Gave a look to the spectrum graph between the files of Loft Music

-OG 2011 mp3 mixtape shared on the-weeknd.com website at the time

-2021 itunes release m4a files from the 10th anniversary

-2012 Trilogy CD US pressing FLAC rip of my own CD

PS. Something I haven't had the time to mention earlier, cause I had the files in my home pc;

The "She's so lovely" Loft Music from 2011 is obviously Hi-Res. So the masters DO exist. It's confusing why haven't Abel&co. didn't release the tracks in their highest quality

My knowledge doesn't go beyond checking graphs, so somebody with broader technical knowledge is welcome to enlighten us about the difference, but I've a couple of questions:

1.Given that the OG mp3, and the 2021 release which was focused on being "original incarnation", and that their graphs are almost identical, it makes me think that the album was a lossy master, right? (since mostly doesn't surpass the 16kHz, line). And cause as I read somewhere, the rule of thumb is that a lossless graph needs to be as high as possible in the graph, or at times, the lines should go uncut.

2. thus said, why does 2012 Trilogy remaster have higher graphs?
Was it because new "audio" information* was added for the remasters? (*on the lack of a better word)
If so, then it's all clear.

If it's not so, then another question rises:

Or because they used the master tape/master files, (some PCM, WAV at, say, goliath audio resolution, suitable for their purpose -- the highest quality file of the recording to be preserved in the artist's vault. I don't believe they saved the files in 320kbps MP3, maybe something WAV 32bit 192kHZ)

And if -this goes just by judging the higher graphs- they used the masters for the 2012,why didn't they distribute the high quality, original incarnation, of the 2011 masters?

PS. unrelated, but of the three mixtape shared in 2011, only EOS has higher graphs overall compared to the previous two releases (higher graphs meaning that most of the track doesn't stop at 16kHz but goes for 20kHz, and at times above, going uncut, like lossless formats do)

seems like there's much more sound limiter going on with the OG, the trilogy version looks much more open

ive still got a lot to learn about audio engineering but from an arrangement and production standpoint you're right that there is new audio information on the new remaster.

from what i can tell from my ears, what the trilogy version of Loft Music tried to do is probably some type of multiband compression.

compared to the OG, the vocals on the trilogy version are given more presence and brightness, while the instrumental is a bit more compressed and muddy. It's easiest to notice by paying attention to the "oh"s and comparing them to abel's crooning in the intro.

so what it sounds like to me is on the 2021 remaster they wanted to keep the brightness of abel's voice on the trilogy version while keeping the dynamics of the og instrumental. so abel's voice has some type of processing that gives it both more presence and higher end than the og without taking space in the mix away from the instrumental. i don't know enough to say exactly what they did tho. prob just some saturation and eq but

What? Then by this reasoning they did "sound limiting" to the 2021 release too, which is supposed to be "original incarnation", and why would they do that?

That would be interesting, if they kept elements from both the 2011 OG and the 2012 remasters. But I think that would cancel the whole purpose of the "original incarnation" promise.

Judging by the graphs, and their 128kbps bitrate-looking audio quality*, I know he wouldn't share back then in 2011 for free the original highest quality/Hi-Res files of his work (nobody would), but what I don't get is why didn't the graphs of the recent 2021 releases look like the officially released albums do?
Either a weird choice by them, or the album was a lossy master.

*PS. by the way, even if they look like 128kbps for the most part, the 2011 OG files sound nice as f*** and professional as f***

saturation on the master or on specific channels?

probably specific channels if u listen to the whole thing it seems like they touched up every sound on the album

they did do a lot of re mixing on the entirety of the album, but the way i see it when i hear the 2021 version is that they are just bringing clarity and individual personality to each sound on the album while maintaining the overall compositions of the mixes

Idk why but I think people on reddit know more about s*** like this OP

Blue would know

S*** looks like CSI

Why do the vocals on trilogy sound so much clearer if they weren't re-recorded? Re-mixed maybe?

S*** look like nuclear launch codes

This was the first thing I checked after ripping it from deezer. It’s the exact quality as the mixtape on his old website.

Yes, trilogy had an entirely different mix on every song

So much misinformation in this thread

Apples and oranges comparisons @talktohani

A better comparison would be lossless 2021 re-release of HOB to OG 2011 MP3’s to see if they actually released the raw files or not

Comparing 2011/2021 mixes to 2012 Trilogy mixes is also a futile endeavour, considering they are two different mixes

The spectrum graphs are really only used to determine the frequencies that are present in a song, you typically use this to figure out the true bitrate quality of a file. Mp3's with 16hz means its 192 kbps. Basically when you format a song to mp3, the mp3 file format by it's own nature cuts off a certain level of frequencies. You don't see that in flacc's or wav's because they are lossless file types. Mp3's are not lossless they're a solution to a problem that only happens in the past, which is people don't have enough storage space on their computer to hold as many songs. So mp3's cut down on frequencies because human hearing tends to drop off sharply somewhere between 16 and 20 KHz, usually toward the low end of that range. So you can make a smaller file size without really digging too hard into the quality of the sound itself.

However, if you just listen to the mixes you can tell pretty easily that the remaster changes how each song and instrument are mixed. I'm sure that this was changed likely due to them having to remake each song without the various samples.

Something I haven't had the time to mention earlier, cause I had the files in my home pc;

The "She's so lovely" Loft Music from 2011 is obviously Hi-Res. So the masters DO exist. It's confusing why haven't Abel/doc/illy/zodiac not released the tracks in their highest quality

Effectively thats what the flacc trilogy files are meant to be. However this is one of those rare cases where they were meant to be released in only that lower quality format. This release is an official release of the soundcloud mixtapes essentially. So now you can listen to the original songs in their original format and he can still get plays for it. Drake did the same thing with so far gone though I'm not sure if they remastered or remixed it, that might be worth looking into.

So Far Gone isn't transcoded on streaming. You're thinking of some of the songs from Care Package.

You can get the itunes files like OP did with the rerelease m4a. And do a spectrogram on it and see if its a rerelease or a remaster/remix. I have a feeling it's probably remixed/remastered but I don't have itunes so I couldn't check it myself.

This specific file in my latest screenshot/graph was different from the 2012 Trilogy remasters. And judging by the upload date, before HOB.

I understand he would release a lower resolution audio back in 2011, cause he released them for free, but now that he cleared the samples, and that the release is for-profit, why didn't he release the high quality files? It seems odd, and unprofessional.

Frank/Jai Paul, when they re-released Endless/self titled albums, they shared the high quality files, -- Jai on digital, and Frank through LP and CD, and the CD rips of Endless are high quality 16bit 44.1kHz audio files, the industry standard!