Karnivool - The Last Few (2026 Remaster by djrejs)
I tried to remaster this masterpiece just for the fun of it. what do you think?
EDIT
more people are asking how I do it, so here it goes:
I don't have access to the original stems, but what I'm doing I believe goes beyond EQing a master. the key is OpenVINO, which deconstructs the final mix back into individual stems: drums, bass, vocals, other. as we all know, they're not true stems, the separation isn't perfect, but the technology has improved dramatically, what you get is more than workable.
from there I apply actual mixing decisions, like adding punch and clarity to the drums, rebalancing the low end, sometimes adding a bit of reverb, duplicating the vocal track and splitting it into a wider stereo version with slight reverb and a centered mono layer. things you simply can't do on a stereo master. and then I mix it and apply some mastering plugins to "remaster" it. all free plugins btw, and all within the also free Audacity. never got myself to learn how to use a real professinal DAW.
this actually started with my run-and-gun videography work. apart from my 9-5 job, I shoot local artists for social media, and, as you might know, audio is the most important aspect of any video. unhappy with the raw recordings, I started using OpenVINO to separate the live stereo tracks into stems and treat each one individually.
I'm also a solo musician. I've been composing and producing instrumental tracks entirely by myself for about 5 years, playing and arranging guitar, bass, drums, mixing, mastering etc. this production background is what informs the decisions I make when rebuilding these stems.
all experiments, really. Down by STP from a flac, The Last Few from 320kbps mp3s. source quality matters, but even a compressed file opens up real room to work.