elviscaprice wrote:Really??? What does official mean? Some flunky at a record label?? Just because it was done back then? Time? Too funny!
If fans had access to the multitracks then sure, you could argue that fans may do as well as the professionals. But since fans generally do not, their remakes of single versions are just edits, and as such may have subtle differences from the real single versions - differences which couldn't be replicated. For example, without access to the multitracks, a fan couldn't rebuild the music video version of David Bowie's "Underground" because the last half-minute of the music video doesn't match any of the singles or the album version - Bowie's vocals occur at different moments. But in the case of singles, usually there are more subtle differences.
Even professionals with access to multitracks may make mistakes when they try to recreate official versions, when the differences are subtle. Any time you are trying to replicate someone else's work, you're going to make mistakes. It is inevitable. To stay with Bowie as the example, when Rykodisc presented the single versions of many of his songs, some were not really the official single versions. They remade them, and mistakes were made that fans who were familiar with the real singles detected. Inaccurate versions of Space Oddity, TVC15, DJ, Ashes to Ashes, Let’s Dance (different edit point in guitar solo), China Girl (different edit point in guitar solo), Modern Love (different edit point after first chorus), etc..
So yes, there is a difference between official and unofficial. And sometimes unofficial is great - eLeMeNOhPeaQ outdid the pros with his "Like Flames [Video Edit Plus]" - and he properly took credit for it being his own version!