Remaster (and its derivations, frequently found in the phrases digitally remastered or digital remastering) is a word and concept that became most popular in the digital audio age, although the "mastering" process has existed since recording began. The measure of its success depends on only three things: 1. The skill and experience of the Mastering Engineer. 2. To a lesser extent, the tools used to do the job. 3. The quality of the original source material. Frequently trumpeted with regard to CD and DVD releases, remastering has become a powerful buzzword in multimedia industries, and it generally implies some sort of enhancement of sound and/or picture to a previous, existing product (frequently designed to encourage people to buy a new version of something they already own). For example, the reissue boom that began in the mid-nineties saw remastered versions of the back-catalogues of The Who, The Byrds and others, while remastered editions of first-generation DVD releases are similarly bestsellers. Despite its status as an industry buzzword, however, remastering actually refers to a fairly distinct process, one that does not inherently include the notion of a positive upgrade.
Remastering is, at its core, the process of creating a new master for an album, movie, or any other creation. It tends to nowadays specifically refer to the process of porting a creation from one medium to another, but this is not always the case. For example, a vinyl LP originally pressed from a worn-out copy tape many tape generations removed from the "original" master recording could be remastered and re-pressed from a better condition tape.
Here buzz-speak and practical application collide. In actuality, all CDs created from analogue sources are technically digitally remastered. The process of creating a digital transfer of an analogue tape re-masters the material in the digital domain, even if nothing "special"--no equalization, compression, or other processing--is done to the material.
Ideally, because of their high resolution, a CD or DVD (or other) release should come from the best source possible, with the most care taken during its transfer. This does not always happen. The earliest days of the CD era found record companies using whatever tapes they had lying around to create their CDs, with frequently underwhelming results. An nth-generation tape equalized for vinyl frequency response might be deemed perfectly acceptable by a record company, and (importantly) might be much easier to locate than the "original" source master. Additionally, the earliest days of the CD era found digital technology in its infancy, which also aided often poor sounding digital transfers marked by dropouts, underutilization of Signal-To-Noise Ratio, etc. The earliest days of the DVD era were hardly any different, with early DVD copies of movies frequently being produced from worn prints, with low bitrates and muffled audio. When the first CD remasters turned out to bestsellers--see, for example, the box set boom--companies soon realized that new editions of bare-bones back catalogue items could compete with new releases as a source of revenue. Back catalogue values skyrocketed, and today it is not unusual to see expanded and remastered editions of fairly modern albums (e.g. "New Miserable Experience" by the Gin Blossoms).
Theoretically, digital remastering should solve some of these problems. Original master tapes, or something close to them, can be used to make CD releases. Better processing choices can be used. Better prints can be utilized, with sound elements remixed to 5.1 and obvious print flaws digitally corrected. The modern era gives content providers almost unlimited ways to touch up, doctor, and "improve" their creations and products, and as each release promises improved sound, video, extras and others, producers hope these upgrades will entice consumers into making a purchase.
While digitally remastering films or audio does generally improve their visual and/or sound quality, it is not always appreciated by everyone. Some argue that remastering something from the early 1980s, for instance, is better than a mastering of a recorded medium from the early 1990s. These people may also argue that the remixing of elements of an original recording may hinder the remastered one. A couple of the reasons for remastering engineers to remix elements of a recording include a first-time stereo mix of a particular song where previous releases were only in mono and/or fake stereo (a.k.a. "electronic rechanneling" or simply "rechanneling"), and another being the fact that the original mixdown tape having been damaged and discarded after heavy use. In particular, modern-day heavy use of processes like dynamic range compression and noise reduction may have actually sparked disappointment in the eyes of many fans against many current remixes like The Who's Live at Leeds Deluxe. Those opposed also argue that unless the original recording has been seen, they may also be unaware whether or not there has been considerable update.
Also many remastered CDs from the late 1990s onwards have become casualties of the loudness war, where the average volume of the recording is pushed ever higher at the expense of dynamic range.
-en.wikipedia.org
