Rocky Road

Posted by ristopalazzo (A) on July 04, 2006 at 12:04:18

I now have the Remixed & Remastered version, the Mofi version, and my brother has the original. All 3 are ripped and I have a Squeezebox so comparing them was a breeze.

First the original: Thin and tinny. Cymbals stand out above everything else. The bass guitar is almost non-existant.

Remixed & Remastered: The drums have reverb added and sound a bit flatter than the original. The snare doesn't seem to POP as much. The cymbals are brought back a bit and they're not as thin. It sounds like a different drum set. The bass guitar has been brought up to a good level. The vocals have been brought up quite a bit. It sounds like Dave is way in front of the rest of the band. The album plays louder overall and I found it bringing a bit of listening fatigue. There are 2 changes in the mix that I noticed right away. 1) The guitar harmony during the pre-chorus in Symphony of Destruction has been removed. 2) Sweating Bullets has a new intro. I find these to be pointless changes. The harmony in Symphony worked well and the new intro to Sweating Bullets isn't very good.

Mofi Version: The packaging says "Orignal Master Recording". I assumed it would be the original mix. WRONG! It is the remix. I only spent about a minute comparing the two and they sounded very similar. They might even be identical for all I know. I'm kinda pissed at the "Original Master Recording" being a remix so I don't really care.

Conclusion: The original is a bit thin for my liking but I don't like some of the changes made on the remix. The mofi disc isn't worth the extra money over the remixed disc.