New info about A Best 2 tracks mastered
 

A BEST 2 website updated with the following info about the tracks:

【全曲L.A.にてリマスタリング！】
今回、2001年にリリースされた「evolution」から2007年最初の新曲までをひとつのベスト・ アルバムとしてまとめるにあたって、全曲リマスタリングを敢行！
歌い直しやリミックス、リアレンジなどを施すのではなく、それぞれの楽曲がリリースされた当時の息吹を伝え るために、全てオリジナル・ヴァージョンで収録。ただし、それぞれのマスターを並べるだけでなく、Upda teした2007年ヴァージョンにするためにayuが採用したのが、このリマスタリング（＝新たにマスタリ ングし直す）という手法。
そして、この約6年間の軌跡を一つのサウンドとしてまとめあげるために選んだマスタリング・エンジニアが、 ロサンゼルスのBernie Grundman Mastering（バーニー・グランドマン・マスタリング）所属、Brian "Big Bass" Gardner（ブライアン "ビッグ・ベース" ガードナー）。グラミー賞で度々表彰され、世界中の超一流アーティストの作品を長年に渡り手掛けてきた世界 を代表するマスタリング・エンジニア。
今作『A BEST 2』も“Big Bass”の異名を取る彼らしく、低域をグッと出し、歌を前面に立たせるマスタリングにより、より迫力ある サウンドに仕上がっている。

Translation from excite:

【It is Lima Staring in all tune L.A. 】
This time, when everything from "evolution" released in 2001 to the first new song in 2007 is put together as one best album, all tune Lima Staring is dared.
To tell breath at that time at the time of trying a singing and no remix and no rear cooking stove, etc. are given but be released each music, everything is collected by the original version. However, it is a technique named this Lima Staring (It tries to do mastering = newly) that ayu adopted it to make it to the version in 2007 when each mastering not only is arranged but also Update was done.
And, the mastering engineer who chose to bring up this tracks of about six years as one sound is Bernie Grundman Mastering belonging and Brian of Los Angeles (Barney grand man mastering)"Big Bass" Gardner (Brian "Big base" Gardner). Mastering engineer who is frequently commended by Grammy, and represents the world where work of five-star artist all over the world has been handled over many years.
It seems to be him where work 'A BEST 2' now also takes the alias of “Big Bass", and a low region is put out with Gtsu, and it is in front of of the song ..sound with power or more.. finished by mastering to make it stand.

http://abest2.com/index.html#track

I read this before, and I didn't get what it meant. I still don't actually

so basically, she re-mastered all her songs. wasn't that kind of expected?

Yeah, they were remastered or w/e in Los Angeles..

It says in the booklet. I was wondering why that was there..

Ummm.. sigh.. Dont understand it quite...

This is essentially what was done to A BEST 2.. the tracks were "polished" from their previous forms into "newer and better quality" tracks..
So "upgraded" could be a word to describe what was done..

but they weren't re-sung... it's digitally made... well, at least they won't be the VERY SAME songs in the previous albums.

For anyone who still don't understand re-mastering, think of it as what happened to alterna, single -> album version.

It'll probably be quite noticeable on a number of tracks, especially if you listen to them immediately after listening to the original version.

At least something :yes

Uh, duh? No one said anything about resinging at all. LOL

I don't know where that came from D:

I wonder how noticeable the remastering will be...

All songs re-mastering?
Hope there won't be any re-singing. XD
I love her old voices, and I don't want her current over-vibrato to ruin the old hits I love <3

WOW! all re-mastered..thats so cool..
so there is still no news on re-singing?...hope she does re sing some of the songs..

but all re-mastering is really cool ... atleast we get to hear something different

i think i can't find the songs' differences

Hey, what is the difference between the single version and the album version?? They sound the same for me.

It sounds the same for me but I have bad sound on my notebook. I need to listen to my ipod.

But Memorial Address sounds a bit different to me.

thnaks for info :yes

interesting...so we can hear a better sound output from the old songs...

I still hope she resung some songs ^^ this would be sooo cool ^^

Make sure that the two versions of it you have is the single and original versions for sure. The difference is quite apparent, for example you can hear it clearly on the "hey hey heeey"'s in the beginning.

I think it's quite nice seeing as some tracks are from 2001. I believe mastering processes have evolved since then. All the more joy to us, listeners! ^___^

Ooo, interesting! Thanks for the info!

re-mastered tracks sound interesting. thanks for posting this info.

maybe it.s like boys & girls original and A BEST the sound is different.. and the guitar sounds more on A BEST.

at least they did sumething! :D I.m glad!

yes; no one said anything about resinging at all.

i just wanted to write that, because it's true.

whatever

...

I just want the songs themselves to stay the same.

Forget this remastering crap, lol.

the remastering is to upgrade the sound quality!! so it will sound much better like it has been said.. a little upgrade!

Cool. I wonder if they are really noticeable differences.

It's probably like the A Song for XX "MILLENNIUM MIX" on the second disk of LOVEppears; it sounded just like the original but the piano in the background could be heard more.

Anyone know if they are uploaded anywhere yet?

sugoii!! I wanna hear the remastered songs!!

Hmm.. I listend to some samples of the songs on the A-Best-2 Website.. but.. I really can not hear any difference.

I don't think streaming samples could be the same as the quality of the real CD.

