How are songs remastered?
In: Technology
They are “mastered” using EQ and compression, which are audio engineering tools/tech. EQ is essentially volume control for separate frequencies, so you could control the volume of the low end (bass, etc) separate from the high end (treble, hi hats, etc). Compression is basically what it sounds like, it’s dynamic control and envelope-controlled limiting. If you’d like to know more about those concepts a cursory google search will help.
Depending on what is being remastered, they may or may not have access to the track stems. This means the separate channels (guitar, bass, vocal, etc) are separate files and they can EQ and compress them separately which gives them more control as opposed to only having a “mixdown” which is just the final song as one file like you’d think of it, in which case they can just EQ and compress that single file, but there is less control with that because if you pull back the mid to tame down a vocal you’re pulling the mid of the whole track back so you pull mid out of the other instruments too. If I need to explain more or reword something let me know.
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