Albums ruined by brick-walling

I'm assuming we're talking about the same "Bad"25 version. I didn't see a YouTube video called a PitBull remix, just the "Bad"25. That one lost its deep soundstage due to the beefed up kick drum/bass sound. All PitBull would've had to have done to fix that was to add back a bit of reverb. Remixes that add that kind of bass usually apply low pass mono bass mixdown on equal L/R channels which is a big mistake if portions of the stereo bass frequencies go too far up into midrange where that reverb 3D sound is created.

When I was EQing weak bass songs that sound like a tap, what I can hear in the original "Bad" version, when I raise the section 250-400Hz I actually can bring out a lot of detail that sounds like it is doubling what I hear in the 2000-4000Hz regions only not as brighter and louder. That low end detail is the reverb and it needs to remain in stereo.

 

I meant this one (although Fremer talked mainly about the Bad 25 remaster, he also mentioned this bonus remix that was included in the album):

 

For those trying to find the source of the earliest loudness war victim, I put forth the Flaming Lips' In A Priest-Driven Ambulance from 1989. They mixed and re-mixed the song "Unconsciously Screamin'" 100-200 times to get it louder than a poorly-recorded Nirvana bootleg (I guess the taper was right in front of the PA?). The peaks aren't shaved and there's still about 1 dB of headroom, but the songs still have little to no dynamic range. I've posted waveforms in other Flaming Lips threads, you can search for those if you're curious to see what the Audacity readout looks like.

Compared to later Flaming Lips CDs, though, Priest sounds like a classical piece - perhaps the "Surprise" symphony!

 

YIKES! That IS BAD!

This the Bad 25 remaster I'm referring to...

Bad (2012 Remaster)

And this is the original...

Michael Jackson - Bad (Original Album Version) [Audio HQ] HD

The beginning synth kick drum sort of sounds the same but with less bottom end.
It's overall a lot quieter than the 25 remaster which has removed Michael's reverb
and the hand claps are a lot louder and compete too much with the vocal.

 

Lol, I actually did this the other day, and wasn't surprised to see Merzbow near the top of that list...

 

Someone earlier mentioned QOTSA's Songs For The Deaf. I'd argue that actually that may be one of the few instances where brickwalling adds to an album. The brickwalling and compression on CDs generally attempts to replicate the compression applied in regular radio play.

This obviously means that in most cases, brickwalling the CD itself is redundant as it won't make it sound any different or more noticeable when played on the radio.

However, SFTD is set up as a concept album encompassing the experience of driving along and tuning into different radio stations in the car while doing so. Therefore the brickwalling on the CD feeds into this concept in that it replicates the radio compression and therefore the sound of listening to music through a car stereo. It's creative use of overcompression/brickwalling, and IMO it works. I regard the album as QOTSA's peak by some distance; little details like this only add to it.

 

The initial release of Level 42's Retroglide album was overcompressed to the extreme.



A subsequent re-issue of the album corrected this error of judgement.

 

This album was improved by brick-walling! Go figure.

 

I find that hard to believe. I have the original CD and it sounds nice and natural. Just turn up the volume a bit to get the best out of it. I shudder to thing what a pulverized Culture Factory version sounds like.

 

To my ears, it sounds like the worst offender in squashed mastering terms that I have in my collection is the aptly titled "Nudge It Up A Notch" by Steve Cropper & Felix Cavaliere from 2007. Turning up the volume on that one does not help you to hear more inside of the music but only makes the music blare out of the speakers instead. I can only guess this is intentional because that same thing would have happened if you had turned up a record on the piece of originally budget priced vintage sound reproduction equipment pictured on the album cover. So in a way, the mastering did what was intended.

It is still weird that the foot stomping of Paul McCartney on the opening track to "Memory Almost Full" is much louder than the rumbling bass drum on the Fabulous Thunderbirds "High Water" album that, some 10 years prior, I felt used to rattle the house because of its loudness. That kind of makes one wonder about the shoe size.

 

Don't knock until you've tried it. I'm no fan of Culture Factory as they've ruined their remstered edition of Diesel And Dust. Now that is one loud brick-walled disaster!

As I said in my last post, go figure. Obviouisly they did something right with Blue Sky Mining. I have the original CD too and there's no comparison. Their remaster of BSM kicks butt. So like the saying goes, even a broken clock is right twice a day so it's probably wise not to dismiss something out of hand.

 

Listened to the 2 LP remix tonight. Still terrible. This could have been a great album but the sound is a joke. Muddy mix, Bass boosted below 100HZ. No mid-range, like someone made a smile face on the EQ. I love Rush, but get angry anytime, I hear this album in any format.

 

Wow. Okay, Youtube doesn't help - but this sounds like the worst pop radio heard through a bad car stereo.

 

That's funny. I have a memory related to this. In 99, my uncle still had a car stereo with a cassette component (there was no way he was going to ruin his beloved CD collection and he didn't own a CD burner then). So he still made cassettes for the car, on good equipment, and I was there when he taped "Californication". He'd school me at a very young age where the peak levels should be, ideally, when recording something onto tape, and I'd spend hours looking at the VU meters "dance", in waves, I loved that.
Enter "Californication"...Pause/record. Adjust the levels.Those "waves" just didn't move. It was all in the red - right away. It didn't matter which song it was. I knew nothing about loudness wars back then, and I thought something was faulty in his equipment, some internal buzz or whatever. I was shocked! He ended up taping it at a reasonable enough level for a cassette, but there's nothing you can do with loud mastering. Of course, hometaping pretty much disappeared after this so I didn't get to see other offenders.

"Blood Sugar Sex Magik" is very dynamic and rather quiet! Turn it up and it's very satisfactory.

 

Brings back good memories, ripping my LPs to Cassette.

 

Big Ones by Aerosmith (from 1994, DR7 average) is very harsh-sounding. Not only due to the compression / limiting / hard clipping but also due to the very top-heavy EQ. When I bought it several years ago, I couldn't believe how bad it sounded for a release of that era.

Try listening to the track 'Blind Man' - which has a level of -7.9dB RMS, and about 10dB too much EQ at 12kHz - at a reasonable volume. Almost impossible.

 

Not even close... This is Iggy's mix of Search and Destroy

 

I know it has been two years, but this just now was brought to my attention. Sure go ahead.

 

Between that and the ALTERNATE VOCAL TAKE of "Gimme Danger" (= alternate version, don't sell it as a REMIX then), this Iggy version drives me up a wall.

To think it was the only available version of the album for many years makes me sick. I know people who got into this album that way, having no idea it wasn't the original.

And I love Iggy. But he had no idea of what he was doing. He wasn't "in the red" with analog equipment, and that was detrimental to the end result.

 

To be fair - that is not Iggy's mix of S&D. That is a particular mastering of Iggy's mix of S&D.

 

Which he approved.

 

Wasn't he around during mastering?

 

That statement is wrong and completely misleading.

 

I would not disagree, but that is not the point. There are so many people who still mistake the result of poor mastering with the music's mixing, that the post in question needs correcting - as it is just wrong.

The CD of Iggy's mix of Raw Power is mastered to brick-walling standards.

 

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