Rolling Stones CD Remasters 2002?

The remasters done by Bob Ludwig are excellent. Look up Bob Ludwig on Artists Direct and check which ones he has done. Another great CD was Jump Back (a compilation with good sound).

Note that the Stones music is generally distorted (especially the early stuff) and there is nothing a sound engineer can do to restore deliberate distortion, as this was what was recorded...a deliberately rough sound which added to the "bad boy" image that Mick carefully crafted to create contrast against beatlemania and the Beatles' glossy polished studio productions. Mick is a sharp cookie who studied at LSE. The stones briefly made some highly polished sound when they decided to attack the disco/B Gees sounds with Tattoo (deliberate satire being the highly polished sound of "Miss You" which was very successful, BTW)

Only the London and Decca recordings of the Stones US and UK releases were remastered. So, Sticky Fingers and Exile on Main Street, as well as your second group of recordings (which are currently on Virgin Records) were not re-issued.

As for Beggar's Banquet and Let It Bleed, if you can still get your hands on the 2002 re-masters (gatefold hybrid SACDs) by all means do so. The sound is the closest to the original vinyl of any CD version that I have heard.

Check out this Audiogon thread from 2003 for a discussion about these remasters.

Regards, Rich

Very helpful. Found this in the thread:
http://mixonline.com/news/audio_rolling_stones_satisfied/index.html

Since posting I happened to be at Frye's and picked up Beggars. They didn't have the SACD, but I got the "DSD Remasterd" CD. The only info I can find on the net addresses the SACD hybrid versions and does not mention the regular CD only. Just spent 20 minutes with it and the improvement is very obvious. Far more detail in percussion/strings. The bongo (or small hand drum?) on Sympathy sounds entirely different - much more live/3d/detailed. Throughout the klavas (or wood on wood instrument) now sounds like, well, wood on wood instead of just a "knocking" sound. The fiddle also sounds great.

There is one odd thing going on with the bass and/or kick drum. Sounds almost like someone bumping a mic, very low frequency that sounds non-musical. I suspect this must be my system, but to date this has not been a problem. Speakers rated down to 25hz and pull it off quite well. Maybe a bit bloomy with this amp, but not bad enough to create the distorted LF I'm hearing. Bass oboes on Madman Across the . . . and distorted voices on 3 Wishes (Amused to Death) sound very clear and undistorted. I have used these for LF testing for years.

Antique Sound Labs AQ1001DT on top end and Mccormack DNA 0.5 on bottom of Mirage M1 with Sony 333ES player)

Were the SACD versions a limited edition? Are they only available in the Remastered Series box set ($375?)?