I think we should see when we actually "get" the CDs themselves.. [they shouldn't sound that different.. just crisper or w/e.]

wow this is great. I gotta get the flac, or better yet, buy the cd.

Thanks! I want to buy this album now :D!!

well, it seems nice to have "shinier" versions of the songs.

I'm listening to Real Me right now. I might be going crazy but it sounds MUCH better. I hear all these new little sounds and stuff ;)

Just browsing through the tracks, the remastering is definitely noticable. evolution and UNITE! are like.. wow. fairyland and HEAVEN sound so much better. And yeah, Real me is so.. loud. It's great. - And I'm listening to them with really crappy headphones at the moment.

Now if they would only remaster A Song for XX, LOVEppears, and Duty...

Prepare for A BEST 2.5~! Complete with first A BEST! [o ho ho.]

I think really crappy headphones are better than really crappy speaker. So I did not notice anything ... and I did not listen carefully because I did not know about remastering.

I need to listen to the WHITE album...

I agree with what the others have said about the A BEST 2 songs, they sound amazing now that they're remastered, when I the first track on ~Black~ played my volume level on my tv is usually at 20 or so b/c my cd's sound crappy if they're lower, but I had to go down to like 12 or so because of how loud it was, and I have to admit that I love them, I wish all album tracks were like this, and July 1st I'm hearing different sounds in right now:)

argh, still disappointed that none of the tracks were re-sung!

I guess Ayu did not have time to resing any songs. I don't know if she wanted to do so neither.
She is super busy right now, especially with the Asia tour preparation (I guess)

In the HEY3 show, she said she slept only 3 hours ... (if I understood well)

I don't know why people were expecting her to resing songs. There were special reasons that she resung a couple of songs on the first A-Best. There was no reason for her to change any of the tracks on A-Best 2. Most casual fans(the usual people that buy Best of collections) go in wanting the original versions of the songs.

Yeah, and the fact she did so on A BALLADS was because over the 3-4 years that the songs that were resung on that compilation "evolved" over time..

[ASFXX, Who.., YOU even..]

I would still be a nice touch tho. To have slightly different variations. You never know until you have the CD tho, as End Roll had been rearranged/resung but not noted on first A BEST.

Its awesome to know the tracks are better than the originals...I can wait to get mine...:(

hahah "Lima Starring" thats great. wow seems like the person who 'translated' was just copying and pasting it into a automated translator. lol

They did..

It says "Translation/translating from Excite" above it. :D

uh duh, A BEST!! she re-sang some songs in the first one. thats where it came from, genius >.<

I was talking about this A BEST.

There was no mention at all, at any time about "redoing" songs. :|

I'm listening to it now and yep, I definitely notice the clarity difference in some of the tracks. I'm especially noticing on Never Ever that the drums sound more prominent. Everything is louder and sounds great.

^ Is evolution still that squeeky? Did they edit her voice or something?

I don't think her voice was edited at all. It sounds more like they just tweaked with the background music.

well duh.. :rolleyes I wrote 'translation from excite' underneath it if you couldnt see...

no there was no indication of remastering whatsoever, so for me it was not expected.

really great news that they are remastered though. even better is that people actually can hear the difference of the remastered version!

haha no, i didnt read that far. i was laughing too hard at the lima staring. even if it was automatic you still could have atleast translated the katakana. thats actually really easy seeing as katakana is all raidaigo. all you need is a katakana chart! ^~^

well it's just that i've seen a trend with the best albums in Japan that they usually re-master the songs--it was that way with A BEST, A BALLADS, Utada Hikaru's Single Collection Vol. 1, BoA's BEST OF SOUL, etc. I expected some of Ayu's songs on A BEST 2 -WHITE & BLACK- to be re-sang...I understand she's busy, but still--without her re-singing some of it, it seems like just a commercial ploy to make sure that Ayu has an album or two in the top 10 yearly. Though, admittedly, she kind of needs it.

kinda agree with it. i certainly hope, she resing some of it. :love

at least there is something new in A BEST2.

ayu old voice was a teenage voice, and now her voice is more mature, so if she happens to re-singing some of the old songs, it won't be bothering so much.

http://img215.imageshack.us/img215/3...gthesunhn9.jpg

Well, at least they remastered the songs. The BLACK Dearest seems so... more "emotional" with all the new little beats and stuff, and the walking proud beats seems stronger too (and we can still hear a acoustic guitar more present along the song), and that's great. I think it's fine if she didn't resung any of them, her voice is so pretty already. A BEST 1 was quite a critical case of "voice evolution".

I actually like it when her vibrato are stable. Recently, her vibrato is sorta...getting squeaky and forced. It's no longer as natural as how she did on her old songs. That's why I rather have the tracks untouched by her current vocal.



And after listening to the album, really. I didn't see in which part did they actually re-master the song. Perhaps there's something wrong with my ears, or mp3 didn't do justice to this 'new remastering' method.

I'm so glad to hear that the songs have been remastered!

And yes, in A-best, 'boys and girls' sounds different (background music), and also 'End roll', she resung it

Well, there are some good differences (minimal but still different, anyway) on almost all songs at least on BLACK (I got mine delivered today). Try to listen it louder or try to exchange speakers for a good headphone for better detail perception.
The instrumental sounds a little more clear.

weehee!! expecting to hear better sounding songs!! :D

Glad to see that this album had some effort in it