The Wedding Present - Going, Going...

Hi,

I don't believe I've ever started a thread on here despite many posts...but the latest Wedding Present album, "Going, Going..." is an absolute and utter audiophile masterpiece. The album has to be good for this to matter of course, and the album is more than that - it goes from Pink Floyd-ish mood pieces, to punk rock, to orchestral, with loads of great tunes.

With all the bashing of modern recording, mastering and pressings that tends to happen here...I think it's important to take notice when a band, that might not have the resources of some of the more fortunate bands out there, produces such a sonically excellent masterpiece. All the textures, tones, dynamics...it's all there, and it's stunning. The vocal subtleties, the shimmer of the cymbals, the power of the drums, the tone of the guitars...listening to music can be such an engrossing experience. Why can't all recordings be this good??

 

Because most people don't care about sound quality and most bands and producers just want to get their music noticed my making it one louder.

 

I agree that the album is well recorded, and I'm still finding the time to listen to all 80 minutes of it, but DG's trend for lower and lower DR's over the more recent recordings is unwanted. I bought the Pledge download, DR's below. TWP always had space and dynamics in their earlier recordings, which provided better light and shade listening to the full album. As much as I like the new songs and recording, it's difficult to listen to the full 80 minutes in one session, especially with headphones. Not too bad on the speakers. The DR's look brutal, but it's not as bad as it looks. Another one where the ears hear the music better than the eyes. Anyway, I'll see them in Salford this coming Sunday, for the full audio/visual extravaganza, so whoopeee!

foobar2000 1.3.8 / Dynamic Range Meter 1.1.1
log date: 2016-09-09 06:54:30

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Analyzed: The Wedding Present / Going, Going...
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DR Peak RMS Duration Track
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DR1 0.00 dB -4.71 dB 5:33 01-Kittery
DR6 0.00 dB -8.08 dB 3:02 02-Greenland
DR5 0.00 dB -7.99 dB 3:50 03-Marblehead
DR6 0.00 dB -8.78 dB 2:43 04-Sprague
DR3 0.00 dB -4.29 dB 3:58 05-Two Bridges
DR3 0.00 dB -6.27 dB 4:40 06-Little Silver
DR3 0.00 dB -3.60 dB 4:19 07-Bear
DR3 0.00 dB -3.56 dB 2:01 08-Secretary
DR3 0.00 dB -4.00 dB 3:35 09-Birdsnest
DR5 0.00 dB -6.35 dB 2:26 10-Kill Devil Hills
DR4 0.00 dB -4.84 dB 3:33 11-Bells
DR3 0.00 dB -3.66 dB 4:41 12-Fifty-Six
DR4 0.00 dB -4.73 dB 2:50 13-Fordland
DR4 0.00 dB -5.80 dB 4:29 14-Emporia
DR3 0.00 dB -4.90 dB 2:40 15-Broken Bow
DR3 0.00 dB -4.27 dB 2:51 16-Lead
DR4 0.00 dB -4.64 dB 2:11 17-Ten Sleep
DR4 0.00 dB -8.55 dB 4:28 18-Wales
DR4 0.00 dB -5.46 dB 3:44 19-Rachel
DR4 0.00 dB -7.68 dB 10:16 20-Santa Monica
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Number of tracks: 20
Official DR value: DR4

Samplerate: 48000 Hz
Channels: 2
Bits per sample: 24
Bitrate: 1685 kbps
Codec: FLAC
================================================================================

 

Saw 'em Wednesday and they were MIGHTY. Superb show. The only thing I'd change would be to have a massive backdrop to project the films on. Mighty fine album as well. The bonus CD is really good as well.

 

This whole album + accompanying film thing really is a big trend with British indie bands; Suede and Tindersticks have both released similar concepts this year, and probably others that I can't think of right now. Am a fan of the Weddoes, though not as much the other two, but might check this out.

 

Still haven't received my copy, but I've been hearing a few negative things from some fans. I'm sure I'll find plenty to like about the CD though. For now, my newish Live 1993 CDs will keep getting played.

 

The digital stream on Tidal certainly didn't sound crushed to me, I'm surprised to see these numbers. That said, the LP (as usual for TWP) sounds fantastic and is a large improvement over the digital version.

I'm a long-time fan, and have nothing but praise for this album. So while you may have been hearing negative things from some fans...I wouldn't take that as a general view. The atmospheric opening 4 tracks really set a tone, and provide a backdrop to make the following songs really jump out of the speakers. This is up there with their best material IMHO, and it has a better sense of purpose and flow than the other post-Cinerama albums (which are mostly quite good in their own right).

 

Andrew Scheps is clearly a clever and thoughtful engineer. -E

 

The downloads are in 24/48?! Huzzah!!! -E

 

The 10 minute version of "Santa Monica" is only available digitally.

