Metallica to reissue their demo tape....on *cassette*!

I've just listened to this cassette, and I thought it sounded pretty good. Even had it cranked fairly loud. I know there's only so much that can be done with a demo, especially a 30+ year old demo. But, I thought this sounded good. Much better than some of the bootleg copies I have.

 

Yeah, but our you listening on cans or speakers? I've got tons of brickwalled recordings that are at least listenable on my cheap car speakers, but in my headphone it sounds like someone has a blowtorch to my ears.

 

Correct.

 

Found some FLACs on a notorious tracker:

foobar2000 1.2.9 / Dynamic Range Meter 1.1.1
log date: 2015-04-19 20:19:57

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Analyzed: Metallica / No Life 'til Leather Demo
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

DR Peak RMS Duration Track
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
DR7 0.00 dB -8.30 dB 4:09 01-Hit the Lights
DR7 0.00 dB -7.80 dB 4:18 02-The Mechanix
DR8 0.00 dB -8.92 dB 3:12 03-Motorbreath
DR8 0.00 dB -8.72 dB 4:43 04-Seek and Destroy
DR8 0.00 dB -8.58 dB 4:59 05-Metal Militia
DR7 0.00 dB -7.86 dB 3:42 06-Jump in the Fire
DR8 0.00 dB -8.19 dB 3:25 07-Phantom Lord
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Number of tracks: 7
Official DR value: DR7

Samplerate: 44100 Hz
Channels: 2
Bits per sample: 16
Bitrate: 1052 kbps
Codec: FLAC
================================================================================

 

Just out of curiosity, I've always heard that LPs can fool DR meter results due to surface noise. Could it be a similar situation with cassettes due to hiss??

 

I just find it humorous that folks are arguing about dynamics on a 33 year old thrash metal demo cassette tape. The original was practically unlistenable. New master might be loud, but at least I can distinguish the instruments.

 

I've downloaded tracks from two different rips and while I haven't checked DR, I have looked at the waveforms. Both have clipping associated with the transfer. One is pretty substantially clipped. So these are issues with the cassette to digital transfer and not with the actual mastering. However, they still look to be quite compressed and like I said, I don't like the EQ. But I don't think we can gain any insight into what the CD will be like DR-wise by looking at the cassette rips.

 

Anyone know how this version compares to the boot "one last visit"?

 

Here' the ripping info for the FLAC above"

Amp:Marantz PM5003
Tape Deck:Technics
Line in from USB
Software:Spin It Again
Flac Files Encode By Trader's Little Helper
NO EQ And Tape Haeds where cleaned and Demagnetize before transfer.

 

Was this demo recorded directly to cassette (I assume it was)?

 

I find it amusing that people got upset and slammed this entire reissue campaign based on a post about the "DR" readings for this tape, without even hearing a note of the music!

 

Yeah...

Now if someone had posted the wavelengths for everyone to judge, that would be another thing.

 

Can I just say, Metallica in the 80's. Greatest metal band ever.........

 

We're not upset over the DR of the original recording, we know it's not a high quality recording. That's why we hate to see it treated to poor mastering, which makes it sound worse. The low DR is not because of the nature of the original recording, it's because of the remastering. The bootleg I have is nowhere near unlistenable.

This is the argument I'll never understand. The whole "it's punk, who cares about the quality" reaction all the Sex Pistols threads get. I don't care what the type of music or what the quality of the original recording is like, it's still very disappointing when it's treated to poor mastering. Limiting, extra compression and harsh EQ is always going to make anything sound worse. That's the complaint. I don't expect magic to be performed, but it could've sounded much better even given the limitations of the source.

 

And what in Metallicas recent mastering history would lead anyone to believe this would be mastered any differently?

 

I heard the whole tape. I also pointed out that we can't make much of a judgment on the CD's DR going by the tape rips. However, from what I'm hearing and seeing on the waveforms, it's not looking promising for the CD. I didn't slam the whole reissue campaign, but I said I won't be buying them if this tape is any indication of how they will be mastered. I am going to need confirmation they weren't nuked before I would be willing to put out any money.

We're fanatics, that's what we do here. We get excited and impatient. And if it turns out the reissues are well done, I'll gladly buy them. I very much would like them to be well done and I really wish I was on here saying how good the tape sounds and it looks promising for the reissues.

Also, how do we know a discussion like this won't lead to them maybe rethinking the way the reissues will be mastered? If that were the case, early complaints like these would be invaluable. If we just always wait until the very final product is in stores to give our feedback, it's too late.

 

Nothing. But others have seen the light, so there's always going to be hope with each new release that it could be the one.

 

Here's a waveform for that one. There is tons of clipping from the transfer, so there's noway to tell what the cassette actually looks like:




Here's another rip. Still good bit of clipping, but gives a better idea of the actual mastering. It looks and sounds pretty compressed to me, but it's tough to say without access to a transfer without clipping.

 

For Whom The Brick Walls.

 

At least it's not a Pro Tools, digital recording.

 

Sorry, don't recall if that's one I compared when I decided on my favorite sounding boot. The one I like best is called 'The Real No Life Til Leather'. An MP3 of Ron McCovney's copy is out there, but I don't think it sounds all that good and not because it's Mp3. The Real No Life boot needs a little work though. Gain and offset between channels needs corrected and could benefit from some EQ. It's said to be sourced from Lars' copy rather than one of the cassettes they sent around and that's why the songs are in a different order and sound better than the other copies.

 

One Last Visit and about 95% of the boots are high generation sourced.Some I listened to are even horribly equalized or awful needledrops,I wouldn`t even bother with those personally.The best one includes the false starts and begins with Motorbreath,not Hit The Lights.I have no clue where to find this good sounding version now,after all it was one of those freely shared non commercial recordings.It does in fact exist and sadly will not be heard.It`s no way perfect,but the imperfections do not bother me.

 

The Ride The Lightning demos are pretty good. Would like to see them officially released.

 

I figure this is how the whole catalog gonna look regarding compression. They probably slammed every album equally hard to make them more uniform.

 

Unlistenable ??? I have a 2nd generation copy of the original demotape for years and it sounds fantastic !!!