Ever wanted a band to finally remaster one of their classic albums? Well, it doesnt seem like McCoy will be remastering my favorite album of all time, “Elizium” anytime soon, which is why I decided to do it myself. Basically, this is a scene remaster of this album. I am a professional sound engineer so this is not just fucking around with Cool Edit Pro, I tried my best to remaster it in a way that I imagine it would eventually sound were it remasterd by the band.
IMPORTANT: This is not meant to be piracy but rather a spruced up version of the album for those who already own and love it. Therefore, if you dont own it, please buy it first!!
Fields Of The Nephilim - Elizium Redux
- Dead But Dreaming - For Her Light - At The Gates Of Silent Memory - Paradise Regained (15:29)
- Submission (8:25)
- Sumerland (What Dreams May Come) (11:09)
- Psychonaut Lib 1 (4:20)
- Wail Of Sumer - And There Will Your Heart Be Also (14:07)
- In Every Home A Heartache [Roxy Music Cover] [Bonus] (6:41)
- For Her Light [Single Version] [Bonus] (3:28)
- Submission Two (Dub) [Bonus] (4:19)
About the music:
Basically, I tried to recreate the way the album was constructed as a vinyl, which is why the first 4 tracks are truncated into 1 (side 1 on the vinyl, and it’s a suite anyway). A lot of digital players put pauses between tracks anyway, so truncation in this case makes it possible to listen to the 4 tracks the way they are meant to be heard on a SE or Nokia cellphone, for example. If you really do want to hear just For Her Light, though, you can always listen to the single version, included as a bonus. Psychonaut Lib I was initially written for the album but their producer thought it would do better as a single, and this is how the well known Psychonaut Lib III was born. The initial version is very beautiful and fits the flow of the album perfectly (and it was intended to be on the album initially anyway), which is why it has been added not as a bonus but as a part of the actual album. I did add 3 bonuses though, as you can see.
Technobabble
This was all captured from vinyls using a Pioneer Pro DJ turntable and an Audigy 4. Noise, hiss, click and pop removal was therefore minimal, due to the quality of the equipment. Why vinyl? Higher dynamic range, larger signal bandwidth, richer bass, the list goes on… Equalizer was used to conform to digital standards, since vinyls are equalized differently. Mastering was done mainly using a multiband compressor, since hard limiting would severely damage the dynamic range of the music, which in this case would be harmful (as this album has a large dynamic range). With this said, I did use a hard limiter sparingly for moments that were obviously supposed to have a kick. Mastering more or less follows maximizing principle, as is the recent trend in pop music. If I were mastering an album for a band for the first time, I’d probably choose a different aesthetic of mastering but in this case I am only trying to make something sound better and pop mastering is what is associated with good sound these days. Although maximized, there is absolutely no clipping anywhere in this album.
The result is a far more selective, clear and full sound than the original. I think the only way one could improve this anymore is by working on the original multitracks. You can compare by listening alongside to the original. I uploaded the Redux version as a 0.7 quality Nero AAC rip (ie. approx 275 VBR bitrate). If anyone is interested, I can also provide a FLAC version.
Finally, here are the rapidshare links:
http://www.prongs.org/mp3/links/?url=56
http://www.prongs.org/mp3/links/?url=57