 

I stopped listening at Take Fountain, mainly because of the terrible sound, and that was before I knew about this forum or DR values. Actually, the last two Cinerama albums sound bad too, although I dearly love them (especially Torino). The numbers look bad for this latest album, and I am a big believer in DR numbers... never heard anything below a 10 that sounds good, and anything below a 7 is usually unlistensble for me. It's a shame because I've read good things about the album, but I can't stand that clipped/brickwalled sound. I wish that Dave Gedge would learn something about mastering and dynamic range and make some changes. Seamonsters is mastered brilliantly, by the way. You can turn that one WAY up and it still sounds great (the original CD that is!).

 

I'm remixing TF as instrumental tracks for licensing and I can't believe how good the raw tracks sound--I think a big part of the problem with that record was the mix, actually. The individual tracks are pretty compressed, so I don't think you're hearing too much compression during mastering (mastering EQ may have been an issue--the final product is pretty thin and brittle). I'm actually making an alternate vocal mix with a different sequence and will encourage David to release it (not that that means anything).

I love Torino, too. -E

 

Steve albini

 

I forget sometimes that albini worked on both seamonsters and take fountain. Strange that they sound so different. Seamonsters is one of the few noisy/90s/shoegazey albums that I really like the sound of.

 

Yes I get in a bad habit of blaming the mastering, and I forget that sometimes the compression is in the mix. It's hard for me to understand how anyone involved in any stage of music production would like that sound. Is it possible that brickwalled music sounds better on really nice equipment--like really huge studio mixing monitors--when played at a relativity low volume? So it sounds good to the people making the record, but not on my equipment?

Wow, I would love to hear those raw tracks from take fountain. And I'd really love a crankable, high DR remix of take fountain. Tell David: here's a fan who would pay $20 or more each for high DR versions (cd or digital) of all of his post 90s material!

 

Steve Fisk did TF (and Watusi); Albini did El Rey. That said, Fisk got some AMAZING Albini-esque drum sounds on TF, but didn't use much of them in the final mix. -E

 

No. In my experience it's actually quite the opposite. The better the equipment, the more revealing they are of the recording, warts and all. Good recordings sound better, bad recordings sound worse.

 

You might be surprised with "Going,Going..."

 

Well, I think I am powerless to avoid it. This thread has officially reignited my Dave Gedge obsession. Just listened to Take Fountain again... much better than I remembered. Still sounds lousy but the songwriting is so good. Now I need some more. On to El Ray and beyond!

 

I was lucky to see them for free in Denver on the Take Fountaim tour. It was amazing.

 

That's the spirit!

 

I saw TWP last night in Salford, at the Lowry's smaller Quays theatre. It probably holds around 350, with 200 seated in the stalls, and the rest seated in three surrounding tiers. I've never been to a fully seated TWP gig before. Very strange.

There were no overhead lights, only white string lights around the area of each band member. I saw three keyboard set-ups, and wondered if I'd wondered into the wrong gig. The drummer Charles was flanker by two female keyboard players and vocalists, with the usual front row of Sam (guitar/keyboard piano), DG (vocals/guitar), and Katherine (bass/vocals). There was a projection screen behind the band, but no other adornments. If you've heard the new album 'Going, Going...', then you'll understand the need for the added keyboards and female vocals.

The set-list was the new album from start to finish, and no other TWP songs, with the projection screen showing (I presume, as I don't have the new DVD) the videos that accompany each track on 'Going, Going...'

Like the album, which is also around 80 minutes long, the performance was a slow burner, with a few non-typical TWP tracks to start. But, once it got going, it turned into a really intense and excellent gig. I just wish we'd been able to stand. The drummer was the stand-out performer yet again. He sounds far better live than on the recordings.

This short-lived tour will end tonight in Stowmarket, and then the next tour of Europe will be back to the normal format of new and old TWP songs. They make a formidable sound live. Catch them if they are in your area.

 

Valentina is REALLY good! -E

 

Well, to be clear, I'm just suggesting that each track has been gently massaged (and a lot of the guitars, for example, are layered), so you don't need to do a lot of stereo mix processing do get some pretty tame dynamics. I'd also say that TF doesn't require the dynamics of Seamonsters or Saturnalia.

I get @vinylphile's point, but it might sound better--better resolution means truncated tracks sound LESS truncated when squashed. I'm working on some of my band's stuff, and there's this one power chord that--post limiter--sounds fine on the monitors but the attack is weird on the stereo. That said, you'd expect an ME or engineer to check various systems, or to know how his systems translates.

I've tried selling him on hi-res, but it sounds like GG is available as 24/48, so that seems like a huge win! -E

 

Are you the chap who remixed "The Thing I Like Best About Him Is His Girlfriend"? Pretty cool remix.