05/26/2017: Mastered for iTunes releases

[God, Part II]

Is there any rumor of these new MFiT masters getting lossless releases sometime in the near future, either digitally or on CD?

I'd be happy to be wrong but since these masters are specifically for and by iTunes, which doesn't offer lossless versions of any of its music at this time (that I'm aware of) and is in direct competition with CDs for your media dollars, I'd say it's unlikely digitally and nigh impossible for CD.

[George]

I'd be happy to be wrong but since these masters are specifically for  and by  iTunes, which doesn't offer lossless versions of any of its music at this time (that I'm aware of) and is in direct competition with CDs for your media dollars, I'd say it's unlikely digitally and nigh impossible for CD.

It's done by them?  Interesting.

[God, Part II]

I'd be happy to be wrong but since these masters are specifically for  and by  iTunes, which doesn't offer lossless versions of any of its music at this time (that I'm aware of) and is in direct competition with CDs for your media dollars, I'd say it's unlikely digitally and nigh impossible for CD.

It's done by them?  Interesting.

Forgive me if my phrasing was clumsy. I don't mean to say that Apple engineers specifically make the MFiT masters, just that they dictate the rules whereby a master submitted to them qualifies for the MFiT credential.

[Aaron]

Is there any rumor of these new MFiT masters getting lossless releases sometime in the near future, either digitally or on CD?

I'd be happy to be wrong but since these masters are specifically for and by iTunes, which doesn't offer lossless versions of any of its music at this time (that I'm aware of) and is in direct competition with CDs for your media dollars, I'd say it's unlikely digitally and nigh impossible for CD.

Apple doesn't do the mastering.  They have a program developed that must be followed by a mastering engineer in order to qualify for the program. The mastering itself is still done by whoever U2 chooses, but it has to be someone that meets Apple's standards. Apple requires a file submitted be at least 24-bits, with a sample rate of at least 44.1K from the mastering engineer.  They then do the conversion to their own file formats.

If you look back at our original article on the MFIT releases you'll see the following:

Mastering: Scott Sedillo, Bernie Grundman Mastering, Hollywood
Audio Master Transfer Director: Declan Gaffney

Sedillo and Gaffney are both long time U2 associates, and they would have been working for U2 on preparation of these masters.  If U2 wanted to release these in another format the original mastering job is likely available to them to do so.

[Panama Jack]

If U2 wanted to release these in another format the original mastering job is likely available to them to do so.

I was hoping that the 44.1/16 FLAC versions that 7digital started selling this summer were the same new masters / remasters that were used for the new MFiT releases, but alas, they're just the same old CD masters we already have. 

(I tested by buying "The Troubles" which had a mastering glitch on the original release that was reportedly fixed in the new MFiT version.  If 7digital was using the same new masters that were used for the MFiT versions, then that glitch would have been fixed, but unfortunately it's still there, so that tells me they simply used the original CD versions).