it would probably happen at some time in the future. But that was a while ago.

We now have the Wooden Nickel stuff that was just remastered, and 30 or so songs from the rest of the catalog have been done. Another guess is that maybe the wooden nickel stuff is the beginning of the remastering.

styxfanNH wrote:
We now have the Wooden Nickel stuff that was just remastered, and 30 or so songs from the rest of the catalog have been done. Another guess is that maybe the wooden nickel stuff is the beginning of the remastering.

We can only hope. The Wooden Nickel stuff is a nice package.

I agree, Psycho. I do hope they don't over EQ it when they do get around to it... I have good equipment and some of the recent remasters I've purchased left a lot to be desired.

Case in point... the Billy Joel remasters are so friggen "bright" it's ridiculous. If you have a crap system they might sound better, but with good equipment it's very annoying... especially on headphones.

Maybe they could let Rhino do them... they're the best in the business. Not sure if A&M (is it still A&M or has someone bought them out?) has a relationship with Rhino but they've been handling the "Alice Cooper" stuff and they do a phenominal job... not only with the music but with liner notes, extras, etc...

A&M is part of Universal now...

Bob Ludwig remastered the songs on the CSA Anthology. He did a great job.