Albums ruined by brick-walling

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by Thouston, Feb 2, 2018.

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  1. Thouston

    Thouston Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Mattoon, IL
    Let's make a list of good music albums ruined by crushing.
    I'll start:
    1) Judas Priest- Redeemer of Souls

    2) Dan Baird - Solow

    I opened both of these in audacity. Both albums show a maxed out, clipped off wave form across the entire file.
     
    DiabloG and Carlox like this.
  2. dobyblue

    dobyblue Forum Resident

    This forum has a 33,334 character limit per post, guess I'm going to have to make multiple posts to fit them all in.
     
  3. ponkine

    ponkine Senior Member

    Location:
    Villarrica, Chile
    Pretty much everything on CD since this

    [​IMG]
     
  4. bherbert

    bherbert Forum Resident

    Location:
    South Africa
    Oasis - Definitely Maybe
    Oasis - What’s the Story Morning Glory
     
  5. Thouston

    Thouston Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Mattoon, IL
    Do these mastering engineers that crush these albums, have ears? The Judas Pries album has frequent audible distortion.
    Maybe we should start naming the ones that crush these albums.
     
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  6. dobyblue

    dobyblue Forum Resident

    So sad, just a bundle of great music slaughtered.

    The 5.1 mix on the SACD of What's The Story is never going to make anyone's "best of" lists for surround mixing, but at least it has dynamics (DR10 I think) and allows the album to be listened with some volume. Most Oasis tracks, I get excited to listen to them...turn them up...then 2 mins into the song I'm thinking "this sounds like ****" and have to turn it way down.

    :(
     
    Vinyl Socks, Erik B., bobcat and 8 others like this.
  7. dobyblue

    dobyblue Forum Resident

    a r s e is getting censored? That gave me a little chuckle, hehe.
     
  8. Jimmy B.

    Jimmy B. .

    Location:
    .
    None.
     
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  9. SurrealCereal

    SurrealCereal Forum Resident

    Location:
    California
    Rush - Clockwork Angels
     
  10. vudicus

    vudicus Forum Resident

    Location:
    UK
    Rolling Stones - A Bigger Bang
    Rolling Stones - Blue & Lonesome

    Zappa - Buffalo
     
  11. dobyblue

    dobyblue Forum Resident

    The obvious ones:

    Metallica - Death Magnetic
    Red Hot Chili Peppers - Californication
     
  12. Sammy Waslow

    Sammy Waslow Just watching the show

    Location:
    Ireland
    Darlene Love Introducing Darlene Love

    I find this unlistenable. Such a shame.
     
  13. drbryant

    drbryant Senior Member

    Location:
    Los Angeles, CA
    Every album by the White Stripes, but especially Icky Thump, sounds much better on vinyl.

    Blue and Lonesome by the Stones is a such a great album and the songs sound terrific live but it just sounds like a loud, garbled mess on CD. I have the vinyl, but haven’t listened to it.
     
  14. drbryant

    drbryant Senior Member

    Location:
    Los Angeles, CA
    Everything by the Fleet Foxes, one of the greatest bands of the past ten years sounds wonderfully open live. Really a shame.
     
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  15. blaken123

    blaken123 Your Greater Tri-County CD Superstore

    Location:
    Lexington, KY
    For me, this band is the worst casualty of the loudness wars. Their style begs for open, dynamic mixing and mastering. Instead--since they have songs that are kind of quiet sometimes--the engineers crank the knobs up EVEN HIGHER. Every sound on every Fleet Foxes album is clouded by blown-out bass, clipped peaks, and relentless compression.
     
    poe_man, Vinyl Socks, mozz and 2 others like this.
  16. Davey

    Davey NP: Portishead ~ Portishead (1997)

    Location:
    SF Bay Area, USA
    Hardly everything, but it is sad that the list is so long, much easier to list the ones that aren't brickwalled, here's from another thread that goes in that direction, some DR9 and above albums in my digital collection since 2000, many more but this is just from my indie-rock-centric perspective, and there are probably others that I haven't run the DR tool on so they don't show in the list ...

    Are the loudness wars over?*
     
  17. Thouston

    Thouston Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Mattoon, IL
    I know it is easier to list the ones that are not crushed, but I want to draw attention to the ones that are. This forum is large enough, maybe if we start pointing out these badly mastered albums, they will think twice before crushing the next one. I for one, am fed up with it.
     
    dobyblue likes this.
  18. mrgroove01

    mrgroove01 Still looking through bent-backed tulips

    Location:
    Los Angeles, CA
    Van Halen’s “A Different Kind Of Truth” is kind of the pinnacle of brickwalling. A good record almost completely devoid of dynamics and unlistenable due to excessive brickwalling.
     
  19. the last Stones album is awful due to being so loud. The list however is almost endless
     
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  20. Davey

    Davey NP: Portishead ~ Portishead (1997)

    Location:
    SF Bay Area, USA
    OK, but I'm not sure who you are trying to convince, most of the time the labels/artists/producers get what they ask for, there are already countless threads complaining about mastering over the last 25 years. Pretty much all mastering engineers will brickwall a CD if that is what the paying customer wants.
     
    Shak Cohen likes this.
  21. Munros1969

    Munros1969 Forum Resident

    Location:
    UK
    Gov't Mule's albums from around the time of their "Life Before Insanity" album onwards... fantastic music but, for me, unlistenable CDs.
     
    Aardvark23 likes this.
  22. Thouston

    Thouston Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Mattoon, IL
    I don't think the ones responsible are aware of what it sounds like on a good system. I think they listen to the end result on a 3 inch car stereo speaker.
     
  23. Munros1969

    Munros1969 Forum Resident

    Location:
    UK
    Paul Weller's recent albums have also been brickwalled to excessive levels on CD. Fortunately the vinyl is a bit easier on the ear.
     
  24. matthew2600

    matthew2600 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Colorado
  25. VeeDub

    VeeDub Senior Member

    Location:
    Denver, CO
    I have recently just picked up the entire run of Fleet Foxes' output (the 3 albums and Sun Giant) on vinyl as I just don't listen to the CDs as much as I'd like to, as everything is so...not dynamic. Hoping for at least a marginal improvement.
     
    blaken123 likes this.
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