[Warren[_2_]]

Mark-T expounded in

oups.com:
...
Professional music producers generally capture studio
recordings in a 24-bit, high-fidelity audio format.
Before the originals, or "masters" in industry parlance,
are pressed onto CDs or distributed to digital sellers
like Apple's iTunes, they're downgraded to 16-bit files.

If the master is the original, then what does
"re-mastered" mean, as commonly used?
A genuine original copy?
Mark

It just means that it is "re-mixed". There's a lot you can do
in between the original recording tracks and the final
resulting media (CD). The "master" recording normally includes
multiple tracks.

Something really ancient will be 1-track (mono) and an
entirely different process: more of an audio processing
challenge to remove pops and clicks etc. without killing the
original performance.

Warren