Remastering is an incredibly common practice nowadays. Anything that was produced on analog technology such as cassette, vinyl, or CD had to be digitally remastered in order to stream, or be used by digital audio technologies. This increases resolution, and makes the audio less susceptible to quality loss over copies. In order to provide some auditory examples of exactly what remastering is, let’s look at Daniel Johnston, and his album 1990.
First, let’s cover Daniel Johnston. Johnston was an alternative musician of cult acclaim in the 90s and early 2000s, even earning Kurt Cobain as a loyal fan. However, his first fans were people who attended the burger joint he worked at in the 1980s, where he handed out his cassette tapes to anyone he met. Below, I have linked “True Love Will Find You in the End,” which was the closing track on his 1984 cassette Retired Boxer. The audio is extremely compressed, which is common among his early tapes. The production is very simple: he plays his guitar next to the recording cassette. No editing, no mixing, nothing other than what Johnston performed.
In 1988, Johnston went to New York City and worked with Mike Kramer. There, Mike remastered and recorded an album for Daniel composed of his favorite cassette songs. This is the remastered version of “True Love Will Find You In The End.”
This mix is far more professional than the original. The added reverb is most immediately apparent. There is also a huge increase in clarity. In the original, the levels between Johnston’s voice and guitar were all off. That’s probably because he had no way to manipulate the levels individually, as he just sang and played at the same time. Remastering digitally usually involves separating the good qualities of a recording from the technical deficiencies, such as hissing or static. However, Johnston’s works needed to be entirely recorded again. Thanks to remastering technologies, fantastic music made on analog technologies are still available. However, if you still like the feel of Johnston’s tapes, both versions are available on Spotify.