Search - Toto :: Fahrenheit (Original Recording)

Worth it for the remastering

Jackson Roykirk | New Orleans, LA USA | 12/12/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"With Toto, either you love them or you hate them. I'll assume if you're checking this item out, you love the band and are familiar with the music on this CD. If you're not, but you love polished, expertly played studio session music of the likes of Steely Dan, later-day Doobie Brothers, 70s and 80s Boz Scaggs, and even early 80s Quincy Jones, Kenny Loggins, Al Jarreau, and Michael Jackson (what a combination, eh?), then you'll love this CD. (Most of Toto played on all of those artists' CDs.)



What I'll address is the new remastering. While a casual listen will reveal an improvement, a serious listening session will finally show what a great recording this disc was. More warmth, clarity, dynamics, and "space" have been given to the instruments and vocals. I heard faint flourishes by keyboards, percussion instruments and even vocals that I've never heard since I purchased the original CD in 1989. Yes, as with many remasters made in the new millennium, the sure-to-be-deaf-by-the-age-of-50 engineers cranked the volume up on the new master. Comparing the old and new CDs then becomes a chore in adjusting the volume levels, and therefore doesn't really allow you a good comparison. But someone who has lived with this music since it's original issue should be able to tell the difference, and at times may be blown away. The best example is with the last cut, "Don't Stop Me Now". To me, that song alone warrants the purchase of this new disc.



Now if only the others in Toto's first 7 (ESPECIALLY the "Seventh One") would be treated to this level of remastering...."

Finally,after all this time we get a re-mastered Toto cd?

Sandman | Canada | 03/25/2010

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Toto have been one of my favorite bands for like forever it seems. Everything they write is gold in my books. Every song flows beautifully and their sense of texture has always amazed me. Well this CD finally got a re-mastering job and the results are stunning. What you will get here is a CD that sounds like a toto offering should. You hear all the instruments equally, none of them over power the others and the over all sound quality is fantastic. The bass and bass drum are more up front in the mix which is something that was sorely lacking in the old release. Here it is brought up just enough in the mix to sound just right. It does not sound like many of today's over produced CD's were the bass is jacked up so high it totally kills everything else. This is done to perfection! So in conclusion if you ever enjoyed Toto or just want to check them out for the first time? you need to go and grab this re-mastered CD right away. The fact is, it was simply a great release by a great band back in the day that now sounds as it should, perfect!"

Problematic transfer during mastering...

Jamie Tate | Franklin, TN | 09/23/2010

(2 out of 5 stars)

"This album can be found in pretty much any used CD store for less than $5 so the only reason to buy the Friday Music CD is for the remastering. Well, this is certainly remastered. It's louder, brighter and punchier... but maybe a bit too much. I've noticed a trend with Friday's releases. Their remastering can go too far. The mixes are EQ'd and widened to sound brighter and bigger and broader and larger, but is that really a good thing when they don't resemble the original album? I don't want the mastering engineer, Joe Reagoso, to reinvent the music I already like into some shiny new sound. It's not improving an album when it sounds unfamiliar. I'd much rather have a nice transfer of the original mixes without the heavy handed remastering job.



Speaking of the transfer process there seems to be a mastering problem on this CD. The left channel is muffled on quite a few songs. Listen to I'll Be Over You, Somewhere Tonight, Without Your Love or Tonight or We Can Make It Happen (among others) on headphones and you'll immediately notice the left channel is quite a bit lower and darker sounding. It wasn't like this on the original LP, CD or any Toto compilation. Sounds like the tape machine alignment was off or the Dolby tones weren't adjusted correctly or the mastering chain wasn't L&R correlated. I suspect the Dolby alignment was off since I can hear some slight pumping artifacts. There is definitely something wrong with the playback alignment.



That transfer issue alone will keep me from recommending this remaster to my one friend, Lonely Jack, who likes Toto and listens to them in his mom's basement apartment where he lives with his pet armadillo and vast porn collection.



My advice is to find a cheap copy of the original CD with the Bob Ludwig mastering. It doesn't suffer from a glitchy transfer or over-mastering. It's not quite as loud so just turn it up a bit more. That's why God invented the volume knob."