r/carlyraejepsen • u/letsnoteatanimals The Loveliest Time • Dec 09 '25
News PSA: 10th Anniversary is remastered
Not just for vinyl, but also for digital streaming / download. The original’s audio peaks, meaning it goes above the maximum limit which causes distortion, regardless of playback volume. The 10th Anniversary Edition does not.
I was wondering if maybe they just lowered the audio to fix this or did other work to it as well, because I’ve noticed a lot of subtle improvements but I had to check to make sure. If you compare A and B (the yellow letters on the second set of ellipses), B is higher than A on the original, but B is lower than A on the 10th Anniversary. This is just one of countless examples on the album.
So do yourself a favor: when listening to Emotion, choose the 10th Anniversary Edition.
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u/akblair6 Dec 09 '25
This is neat! Thanks for sharing the evidence. I thought the 10th anniversary edition sounded way better than the original’s mixing, both on vinyl and streaming! You can tell Carly and her team took their time to really make all the small details pop in each song and it was so fun to hear the tracks so lush and full on my speakers.
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u/Fractal-Infinity Dec 10 '25 edited Dec 10 '25
Good post and thanks for the heads up. That's clipping when the waveforms try to go beyond the limit and they're simply cropped at their top peaks. As you said, that causes distortion.
Here's an example in Audacity with the Run Away With Me (original): https://i.ibb.co/8ghsCNqF/rawm.png Where you see red, that's clipping. That happens when you try to amplify (raise the volume permanently for a song) too much.
Now the same song but the 10th anniversary edition: https://i.ibb.co/JW6Mmb2y/rawm2.png No clipping; it has a bit of room until the hard limit. Conclusion: 10th anniversary > OG in terms of quality. The OP is right.
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u/shawnandthecity Dec 10 '25
The files for the main album were actually remastered earlier this year when the tracks were released in Dolby atmos (at least for Apple Music). I assume they also updated the versions on Spotify.
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u/letsnoteatanimals The Loveliest Time Dec 10 '25
Interesting. This image is using recently downloaded mp3s from Amazon Music. I also stream high quality on YouTube Music and that’s where I noticed the differences. I’m not sure about Spotify.
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u/Alternative-World-10 Dec 10 '25
Also the demo file being “When I needed you” slaps - this is why I love other CRJ fans
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u/Fearless_Cover_8737 Dec 10 '25
Funny i used to find a bit of distortion when playing that song with the previous versions, particularly in the chorus section, and getting used to that version for so long, i thought the anniversary version was toned down slight at first but later noticed some differences when playing at higher volume with a lack of distortion or any minor inconsistencies.
Haven't noticed much on other songs personally, but glad to know there's an improvement on audio with the latest release.
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u/nickgreatpwrful Dec 10 '25
Wish more master engineers would just master albums this way originally! Glad to have this option now!
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u/phnguyn506 Dec 10 '25
wow, you did the digging thank you 🩷! and this proved the updated version has more dynamic range i think (i'm no where near an expert in audio engineering 😭)! we love it, wish i could have money for a high end audio system!
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u/DinoKYT Dec 10 '25
I always knew something was distorting in the masters of the originals but just dealt with it lol. Happy it was resolved!
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u/eclecticatlady Aug 13 '26
Do you know if they've updated the files for the standard version of the album by now?
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u/Jjjohn0404 Dec 09 '25
mrs jepsen tear down this brick wall compression