Poll

Pick one!

Re-release each album as they were, B-Sides with ACOS, then full Uncovered '95 show, full Marquee show, full OIALT show
Re-release each album with B-Sides and/or Demos and/or Live Tracks (ACOS with either FII or IAW), then full Uncovered '95 show, full Marquee show, full OIALT show
Re-release each album, no B-sides, no ACOS re-release, just the studio albums only
Re-release just the live albums in full versions (Marquee, Uncovered '95, Once In A LIVEtime)
R-release JUST "A Change Of Seasons" but with the B-Sides; I could care less for the albums, I just want B-Sides!
Other (Please Specify In Your Reply)

Author Topic: If DT ever remastered/re-released their '92-'98 catalog, would you rather...  (Read 1362 times)

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Online The Letter M

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I've thought about this for awhile now, and I'm sure some of you remember me saying this, but I've always wanted to see Dream Theater re-release and/or remaster their first four albums (well, 2nd-4th if they can't ever get the rights back to WDADU), and throw on their FII Demos and other early B-Sides on an album with "A Change Of Seasons". There's enough material there for what would amount to a full album for a total of 9 songs (~76:15 long). Then I'd like to see them just release the full Uncovered '95 show since those songs wouldn't be on an EP with ACOS anymore.

Then I got to thinking - would they do that, or would they re-release their albums with appropriate B-Sides (and/or Demos) on a second disc? IAW would get a couple B-Sides and I'm sure some demos would be neat to hear (on an official release), or some live tracks from that era/tour (possibly pulled from YJR releases like the NYC '93 show, or the '95 and '98 shows for Awake and FII).

There's a lot of possibilities, but I listed four of the major ones I could think of as options.
Option 1 - Re-release the albums as I have stated at the top of my post, with the B-Sides combined with ACOS, then full versions of the live albums of that era including the full show at the Marquee, the full Uncovered '95 show (which fits on one disc anyway), and a full 3CD version of Once In A LIVEtime.

Option 2 - Re-release the individual albums with B-Sides, Demos, and/or Live tracks (if you choose this option, you can specify which tracks if you want to). You can throw ACOS on with IAW (written during this time) or FII (recorded with DS), then continue with the full live albums as stated above.

Option 3 - Just the studio albums with better sound, better mix and/or mastering, and nothing else. A no-frills deal, but maybe better packaging.

Option 4 - Just release the live albums in full. All the live albums during this time were cut short, and since LSFNY onward, we've gotten predominantly full live shows for each live release, so why not go back and fix the earlier shows with full releases?

Option 5 - Just re-release ACOS with the B-Sides! If you don't care about getting the albums again, or just want the B-Sides on an official release (and not pay $70+ for Cleaning Out The Closet), this option is for you!

Option 6 - Your choice. You can mix and match, come up with another idea, but if you choose this option, please reply and let everyone know what your idea is!!!

This is just a fun what-if-fantasy poll to pass the time, and I doubt DT will go through the trouble to re-release their back catalog like this anytime soon. They'll probably have to wait til their 35th or 40th anniversary before thinking about doing any sort of packages.

-Marc.
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Offline KevShmev

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Those albums from 1992-1997 already sound great, and I don't trust them to not "modernize" the sound of them (see: making them louder) with a remaster or remix, so I say leave them as is; any kind of new release is unnecessary.  I don't care enough about live versions to want any of that, and we already have the FII demos, so I'm good with everything from that era already. :coolio

Offline DarkLord_Lalinc

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The Greatest Hit Images and Words remixes were awful, and thus any thought of DT remixing their early material makes me cringe. They better leave them as they are, because as Kev said they already sound great. No need to fix something that ain't broken.
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Offline TheGreatPretender

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I went for option A, but option B would be great too. It honestly doesn't matter to me how they'd distribute the B-Sides.

Speaking of WDADU masters, at this point, if they wanted to, would it really cost that much to buy them out? I mean, does the company owning them still even give a crap?

The Greatest Hit Images and Words remixes were awful, and thus any thought of DT remixing their early material makes me cringe. They better leave them as they are, because as Kev said they already sound great. No need to fix something that ain't broken.

The mixes were great. It's the mastering that wasn't the best. I really don't get the "fear" of remixing and remastering these albums. It's not like the old versions will just disappear, you can still listen to those.
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Offline Setlist Scotty

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No offense, but all those options make my head spin! From what I could understand, I ended up going with the last option.

Personally, I'd love to see them do something similar to what we've seen Pink Floyd do with their catalog - offer the remastered albums in 3 different versions so that the fans can pick what they'd want. The first version is bare-bones, the second with a bonus disc of B-sides or whatever, and the last being the one where they throw in the kitchen sink, including video and packaging! For the ultimate packages, the full versions of the live albums could be paired up with the respective studio albums (IaW with LatM, Awake with ACoS and FII with OiaL).

