Taylor Swift - Taylor's Versions (Re-Recordings Official Thread) Album • Page 69

Highly recommend trying to find some good live videos from the Red tour actually. They did a huge drum break that was really fun. Also worked really well to kick off the whole thing right after State of Grace as the show opener

 

This is a much different/surreal experience for me than I had with the Fearless re-record, because I spent far less time with that album than pretty much any of the others aside from the self-titled debut. Red is still my favorite, so this is especially weird.

Nothing is really jumping out at me as a negative thus far. The individual instruments seem to come through the speakers a little more...separated? Almost like the stage is wider. I sort of like it. "Trouble" sounds a little more stripped down - almost as though there's something missing in the back.

For those that are more familiar with the recording process, how is something of this magnitude achieved? The tones, the vocals, the riffs, everything sounds so close to the original that it almost feels like a re-master rather than a re-record. How challenging/involved is a process like this? Is it largely the same set of musicians/producers working on it that did the originals?

 

Sorry longer post than I thought:

Red was the first real introduction to her, seemingly like many, and what made me a big fan. One of the funnest memories I have with this record is when I was babysitting my cousins, a boy age 5 and his sister age 9 in 2013(?) and she was picking out what music to blast in the house and the boy was mad because “she’s gonna play her bad music that no one knows” and was pouting on the couch and she turned on Red and I instantly started singing along and we listened to the entire album dancing and singing in the living room and I’ve never seen kids so stunned lmao. The girl had never met or didn’t understand that “boys can like music where girls sing” (I get it, she was 9) and was just so blown away.

years later I would take her to a 1989 concert for her birthday. That was a lot of fun.

needless to say she’s been texting me her thoughts every 5 seconds today on the new Taylor versions lol

 

Man I could not disagree more. I feel like Holy Ground TV is one of the standouts for worst of the new versions

 

I take back what I said about no negatives. "We Are Never..." is a pretty significant downgrade.

 

I'm peeeeeved that Chris didn't have a whole part to himself in "I Bet You Think About Me."

 

Chris got the "female guest on a Taylor song" treatment whereas Phoebe got the "male guest on a Taylor song" treatment

 

State of Grace still a Top 10 Taylor song

 

well, setting aside that the songs are kept largely unchanged in terms of structure and instrumentation (which is obviously going to help matters), it’s quite a feat imo to try and reproduce any recording close to 100% even under the same exact conditions, with the same crew, and even if it was done with less time between recordings. there are just so many variables that go into what defines a recording’s sound. that they got close enough that some people hear very little audible difference is pretty fucking impressive imo, even if you ultimately lean in favor of the original. she’s kind of fighting an uphill battle with all this stuff, I have to give it up to her and her team for the obvious hard work that went into this.

 

that Explosions in the Sky-esque post rock guitar delay part at the end of "The Last Time" that i mentioned yesterday that i was super excited to hear in the TV version? it's completely cut from this new version. so i'm livid.

 

these are fun

 

@Meerkat is there a technical term for the drums on the new versions sounding a bit more... flat, stoic, etc? Or are my ears wrong?

 

I think most are either upgrades or about the same level as the OG "Red." As others have said, not big on the new "I Knew You Were Trouble" and the change to the bass drum in that and "We Are Never Getting Back Together" feels like that's a song that she clearly captured at a moment in her youth that can't be replicated now.

 

So, not sure exactly what you’re hearing but I would use flat for a lack of oomph or a lack of resonance. I haven’t done a side by side listen but I felt like the tones weren’t as far off as the snare on Fearless TV did at times.

 

I don’t really have a strong opinion on the re-recordings so far, except that I don’t see myself listening to new versions of songs I’ve played so many times. Agree that her voice now isn’t nearly as suited to those youthful pop songs - 22 and WANEGBT stick out for sure. Those are the two that give me the “flat” feeling. Looking forward to the vault tracks though…

 

So I'm listening through this all the way through for the first time (Red or TV) and it's never been more obvious that the 3 big singles were completely different producers than the rest of the album. Could be a reason why their TV versions are the ones that people are saying sound the most off?

 

Yeah, I wanted to judge this on its own instead of comparing it to the original. I only just realized I’ll actually be able to do that for every album she’s re-recording last night lol

 

Having my second listen through at the moment and I just love this so much. No complaints here.

 

even just a side by side, jumping back and forth, between the State of Grace drums in the intro... the original feel like they take up more space, resonate a little longer, and the new one feels more metallic and "flat" does feel right.

 

I feel like drums, in general, would be one of the hardest instruments to match tonally. different kits are gonna sound different by nature but also how each individual drum was tuned complicates that, not to mention differences in rooms/mic choice and placement/etc. and that’s before any processing. who knows what discrepancies exist between the gear used in the recording/mixing/mastering process between records. given how much advancement has been made since 2013 in the realm of digital recording, I would imagine it could be considerable.

anyway, to my ears the drums seem to be maybe tuned lower, or at least seem at a deeper pitch to me. they’re feel more “thunderous” to me. whereas maybe the word I would use for the OG would be “punchy”. this is all stuff I am actively trying to further my knowledge of though and my ability to articulate what I am hearing is certainly not where I would like it to be, so I would welcome anyone to counter that if I am speaking nonsense

 

honestly probably the difference between live drums and programmed ones

 

I wouldn't know I just realized like this year that Shake It Off has an aggressive drum intro haha

 

Different producers, engineers, mixers, rooms, mics, kits, are going to all have an effect on why drums sound different from one recording to another. And if it’s a different player, that will obviously also make a difference. Lots of factors. And that goes for just about everything. Not just drums.

The original Red already sounds more or less flawless, especially if you’ve adored the album for 10+ years. So these re-recordings are going to sound off. There’s no way around that. They’re not really getting a glow-up like Fearless did and like Debut surely will.

Like I said before, I’m pretty much only here for the vault tracks. I mainly listen to TS on CD or vinyl so I don’t feel bad listening to the original recordings that way. The new tracks are what I’m most interested in, until Debut comes out. I’m hoping that one blows us all away and makes people re-think putting it at the bottom of her discography.