[Gay State Conservative]

If they start releasing,in serious quantities,stuff from the 50's and 60's...folk,pop,rock,"standards",etc...in "high definition" then I'll be there with my credit card at the ready.A little bit of that stuff...e.g.,Dylan and the Stones...has been released in "hi def",but there's almost nothing released in the last 15-20 years that I'm at all interested in buying on CD or download.

[weegee]

Hi Def releases of old recordings (pre-digital era) will always be subject to tape hiss.

And remastered releases also face the problem of subtle remixing (more prominent placement of some instruments/vocal, occasional overdubs, fadeout too soon or later than normal, and even the occasional gaffe of releasing an alternate take altogether).

I know that there will be subtle surface noise in some recordings. In the case of old blues, country, etc, mastering may even be done from one of the few remaining copies of this disc or that. I accept the limitations.

I grew up in an era of black and white and color television. Of rabbit ear antenna and fading radio signals (waving in and out or other signals drifting in over them). Of multigeneration copies of tapes passed around.

I'll take a recording in the best condition I can get it, but I don't get worked up over limitations in the source material (instead I get burning mad when I buy a DVD of something, say the Rocky & Bullwinkle episodes, and the studio has superimposed a watermark stamp on the lower right hand corner of EVERY DAMN CHAPTER). I bought it, I don't need to be reminded of what I am watching, thank you.

I can accept substandard source materials (if it is all that exists) but cannot accept deliberate marring of a release.