Worst mastering you've ever heard?

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by Spaceboy, Jun 16, 2007.

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  1. street legal

    street legal Senior Member

    Location:
    west milford, nj
    Ah, ok. I see what you're saying now.

    Someone correct me if I am wrong, but isn't the old MCA CD of "Steppenwolf" that does NOT have the tape drag at the beginning of each song Steve's mastering?
     
  2. tomman888

    tomman888 New Member

    Location:
    Queens, NY
    Sadly, after much research, I feel that the loudness war is a ploy to turn the masses off to music. The worst part is that much money is made in this process.
     
  3. xman

    xman Active Member

    Location:
    Los Angeles, CA
    I vote for this 2006 2-disc set Brunswick compilation. The original songs sparkle on vinyl, i.e; The Chi-Lites, Lost Generation, Tyrone Davis. This CD was not cheap either, around $30.00 buckaroos. It was supposedly mastered from 1st generation tapes (made my mouth water in anticipation). I kept passing it up because of the price. I finally dove in. A major disappointment and ear bleeder. I've only played it once.
     

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  4. chargrove

    chargrove Forum Resident

    Location:
    Fort Worth, TX
    Nazareth - S/T
    Castle remaster from either late 90s or early 00s

    Yikes...truly horrendous. Poster boy for ear bleeding, hyper-jacked everything. Pity, as I really like this album.

    FYI...the original A&M is no winner, either, but not as bad as this. I kind of think the source material is to blame here.
     
  5. chargrove

    chargrove Forum Resident

    Location:
    Fort Worth, TX
    Not the Japanese 25.8p CD. You'll have to do some looking and waiting around to find one but...pick it up and check out "Heaven Can Wait" and watch your jaw drop.
     
  6. apple-richard

    apple-richard *Overnight Sensation*

    Just picked up Phil Collins Testify used for $3.99. First CD that I've had to back off the bass -3 in the car. I listen to everything flatlined and I thought the overpowering bass was gonna blow my speakers.
     
  7. Mike from NYC

    Mike from NYC Senior Member

    Location:
    Surprise, AZ
    All of his latest albums are bad but I also believe it's the mix as well as the mastering both dictated by someone who is nearly deaf.

    The only way I can listen to these CDs are to be in another room or listen to them in my car.
     
  8. LeeS

    LeeS Music Fan

    Location:
    Atlanta
    An icon like Springsteen should really have a trusted friend who is willing to say when he puts out sonic garbage like Magic. I don't give him a pass just because he is an icon and/or half-deaf. Fans deserve better.
     
  9. numanoid

    numanoid Forum Resident

    Location:
    Valparaiso, IN
    Samhain - Initium

    The absolute worst mastering! Just completely muffled!
     
  10. rjp

    rjp Senior Member

    Location:
    Ohio
    do you sometimes wonder if someone, anyone, (even patti) ever sat down to lunch with bruce springsteen, looked him dead in the eye and said, "bruce, do you know "magic" literally sounds like s**t?"
     
  11. hurple

    hurple Forum Resident

    Location:
    Clinton, IL, USA
    Not just him, but for a band who has relied so much on the dynamics of their music for the music's success, REM needs to be lined up against the wall and shot for how severly their last two albums were brickwalled.
     
  12. Delius

    Delius Well-Known Member

    Location:
    London, UK
    Pat Benatar's 2006 remasters. Especially In The Heat Of the Night is so unbelievably loud. I'm talking about no low end at all, constant clipping and drum snares that sound like clicks and pops. If anyone can provide with pics of the waveforms from hell, that would be much appreciated! As far as I'm concerned, any future clone of these remasters will most definetely sleep alone.
     
  13. Stratoblaster

    Stratoblaster A skeptical believer....

    Location:
    Ontario, Canada
    I have one of the first CD versions of Kiss - Alive! which has a splattery, distorted, grainy high end that makes it pure torture to listen to...a few minutes in and your ear is totally fatigued.

    Just a really bad sounding transfer...it reminded me of 'shovelware' in the computer software world since it just seemed to have had no effort made by anybody in the mastering, etc.
     
  14. misterdecibel

    misterdecibel Bulbous Also Tapered

    I got a Stones "Sticky Fingers" at the used record store last month that sounds like a cassette recording of an AM radio. It's a Rolling Stones Records/CBS CD.
     
  15. joelbertrand

    joelbertrand Forum Resident

    Location:
    Montreal, Canada
    Beatles 1
    I stopped listening after 3 songs and then sold the CD.
     
  16. ricks

    ricks Senior Member

    Location:
    127.0.0.1:443

    The US early DADC is the same mastering and sounds exactly the same. I have both. Unless you are collector of the album on CD no need to spend the extra $40 on the 25 8P. I also have the greatly inferior, and frankly lousy, Japan for US mastering that may appear on other issues? The is also an inferior record club mastering. Like many early CD's multiple masterings exist.
    [​IMG]
    This thread has the info: http://www.stevehoffman.tv/forums/showthread.php?t=148729
     
  17. Eman

    Eman New Member

    Location:
    Albuquerque, NM
    Definitely Van Halen remasters. Wish I could shove them................
     
  18. pig whisperer

    pig whisperer CD Member

    Location:
    Tokyo, Japan
    Some of those US DADC discs sound really good. My favorite Rolling Stones "Black And Blue" DADC beat the US (different plant), Canada, Japan, and Japan for Europe pressings. They are digitically identical, so, for some, any pressing will do. I can easily hear pressing differneces and my DADC "B&B" is going to the grave with me.
     
  19. Smiths22

    Smiths22 Well-Known Member

    def leppard - hysteria deluxe edition.
     
  20. stef1205

    stef1205 Forum Resident

    The Virgin edition is a tad better, but don't expect too much.
     
  21. Jay F

    Jay F New Member

    Location:
    Pittsburgh, PA
    Since I last voted in this thread:

    Amie Mann: Bachelor No. 2 on SACD
    Madeleine Peyroux: Careless Love
     
  22. paulg61

    paulg61 Senior Member

    Location:
    CT
    Go 4 Ludwig's '94 Virgin's - no comparison!
     
  23. pig whisperer

    pig whisperer CD Member

    Location:
    Tokyo, Japan
    I like the CBS disc (I have two pressings), but the mastering could be better. The sound is a bit pinched. I read the Greg Calbi interview in one of the thread and he went for a rock guitar sound when he mastered it. I wish he left it as a rock and roll album. I don't like the Ludwig remaster and the SHM-SACD is unlistenable (for me) in "flat from the master tape" form. It could have been great if it was mastered (IMO, naturally). The CBS wins by default.

    I couldn't make it all the way through the SACD and it belongs in this worst mastering (or no mastering) thread.
     
  24. Lespaul59

    Lespaul59 New Member

    Location:
    .
    Too many pages to comb through, but I think any of the RVG's of either prestige or blue note stuff is absolutely atrocious. I won't buy any jazz unless its treated with care and rudy shows an utter disregard for what he put on tape 50 or so years ago by forcing mono and cooking the tapes.
     
  25. SBurke

    SBurke Nostalgia Junkie

    Location:
    Philadelphia, PA
    No kidding, how come? I have this but haven't heard it in a while. Can't remember what I thought of it.
     
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