Worst mastering you've ever heard?

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by Spaceboy, Jun 16, 2007.

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  1. Plan9

    Plan9 Mastering Engineer

    Location:
    Toulouse, France
    Wow, the version I have sounds OK, even nice.
    In what way did it sound like MP3s to you?
     
  2. Bill Cormier

    Bill Cormier Forum Resident

    Location:
    Malta, New York
    The full frequency ranges are not there, compressed like crazy and muffled sound. Sounds like I am listening to it through a wall....
     
  3. Bill Cormier

    Bill Cormier Forum Resident

    Location:
    Malta, New York
    Jeez, you know what I mean :wave:
     
  4. Plan9

    Plan9 Mastering Engineer

    Location:
    Toulouse, France
    I find it compressed indeed, but not all that much, and I agree that it sounds muffled but I really think that's more the style of the production.

    My experience is that the first time I played the Hi-Res version, I thought it sounded weird, but after the 1st listening session my ears got used to it and now I think it sounds OK for what it is.


    To me, MP3s are primarily synonymous with those chirpy-phase (or space monkeys!) underwater problems, and less with the lack of "air" and limp bass. :)
     
  5. rockitman

    rockitman Forum Resident

    Pearl Jam Vitalogy CD...really unlistenable. Worst sounding mastering I have ever heard when it came out.
     
  6. street legal

    street legal Senior Member

    Location:
    west milford, nj
    If you think that's bad you should hear the remaster ......
     
  7. Masza

    Masza Forum Resident

    Location:
    Finland
    Now I'm listening Finnish folk metal band Korpiklaani's album Korven kuningas. Very compressed and loud, I feel that the sound is missing something, quite typical Mika Jussila mastering. I don't know how good the production was but some tracks seem to lack some punch, overall kind a 'musty' sound

    Check out the waveform of the opening track: http://img845.imageshack.us/img845/7545/korpiklaani.jpg

    Actually not so bad sounding as you could expect from that kind of waveform :D
     
  8. Plan9

    Plan9 Mastering Engineer

    Location:
    Toulouse, France
  9. Masza

    Masza Forum Resident

    Location:
    Finland
    I'm wondering the same thing.

    It's sad that some mastering engineers do that kind of things. And they are always blaming record companies.. blah, blah. I'm getting tired of that same old story. This Korven kuningas album is quite good and happy but it's ruined with that kind of mastering.

    And the last track looks like that: http://img837.imageshack.us/img837/6900/korpiklaani2.jpg

    It's just some drum sound after the first ~5 minutes and it looks like that :eek:
     
  10. Tristero

    Tristero In possession of the future tense

    Location:
    MI
    It's probably been mentioned already, I have to give a shout out to my old arch nemesis in the Loudness Wars, Dave "Ear Bleeder" Fridmann. Sadly, he seems to work with a lot of the artists I enjoy. The recent Flaming Lips albums have become increasingly difficult to listen to. He also did quite a number on Sleater-Kinney's The Woods.
     
  11. John DeAngelis

    John DeAngelis Senior Member

    Location:
    New York, NY
    The original mastering on Sony's Robert Johnson box. They sucked all the life out of the music.
     
  12. mrdon

    mrdon Senior Member

    Metallica - Death Magnetic
     
  13. pool_of_tears

    pool_of_tears Searching For Simplicity

    Location:
    Midwest
    That's why the MFSL cd is essential. It walks all over the old MCA disc.
     
  14. Misery_loves..

    Misery_loves.. Forum Resident

    Location:
    Chicago 'burbs
    Fair enough. :cool:
     
  15. street legal

    street legal Senior Member

    Location:
    west milford, nj
    But, there is an old MCA disc without the tape drag. I believe this one was also mastered by our host. This is the CD that I have & it sounds quite good to me, although I do not have this title on vinyl to do a comparison, nor have I ever heard the MFSL, admittedly.
     
  16. PaulKTF

    PaulKTF Senior Member

    Location:
    USA
    Janet Jackson's Number Ones CD is just awful. There's no reason it should sound so bad.
     
  17. progrocker71

    progrocker71 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Los Angeles
    a definite candidate
     
  18. Misery_loves..

    Misery_loves.. Forum Resident

    Location:
    Chicago 'burbs
    wow, this one's never been mentioned before. ;)
     
  19. Yannick

    Yannick Forum Resident

    Location:
    Cologne, Germany
    I don't think it's physically possible to tape it from the CD without ripping apart the tape when you want to record something, anything, on the b-side of the cassette, too,
     
  20. chargrove

    chargrove Forum Resident

    Location:
    Fort Worth, TX
    If you can get past the "tape drag" on the orig MCA Steppenwolf S/T CD (mine is pressed in Japan), I prefer the sound on this to either of the other two. :agree:
     
  21. Yannick

    Yannick Forum Resident

    Location:
    Cologne, Germany
    Well, somewhere on this forum, other users and I have already mentioned some the following albums as loudness-and-hiss offenders whilst others have not been mentioned

    Steve Cropper & Felix Cavaliere - Nudge It Up A Notch (Concord)
    John Fogerty - Revival (Concord)
    Lindsey Buckingham - Gift Of Screws (Reprise)
    Broken Bells - Broken Bells (Sony)
    Gnarls Barkley - The Odd Couple (WBR)
    The Verbs - Trip (Jay-Vee) <--- this is producer/drummer Steve Jordan's band
    U2 - No Line On the Horizon (Universal)


    Most of the recent T Bone Burnett productions make me want to reconsider if he is still one of my favourite producers because they are just so d**n heavy on the bass that I need to turn down the bass manually and afterwards it all sounds rather flat. Even the Rhino Handmade remaster of "Proof Through the Night & the complete Trap Door" is compressed and turned up in loudness to that effect.
     
  22. street legal

    street legal Senior Member

    Location:
    west milford, nj
    I think you may have misunderstood what I was saying. There actually is an old MCA disc of "Steppenwolf" WITHOUT the tape drag.
     
  23. chargrove

    chargrove Forum Resident

    Location:
    Fort Worth, TX
    I have them both. I prefer the sound of the one w/ the tape drag. Warm analog goodness.
     
  24. Metoo

    Metoo Forum Hall Of Fame

    Location:
    Spain (EU)
    Perhaps not the worst, but two recent ones are:

    Bryan Ferry - Olympia (a hyper limited, highly compressed mess)

    Adele - 21 (A lot of clipped peaks -and I mean a lot-, which give the high-end both distortion and a brittle sound. This is a true tragedy because Adele can really sing and composes her own tunes. I had to 'remaster' my copy by applying an expander to it and lowering the volume or else it would have been sitting on the shelf and I would, again, be mulling on why I fell for another one of those all-too-common crappy masterings).
     
  25. Masza

    Masza Forum Resident

    Location:
    Finland
    I'm listening 2003 remaster of Gary Moore's Run For Cover. Can't believe that this is remastered. Sound changes actually in every track and so does the volume level. Who remastered these?
     
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