As I understand the style guides, while a remaster release should link to the same recordings as the original release, if the release has been “remixed by” then there should be new recordings created. Is this correct?
I’ve no idea who the original mixing engineer was, but I’m assuming it wasn’t Steve Wilson who remixed the album in 2014 into a new 2-channel mix and a 5.1 mix, and then remixed the album in 2025 in Atmos as well as (according to liner notes) creating a new 5.1 and 2-channel mix. The SDE BluRay also has Atmos, 5.1 and stereo instrumental mixes.
That means (by my reckoning) there should be (at least) 9 different recordings of for each track of Tears for Fears - Songs from the Big Chair.
the original (album) mix
Steve Wilson’s 2014 5.1 mix
Steve Wilson’s 2014 stereo mix
Steve Wilson’s 2025 Atmos mix
Steve Wilson’s 2025 5.1 mix
Steve Wilson’s 2025 stereo mix
Instrumental Atmos mix
Instrumental 5.1 mix
Instrumental stereo mix
Does this sound right - wanting to check before I start creating a release for my newly delivered Blu-ray and vinyl copies
At some point, the correct recordings will also need to be assigned to the 2014 releases and the engineering personnel correcting for the original releases. For now I’ll make a note in the annotations!
In the blurb Steven Wilson writes “I decided to also revisit my stereo and 5.1 mixes from 2014 […] Both consequently have been revisited for 2025 primarily in an attempted to be even more faithful to the 1985 album”
I’ll upload scans of the booklet at a (slightly) later date.
I find dropping tracks into Audacity helps spot real differences.
If the new mixes have changed the music, then it is a different recording. If he has just made guitars louder and drums quieter then it is still same recording. Or that is how I have understood MB language.
Where is the line between “new mix” and “remastered”?
I’d lean towards the “make separate recordings” side.
Reading that article it gets worse…
"Another issue that I was aware of, before the project even began, was the fact that the stereo image (the left and right channels) were supposedly reversed on the 1999 and 2005 reissues of Songs From The Big Chair when compared to the original UK vinyl. "
Yeah, the rules for what should be separate recordings and what not are a bit confusing. Video recordings should always be separate even if the audio is exactly the same. Remasters are the same recording, but only if they’re actual remasters, not remixes.
IIUC a remaster is only tweaking the final mix, everything that changes individual audio channels is a remix - but ime such remixes are often described as remasters, and the word remix is reserved for extensive changes often by other artists that change the tone and possibly even style of the whole song.
Apologies, I showed my ignorance about new channel mixes, which I’ve never dealt with before… @yindesu is correct, channel mixes are new recordings (if they are an actual new mix, not just stereo merged into mono).
What can happen is more the reverse process, duplicate mono channel to 2 stereo channels.
But even there, I usually don’t merge mono and stereo recordings, because I never know if it’s a straight mono to stereo channel copy or if it’s a brand new mix, with this sound on the left channel and that sound on the right channel.
For instance, a lot of the cassettes that I release are duplicated with a mono duplicator, which merges the channels. I would not make new recordings for the tape recordings.
“…the original multi-channel recording should be used when multiple channels have been combined into a single channel without actually creating a new mix from the source audio tracks”