Regarding ACoS and the Uncovered show, I'm not sure what your version of the Uncovered show clocks out at, but mine is over 89 minutes. Yeah, they could lop off the little PMU teaser and jamming after the end of the Big Medley and cut out the false start at the beginning of Red Hill Minig Town, but I still don't think that will be enough to get it under 80 minutes. Instead, I'd say that if they were to re-release ACoS, they should include a demo version of the song and put the first 3 or 4 songs from the Uncovered gig on the first CD, and put the rest of the show on the second CD.
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Online The Letter M

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No offense, but all those options make my head spin! From what I could understand, I ended up going with the last option.

Personally, I'd love to see them do something similar to what we've seen Pink Floyd do with their catalog - offer the remastered albums in 3 different versions so that the fans can pick what they'd want. The first version is bare-bones, the second with a bonus disc of B-sides or whatever, and the last being the one where they throw in the kitchen sink, including video and packaging! For the ultimate packages, the full versions of the live albums could be paired up with the respective studio albums (IaW with LatM, Awake with ACoS and FII with OiaL).

Regarding ACoS and the Uncovered show, I'm not sure what your version of the Uncovered show clocks out at, but mine is over 89 minutes. Yeah, they could lop off the little PMU teaser and jamming after the end of the Big Medley and cut out the false start at the beginning of Red Hill Minig Town, but I still don't think that will be enough to get it under 80 minutes. Instead, I'd say that if they were to re-release ACoS, they should include a demo version of the song and put the first 3 or 4 songs from the Uncovered gig on the first CD, and put the rest of the show on the second CD.

I put together a full show from the ACOS EP, as well as the bootleg of the same show, and I might have trimmed out some of the between-song banter and stuff. At least, I'm fairly certain I made a single CD-R of the show's 12 songs. I'll have to go look again.

EDIT - I found my files and noticed I docked off about 11 minutes from the track times of the songs on the Uncovered bootleg. I pulled the more official-sounding tracks from the DTIFC '96 album, as well as the ACOS CD, and filled in the rest from the Uncovered bootleg. Cutting out the non-song stuff, I made the album as so:

 1. Funeral For A Friend/Love Lies Bleeding   10:49
 2. Perfect Strangers             5:31
 3. Red Hill Mining Town^          5:35
 4. The Led Zeppelin Medley          7:28
 5. Tears^                3:19
 6. Damage Inc.^             4:24
 7. Happiness Is A Warm Gun*          2:54
 8. Easter*                6:35
 9. Winter*                2:35
10. In The Dead Of Night*          5:52
11. The Yes Medley*            13:08
12. The Big Medley            10:34
               Total = 78:44
*From Uncovered Bootleg
^From DTIFC 1996

It all fit onto one CD-r quite nicely!

And I like the idea of presenting the re-releases in 3 different formats, but I don't know if DT are *big* enough to warrant such a project. Perhaps 2 choices, but 3 is pushing it. Pink Floyd were/are HUGE, and they have a large amount of casual fans who'd pick up "just the album", fans who want a bit more to get the 2-Disc set, and the mega-fans who get the super-deluxe edition box sets. I'm not sure DT has enough of each to be able to market those types of varied albums.

-Marc.
« Last Edit: November 23, 2014, 04:38:20 PM by The Letter M »
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Offline BlobVanDam

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No offense, but all those options make my head spin! From what I could understand, I ended up going with the last option.

I still can't make sense of it. :lol

Just release every album on HDTracks (for the greater dynamic range due to different master, not for the "HD" gimmick), and I'm happy. No need to add anything or mess with it.
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Offline nikatapi

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Just release every album on HDTracks (for the greater dynamic range due to different master, not for the "HD" gimmick), and I'm happy. No need to add anything or mess with it.

Οr rerelease the albums in a physical format, with the master from HDtracks so we don't have to play for digital only.

Offline Fredo96993

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I voted top option but personally I would want every single "extra" going. So demos, extra live stuff, b-sides, not appeared on albums songs (such as Where are you noe etc.) (You can't really call them unreleased because they've appeard on COTC and demos albums).

Offline Sacul

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Just release every album on HDTracks (for the greater dynamic range due to different master, not for the "HD" gimmick), and I'm happy. No need to add anything or mess with it.
This, but making a transfer of the first press vinyls. I have a rip of one of them, and it sounds glorious. Great dynamics, no noises nor scratches. It sounds quiet, compared with the actual mix of the CD.

Offline DarkLord_Lalinc

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The mixes were great. It's the mastering that wasn't the best. I really don't get the "fear" of remixing and remastering these albums. It's not like the old versions will just disappear, you can still listen to those.
I don't think the mixes were great at all. Everything sounded way too artificial to my taste.
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Offline TheGreatPretender

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I don't think the mixes were great at all. Everything sounded way too artificial to my taste.

Yes, especially those drums. Way more artificial than triggered snares.  :lol
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