Red Hot Chili Peppers "Stadium" on LP getting closer to being released, look at this.

Beautiful. I look forward to hearing this.

 

Whoa!

 

Amazing! Steve, do the record exec guys get to see this type of visual comparision?

 

Looking at this, it reminds me a bit of D'Angelo's 1999 album, Voodoo, on Virgin. I had extracted a song for an online radio show I was doing, and to be consistent I wanted to raise the peak levels to 100. When I had looked the WAV file for the song, it looked very much like this WAV file of the RHCP CD. It was loud, sure, but it didn't have to be.

 

Looking good Steve and Kevin Can't wait to test it with my ears!

Unless those artists are the... no, no I won't say it! Ah let's say, mastering of new CD releases on this level of fame is always the call of the artist

 

Hmm, that seems odd that an artist would have the sense to let you do a nice mastering. Then choose to have that type of CD.I suppose it's about dollars they think that CD will sell more. But they know whats good. yet allow the CD out that way.

 

We really tend to jump on the mastering guys sometimes. Vlado Meller did the CD for this. He also did the original "Black And Blue" (and a few others) for the Stones and they sound fine to me. Makes me wonder about the groups who are making the call.

At least they chose right with the vinyl. Is "kneedle drawp" in the spell checker?

EDIT: When is the release day for this? Are the 4 & 8 LP sets coming out on the same day? The 8 LP black vinyl set is 45 rpm (and will be the definitive version)?

 

to quote Fran Tarkenton, 'That's incredible!'

 

8 LP??? I don't recall that being mentioned. I thought it was 150 and 180 grams.

 

I may be wrong, but I though I read there was 2 versions. The 4 LP set is red vinyl. No? Don't want to start any rumours.

 

Yep, the CD sounds about as bad as it looks there. I have no idea what could be running through someone's mind when they did that.

But thanks for that visual Steve! Very neat. Any other pictures would be great as well and ease the waiting process for us fanatics.

 

i'm waiting for someone to chime in and remind us that simply looking at waveforms without using one's ears is not a constructive exercise. waiting....

 

audiophile porn?

 

Yeah, I don't think we'll get one of those posts this time since Steve posted the waveform.

 

I hope you only ripped that CD but didn't listen to it, I wouldn't want anyone to think it represents what the album is actually meant to sound like.

That image is depressing and heartening at the same time. Depressing because it annoys me that the mass released CD version of the album can't be properly mastered. (I have this cRaZy idea that good sound quality should be easily available to everyone).

Yet at the same time I'm grateful that RHCP fans actually will have an opportunity to buy a properly mastered version of Stadium Arcadium, unlike other recent RHCP albums and compilations.

I should point out that Meller hasn't mastered recent RHCP albums as loud as Californication. It seem that he (and the band) realise they went over the over the top on that one.

The graph below shows the ReplayGain values required to correct each album back to the 89 dB ReplayGain standard. Longer bars means greater correction, and louder mastering. Obviously Californication takes the 'prize', the albums since then are not in the same realm of absurdity, but are all inferior sounding to earlier CDs.



At least with the vinyl being released I will have an opportunity to directly ask Warner Bros. why the CD sounds so bad when compared to the vinyl.

 

That WAV looks nice Steve. Gee, what a novel idea, allowing the music to breathe is so... 1960's. Looking forward to the LP. Thx!

 

Or so 1991 in the case of RHCP.

 

Ditto!

 

If only the CD was mastered as well as the LP.

 

I try not to think about it...

One think I don't quite understand, Steve worked from the "unmastered" mixes, does that mean the album gets mastered to another tape which has RIAA compression applied, then the lathe works from that tape? If so, who keeps the RIAA tape? Warner Bros. I guess.

Alternatively, is it (somehow) possible to master directly from the 30 i.p.s. master tapes, without an intermediate step?

 

Wow, and Yikes!!!

That picture is worth 10,000 words. I'm really looking forward to the "Stadium" vinyl. Thanks for pics Steve.

 

That is unbelievable. Can't wait for the vinyl to come out.