The "Audiophile" Remaster Post, Pt. 4: The College Experience (Freshman Year, TCD, LR)
Part 1 is here. Part 2 is here. Part 3 is here. Part 5 is here. Part 6 is here. Part 7 is here.
"And don't let nobody with the power to sign / ever tell you you ain't got the power to rhyme."
I wanted to make a "definitive" pre-TCD comp, so I curated Freshman Year from his various mixtapes and remastered the audio accordingly. I've had a blast revisiting these fun tracks, despite various of Ye's bars being very much "rapper-producer" caliber as he developed his flow. Takes me back to the days when he combined the sounds of Rawkus and Roc-A-Fella.
This package also includes fresh remasters of The College Dropout (man, what a great debut LP!) and Late Registration. TCD includes the explicit "School Spirit" (with apologies to Aretha) as well as the bonus tracks "We Don't Care (Reprise)," "Heavy Hitters," and "It's Alright." I opted for "Heavy Hitters" as a TCD bonus track rather than a FY cut because it was originally included as a bonus track and it suits the album well as a coda ("Everybody thought I was makin' a compilation").
I spent hours declipping the audio with Audiate and making adjustments to channels, EQ, and gain using Audacity to create an optimal listening experience that sounds balanced and vivid and less compressed, with a proper soundstage compared to the original loud and aggressive masterings. Let me know what you think!
These remasters are meant for the volume to be comfortably turned up while listening.
**Note: "All Falls Down" was updated with a remaster of the superior-sounding track from the review copy for Entertainment Weekly. h/t u/CommandGenius1
FY: aHR0cHM6Ly9iaXQubHkvM2FVcjlsWQ==
TCD: aHR0cHM6Ly9iaXQubHkvM1FqTnIxMg==
LR: aHR0cHM6Ly9iaXQubHkvMzlrUDRlZw==
If you don't dig FLAC, use XLD to convert to your favorite audio format. Your feedback is welcome!
For fault-free unzipping, I recommend using Keka.
Also, FLAC compression tends to compress the tagged artwork pretty badly, so I included the above cover images in the file folder in case you want to retag.