Albums ruined by brick-walling

What a waste this one is...Perfect example of a good album ruined by brickwalling!

 

Yes I love oasis but I listen to them in the car or when heavily wined up when my ears aren't fragile.

 

I'd like to hear your report, although I don't have faith that any modern vinyl is actually mastered much differently than cds and downloads. Also, I suspect the brickwalling with some of these bands may happen during mixing rather than mastering.

 

Two from Sir Jim, Chaos and Creation in the Backyard and memory almost full.

 

I recently ordered a brand new CD of soundgarden.......super unknown and they sent me the new remaster. It sounds so awful my ears were in shock and it ruined my night. It was unbelievable how loud and piercing it was and I can normally take loud.

 

I'll throw this out again...

Does anyone think that part of the problem might be that engineers are mixing and mastering on very nice modern professional speakers that resolve lower dynamics better than most of our systems? And so the resulting product sounds better to them while they're working?

I say this because compressed modern music--as long as it doesn't also suffer from clipping or other problems--generally sounds much better on my Graco headphones than on my cheaper headphones. On the cheap headphones, high dr music sounds fine but compressed music sounds much worse. On the Gracos, as long as I adjust the volume, high dr sounds really nice and low dr music sounds "okay."

I know--duh, if course it sounds better on better headphones. But if you extrapolate this out to much larger, much better studio monitors and headphones... where high dr, relatively low volume music might be barely audible...

I think the dogma around here is that engineers are cranking the knobs to compete in the marketplace and to get a "modern sound ". But maybe sometimes they just aren't calibrating the results for the consumer market very well. And maybe they're still mixing & mastering using principles that were designed in the 60s and 70s on much different equipment.

 

Yes, that one is rather harsh but I like the in-yer-face gritty sound of it - makes it feel more immediate.
That said, I would have preferred it, if it had sounded like it was coming from another room - a bit like Exile.

 

This doesn't bother me nearly as much as the original Vapour Trails CD.

 

Most remasters made after 1995, we're talking tenth of thousands of albums more or less ruined by brick walling over a period of more then 20 years.

 

GRATITUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUDE
GRATITUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUDE
GRATITUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU-UDE

Awful ! And I love the album itself.

 

You wouldn't have enjoyed seeing them live then.

 

Nice backhanded compliment.

 

Look at the waveform in audacity. Clipping distortion sounds worse on good equipment. There are no dynamics.

 

FOO FIGHTERS-WASTING LIGHT

 

Clipping definitly sounds worse on good equipment, but I'm saying that maybe compression/a lower dynamic range--by itself, without other artifacts--is resolved better on better equipment.

 

The crazy thing about Oasis is that they actually want it to sound that way. I can't remember the exact quote from Noel but it was something along the lines of get it as loud as you can, the louder the better. It was actually the sound they were going for!

 

Far too many albums to list, but one that immediately comes to mind is Hail of Bullets' Of Frost and War.

 

I can't recall, was the vinyl supposed to be a big or only marginal improvement?

 

Simple Minds - Big Music. You can't "return to your 80s roots" and crush the dynamics in an obviously modern club-oriented way at the same time. Like two different worlds.

The good news is Walk Between Worlds is quite an improvement. The synths are mixed more upfront too.

 

You have to ask yourself why do they do this? Do these bands/artists not listen to the finished product or do they just not care if it sounds so bad that it's virtually unlistenable? It's akin to buying a $30+ vinyl reissue that's scratched and warped when you take it out of the wrapping and sounds like crap to boot.

 

I hear what you are saying...and there may be some truth to it. But back when I was an engineer...digital zero meant distortion. So when I see values over zero I can pretty much guess it's going to sound terrible. I think there is a fine line between good compression and hard limiting and I think a lot of engineers and artists have ignored it for far too long.
When reading a VU meter not everything should be at the same level for an entire song...that should be the general rule.

 

They do. Unfortunately, they do this for non musical reasons.

 

At least Fagen and Becker are/were particular to the point of obsession as to how their music sounded on release. Donald's release of The Nightfly was one of the earliest of all digital recordings and IMHO is one of the best sounding recordings to this day. Bless 'em.

 

Weeeeeeeeellll... if they do, they'd only be testing the end product in a similar set up to what most listeners have.

On that note, when Jimmy Iovine was an A&R man, he a back half of a car specially installed in his premises, where he would sit and listen to final mixes, so that he could hear what most listeners would hear. Also, Motown used to test their final mixes through a single speaker, set up to sound like an AM radio receiver.

Most people aren't weirdos like us, with dedicated hi Fi systems.

 

Sometimes it suits the music. The original mix of Definitely Maybe sounded feeble

Correct, they were trying to emulate their live sound.