Kraftwerk - The Catalogue

[ascdi]

hmm i've only really good quite bad things about the sound... that the earlier stuff is now swimming in artifacts after trying to reduce the hiss and lots of bad EQ and compression type decisions on the newer ones. i'm wary of complaints about the last aspect cause it brings out the audiophile in people and those aspects are so subjective anyway... but audible noise-reduction is really annoying - did you notice any of that (apparently especially on radioactivity apparently)

 

the packaging looks quite nice though. the artwork - when changed - i think is done really tastefully.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RgyPwJT17wE

 

I've only heard the mix of Autobahn so far but it really sounds excellent. I think I know the 'review' that you read and it's important to note that it was a review of leaked versions circa 2004 or whatever. Not the final 'The Catalogue' versions. I'm ripping Radioactivity right now and will report back.

[ascdi]

Sound quality update: so far I've listened to Autobahn, Radioactivity, Techno Pop, and Computer World.

 

The noise-reduction (if that is in fact what is going on) is not that "audible" in the Cool Edit Pro you-hear-little-bubbly-noises sense, but it is a little disorienting to hear these old songs with a complete lack of tape hiss. I do think it is possible that this process has robbed the tunes of a little atmosphere and nostalgia that I would have liked to stay in there.

 

I personally love tape hiss and old artifacts in music, and were I to be in charge of remastering something, that's the philosophy I would use .. basically copying the master tapes over to digital in as high quality as possible and just representing whatever is on them as accurately as possible. The new-ish Brian Eno digipack remasters are, in my opinion, the best remasters I've ever heard in this sense. They are incredibly detailed but still very vintage-y sounding. They're great.

 

It seems pretty clear that this is Kraftwerk's attempt to "modernize" their canon as best they can .. being Kraftwerk, I imagine that their idea of "timelessness" involves a lack of tape hiss and a clean, modern sound. That's fine, but I do think that the infamous blog post in question (sound clips included) makes a fair point that the processing, in addition to being rather heavy, is applied fairly unevenly from album-to-album. My beloved Computer World sounds much different here than on the original CD. The bass is cranked up pretty noticeably, for one thing.

 

When you consider the amount of good-sounding remasters out there nowadays (I'm really into the latest CD versions of Stevie Wonder, Bob Dylan, Love, Eno, Beatles obviously, heck even the Rhino Grateful Dead remastered CDs sound excellent), then it does seem like a shame that Kling Klang decided to DIY this when there are so many other competent remastering studios working out there.

 

So yeah, I'm not unhappy with this big lovely product, but approach with caution. I'm not selling my old jewel-pack CDs just yet.

[Zephyr_Nova]

I've somehow managed to avoid ever buying a Kraftwerk album despite liking their music. I will probably buy this.

[Guest Stoppit]

I've somehow managed to avoid ever buying a Kraftwerk album despite liking their music.

 

Same. This seemed like the perfect time to change that, so I asked for the box for christmas. Just finished listening to it this evening, and it's great.

[beerwolf]

I've somehow managed to avoid ever buying a Kraftwerk album despite liking their music.

 

Same. This seemed like the perfect time to change that, so I asked for the box for christmas. Just finished listening to it this evening, and it's great.

 

 

Same as. Never owned a Kraftwerk album, yet always loved their music. Since back in the day when I first got into the Streetsounds Electro series and early hip-hop they have been slowly dripping their influence/music into my brain. So I got the box set for Christmas and it is tip-top. Beautifuly put together and packaged, the art work is superb. Worth every penny.