Albums ruined by brick-walling

Now that would be the ultimate irony. Is the reissue of "The Wall" brickwalled???

 

Wow... I never thought I'd see HoB mentioned here! These guys are friends of mine! I have known Ed since we were about 15.
I agree with you wholeheartedly. I have discussed it with Ed, but since he has severe tinnitus he can't hear the difference... I begged him to do a better job on future projects.

 

I add Synthesis by Evanescence to this list. It could have been an earthshaking album, now all it is is dull, with distorted crunches where window shattering crescendos could have been.

 

Awesome! It's a fantastic album despite its very poor dynamic range digitally and CD. Give my regards to Ed that I love HoB!

I'm trying to get the original 2008 pressing of that album but it's very expensive these days. Dan Swano does the mastering and mixing of that album and he does create dedicated masters/mixes on LP for the work he's done (i.e., Pan.Thy.Monium and Toxaemia reissues by The Crypt, etc.) so I'm hoping that the LP version will be better with respect to dynamic range.

 

Anything produced by Mr. Brickwell himself, Jack Knife Lee. Should have known from the name alone. R.E.M. used him on Accelerate, and it ruined the album.

 

Pretty much everything by Rush I've heard since Test for Echo.

As a related aside, when you see the plethora of vinyl releases for these known offenders with much better dynamics on DR Database, is this due to actual better mastering or is it still the same crap in analog form?

 

I didn't know that, but I do remember on an interview he said he didn't quite like digital for recording, that it was fine for mixing but not recording and stated that no Van Halen album had been fully digitally recorded, all tracked to analog and F.U.C.K. and Balance being mixed down to digital. He also stated never to have used ProTools and that he never will as (I quote literally) "ProTools sucks the life out of music", but A Different Kind Of Truth was tracked and recorded digitally and using ProTools. He's my favourite guitar player but it's sad to discover that he's also prone to lie.

 

I was floored when i found out that Mr Brickwall used to be in a second division band that I already knew, Compulsion.
Yes, he's the opposite of subtle...He was hired again for REM's last album (that I much prefer to "Accelerate"), "Collapse Into Now"...

 

Yeah - the band's target market was hardly audiophile - more like hoodied young thugs wasted on cheap lager LOL

 

I have to play devils advocate and say Blue & Lonesome isn't that bad that it deserves to be listed here.

 

A agree strongly with your sentiments.
Sadly, complaining about it here is like wetting your pants while wearing a dark suit.

 

The Flaming Lips have been dreadful offenders. Great music, exhausting listen unfortunately:

The Flaming Lips

 

I guess most of Megadeth post 2000 era is ruined by brickwalling mastering one way or another. Most notable mentions from me are recent Dystopia, where even vinyl and Mastered for iTunes don't sound that good to general standards imho (the only good way I heard is fan made de-clipped version of the album) and The World Needs a Hero - my God, that clipped/distorted hiss sound for the whole "telephone" part on 1000 Times Goodbye on the left channel is something...
Good standouts are only Th1rt3en, Super Collider (thanks to HDtracks versions) and TSHF vinyl. Maybe UA and Endgame too but they only have German vinyl versions that are somewhat rare and expensive for the most part.

 

"A Different Kind Of Truth" eh? I wish it was called " A Different Kind Of Recording."

That said, with DR levels of 5 and 6 it makes a great burn-in disc.

 

The Residents pREServed Editions

 

Definitely not!

 

The Janet Jackson Number Ones compilation sounds awful. Great song selection, terrible sound quality!

 

Everything by the Manic Street Preachers, at least since they came back as a trio.

 

Chili Peppers - I'm With You

I love this record but the CD is impossible to listen to. There's a great MTV doc of them playing this entire record live in the studio almost note for note, and it's a masterpiece by comparison.

 

What the hell is brickwalling anyway?....and what is too much brightness??........I never notice when I listen to some of these songs that are supposedly either/or....

 

It's really too bad actually as Dan's Solow is an excellent record chock full of good songs.

 

XXL

Gordon Goodwin's Big Phat Band

 

This is the ONLY album/cd, that I pour more treble on, like salt. Like most here (I assume) tone controls have always stayed flat. I find this album is greatly helped by a little goosing of the treble. I was desperate to fix it so I tried. It helps but it's still a disaster.

 

Sleater-Kinney - The Woods is pretty bad

 

I first noticed the phenomenon on Vince Gill's High Lonesome Sound album from 1996. This is supposedly an HDCD, but everything sounds as loud as everything else.