Achtung Baby 20!

[miryclay]

It would be interesting to know when this remastering took place. All of the material on the 1990 - 2000 was at least remastered in 2002. Anyone know any more info on this?

[morgan1098]

Well, there was that famous tweet from John Vanderslice in an LA recording studio last year when he said, "They're remastering Achtung Baby in the studio next door!"  So I'm guessing that's when it happened.
http://www.slicingupeyeballs.com/2010/09/16/u2-achtung-baby-reissue-remaster-special-edition/

[MDuchek]

I personally would have welcomed a separate release for Zooropa but with all the remixes between the two albums it's hard to do big releases that people will buy if it's 90% remixes, so I understand why they did it that way.

Still, re-releasing ZOO TV Sydney again as part of the package does annoy me.  Why make people buy something again if it's available as a stand alone product?

For me, the ideal would be a full show from the Outside Broadcast tour.  I don't think it'll happen, but we'll see.  However, if you look at the Joshua Tree and the Miss Sarajevo documentaries you'll see there are clips from shows from that era (ISHF with Daniel Lanois and a performance of "Bad" from 1993 if I remember).  It would have been great if they released some of this but I doubt they will.

[morgan1098]

I'm one of the few people who doesn't actually own Zoo TV Sydney, so I'm also one of the few people who isn't bothered by its inclusion in this set.  I certainly understand the frustration, though. 

The absence of more Zooropa material really does bother me, though.  I think the problem could be alleviated somewhat simply by adding a handful of Zooropa tracks to the existing track list.  I think they could do this without adding another CD.  It's certainly not perfect, but something like this might work, assuming 18 songs could be squeezed onto Disc 5 (changes in bold):

CD3 - Uber Remixes

01. Night and Day (Steel string remix)
02. Real Thing (Perfecto Mix)
03. Mysterious Ways (Solar Plexus Extended Club Mix)
04. Lemon (Perfecto Mix)
05. Can’t help falling in love (Triple peaks Remix)
06. Lady with the spinning head (extended Dance remix)
07. Real Thing (V16 Exit Wound Remix)
08. Mysterious Ways (Ultimatum Mix)
09. The Lounge fly mix
10. Mysterious Ways (The Perfecto Remix)
11. One (Apollo 440) – Mix Master [S-109]
12. Stay (Underdog Mix)
13. Real Thing (Single Mix) [moved from Disc 5]
14. Real Thing (Fish Out of Water) [moved from Disc 5]

CD4 - Unter Remixes

01. Mysterious Ways (Tabla Motown Remix)
02. Mysterious Ways (Appollo 440 Magic Hour Remix)
03. Can’t help Falling in Love (Mystery Train Dub)
04. One (Apollo 440) – Ambient Master [S-109]
05. Lemon (Lemonade Mix) [replace instrumental "Momo's Reprise" with this rare mix]
06. Salome (Zooromancer Remix)
07. Real Thing (Trance Mix)
08. Numb (Gimme Some More Dignity Mix)
09. Mysterious Ways (Solar Plexus Magic hour Remix)
10. Numb (The Soul Assassins Mix)
11. Real Thing (Apollo 440 Stealth Sonic Remix)
12. Stay (Soundtrack Version)
13. The Wanderer (Soundtrack Version)
14. Stay (Craig Armstrong Version)


CD5 - B-sides and Bonus Tracks

01. Lady with the spinning head (UV1)
02. Blow Your House – Analogue Mix Bono Edit 190711
03. Salome
04. Slow Dancing
05. Satelite of love
06. Wild Horses (Temple Bar Remix)
07. Heaven And Hell – In Truth Mix 211711
08. Oh Berlin – Analogue Mix 1 190711 (needs an edit)
09. Near the Island (instr) Night train from Rostock.
10. Down All The Days (Vsn 1) [CD#4/07] (needs edits)
11. Paint it black
12. Fortunate Son
13. Alex Descends into Hell for a bottle of Milk/Korova
14. Where did it all go wrong
15. Everybody loves a winner edit between take 2+3
16. Bullet the Blue Sky (Live in Dublin)
17. Love is Blindness (Live in New York)
18. The Wanderer (Bono Vocal) [either the rumored studio track or even the live version from the CBS tribute]

[Aaron]

Bad news on the remastering front.

I've heard from two different sources with Universal that this will not be a remastered recording, and indeed is just a re-release of Achtung Baby and the Zooropa album.  The folks over at u2tour.de have their own sources, one of which said they weren't positive that there was any remastering, and another at Universal UK who said no remastering had taken place...

The comments about mastering being done in the other room likely pertains to the bonus materials being created for this set, including the "Baby" Achtung Baby album.

