In this work, we analyze and compare songs from Taylor Swift's original albums and Taylor's Versions (TVs). TVs are remakes of the original releases. They were newly recorded, mixed, and mastered.
We analyzed the songs using audio monitoring and metering tools from the recording studio, including phase scope, channel correlation, peak meter, RMS meter, and crest factor.
We compared the songs by means of a Self-Organizing Map (SOM). The SOM revealed that some TVs stayed very close to the original version (including Blank Space, Change, Clean, Forever And Always (Piano Version), I Know Places, Shake It Off, Starlight, State Of Grace (Acoustic Version), Style, The Best Day, This Love, Wildest Dream, Wonderland, You Are In Love), while others have changed more dramatically (Dear John, Everything Has Changed, Fifteen, Forever And Always, Long Live, Mean, State of Grace). Here, Taylor's Versions tend to be mixed a little louder and more mono.
This observation is in line with the current listening behavior: People tend to listen to music via proximate bluetooth speakers, which requires high sound pressure levels and in-phase stereo signals.