[yseilys (dead)]

Hi from France

a serious source from Universal France told us:

"All DVD included lot of unique and hidden feature.

Universal just seen and listened all about the remasterisation !!!"

[miryclay]

Aaron, it presumably means that it hasn't been remastered within the most recent while. But has been remastered since 1991. I guess that repeated remastering will wear down the source, and until there is a great leap forward in technology, there is not point in going in and doing it again.

That is my guess.

[hmtmkmkm]

I'm not sure if anyone else has mentioned this, and it might just be me hoping, but if you think about it, why would Universal re-release the single disc version if it's not remastered? I understand that by releasing the 1991 edition ALONG with a bonus disc, vinyls, sunglasses and whatever else, it's okay because you get something else with it. But the single edition comes with just the album that anyone could have bought in 1991. What's the point of that if there's nothing new coming with the edition? That would suggest a remaster is the logical reason for re-releasing it.

[Aaron]

Aaron, it presumably means that it hasn't been remastered within the most recent while. But has been remastered since 1991. I guess that repeated remastering will wear down the source, and until there is a great leap forward in technology, there is not point in going in and doing it again.

That is my guess.

I don't think so. 

They continue to say this is the "Original Release" and you don't get any clearer than "This will not be a remastered album." which is what I received from Universal UK's Music Direct Support Team.  I did ask my contact at Universal here in Canada about the single disc, and he did say that they expect this to be an anniversary release with an essay about the album in the liner notes, and this would be the supported release going forward.

I'm still hoping they are wrong.  The note from Universal France that yseilys posted has me crossing my fingers still.  But I'm losing faith, and have to go with my contacts who have never steered me wrong in the past...

[morgan1098]

This just sucks.

[Z000]

Hi from France

a serious source from Universal France told us:

"All DVD included lot of unique and hidden feature.

Universal just seen and listened all about the remasterisation !!!"

I'm guessing the original message was in french, right? If so, could you post that or send it to me in a PM so I can try making a more correct english translation?

[yseilys (dead)]

Here, 2 messages from French serious source

voila voila le contenu enfin devoilé... (et je me suis pas trompé sur mes infos tiens tiens comme quoi mes contacts ne racontent pas des mensonges !! ;-)).... ) va faloir aller au portefeuille pour se procurer ces beaux joujoux ;-))

d'apres mes contacts, il s'avere que les dvd contiennent pas mal de bonus inédits egalement + bonus caché.

en tt cas universal a deja vu et entendu l'ensemble de cette remasterisation !!! et il s'agit bel et bien de remasterisation !!!

par contre jsuis surpris de pas retrouver en blueray les contenu des différents dvd...

and

rassurez vous le soit disant mail universal est un fake !!!!!!!

les adresses mails de chez universal ne sont pas comme celle mentionnée plus haut....

restez calme, l'album est belle et bien "remasterise"

[Z000]

A little translation polishing for the english speakers:
"Here they are, the contents finally revealed (and I'm not mistaken about my information, my contacts don't tell me lies!! ;-) ), we'll need to get out our wallets to get these nice toys ;-) .

According to my contacts, the DVDs prove to contain plenty of both unreleased and hidden bonuses.

In any case, Universal has already seen and heard this entire remastering!!! And it's quite a remaster!!!

On the other hand, I'm surprised to not find [this next part is either "the contents of the various DVDs on Blu-ray" or "different contents on Blu-ray than DVD," but I think it's the first one]...."

"I assure you what the Universal mail says is false!!!!!!!

Universal's mail addresses aren't like the ones mentioned above....

Don't worry, the album truly is 'remastered.'"

Reassuring, certainly. Do you mind telling us who your sources are?

[yseilys (dead)]

Reassuring, certainly. Do you mind telling us who your sources are?

French source ( maybe a guy from Universal Fr) who alreaddy gave us many correct informations about all remasters and "No Line" album many months before albums releases...

[morgan1098]

Certainly not official, but someone over on the Interference forum, who is from a band called Polaroid Kiss and who is a "regular client" of Arnie Acosta Mastering, says their mastering session with Arnie this week got POSTPONED because Arnie was going to be in the studio with U2 for the entire week!  As he rightly notes, Arnie was involved with both Achtung Baby and Zooropa but is no longer employed by Universal Music, so it's not likely they're working on something new.

Here's where the discussion starts.  You've got to read a bit through the tedious thread to get the full story from him:
http://u2.interference.com/f189/achtung-baby-zooropa-remaster-reissue-part-iii-three-212141-7.html#post7338267

Even if this is true, it doesn't mean they're remastering Achtung Baby.  They could be doing mastering for the bonus tracks again, or maybe mastering the tracks for the Davis Guggenheim documentary.  But it's certainly an interesting development...