Death Magnetic - Wave Form Analysis

[Naren]

That's SO exagerated IMO.

I heard the album at Tower Records today, at a club 2 weeks ago, at a small CD shop a week ago, and several places since then, and, while it is really really loud, it's FAR from "unlistenable." I think people are blowing this way out of proportion. Sure, what a lot of people are saying is correct, but it's exaggerated to the extreme.

 

[thesimo]

That's SO exagerated IMO.

Its not, in my headphones it is beyond irritating

 

[Moloch]

Funny, because I thought Townsend's albums outside of the SYL sphere have great dynamics.

Listen to the last few records...

 

[ZeroSignal]

Listen to the last few records...

I know, I was specifically thinking about ZTO, stuff like Solar Winds and whatnot.

 

[ChaNce]

Isn't the a riff from "The End of the Line" the same riff for the most part as "Vicarious?" from 10K days?

 

[Dr. Von Goosewing]

Its not, in my headphones it is beyond irritating

It's ok on a home stereo, but check it out on some headphones and it's quite obviously distorted.

 

[playstopause]

It's ok on a home stereo, but check it out on some headphones and it's quite obviously distorted.

We all know it's distorted. "Unlistenable", I mean come on.

Its not, in my headphones it is beyond irritating

Then just don't listen to it with headphones.

 

[damigu]

We all know it's distorted. "Unlistenable", I mean come on.

i found it unlistenable, too. because i just couldn't hear the music--all i kept hearing was how terrible it sounded and that made the music sound ten times worse to me.

i listened to the guitar hero rip and it is significantly better (still bad production, but not offensively bad like the official release). i didn't find myself completely distracted by the god-awful production. unfortunately, i came to the conclusion that still didn't like the music itself.

 

[playstopause]

Whatever.

Bad choice of words IMHO.

 

[garthfluff]

Whatever.

Bad choice of words IMHO.

I'd go as far to say it's unlistenable through my speaker or headphone set ups. Audio chain is

Laptop running FuBar with FLAC > Benchmark DAC1 Pre > Sennheiser HD650 for head phones and Bowers and Wilkins 685s for speakers. It sounds terrible in this reasonably high resolution set up.

 

[Decipher]

I bought this album the week it came out and noticed the clipping right away. Great album otherwise, but it's really hard to listen to in my truck's CD player. I notice it the most in there.

I saw this today and can't help but post. I LOL'd.

 

[Moloch]

Indeed, unless you have shitty speakers (i.e most pc speakers) the clipping is quite noticeable, especially on a decent pair of headphones, like my grados.
The first track on the album I was wondering of the erm.. rip I got was bad, when james palm mutes it's even worse. amazing. Btw anyone else think the first track seems to be the worst when it comes to clipping?

 

[Mattayus]

fucking hell, this thread was on like page 3 last time i looked.

I haven't listened to the album yet, is the clipping really that bad? It's weird, I find it hard to believe that a band that huge, with a producer that well known and that revered would produce an album that clipped by accident. It must be an intentional statement, a 'fuck you' to the loudness war perhaps? Or maybe they're trying to start a new trend - "this band's so heavy you can't record them without it clipping!"

i dont know, but this whole thing doesn't really wash with me. I think it's intentional and is probably supposed to go with the feel of the album

 

[F1Filter]

I haven't listened to the album yet, is the clipping really that bad?

Yes, it's fucking horrible. I don't know about anyone else. But I have the CD solely to justify downloading the "remastered" versions online. Because it really is that flipping lousy.

i dont know, but this whole thing doesn't really wash with me. I think it's intentional and is probably supposed to go with the feel of the album

If this hasn't been posted yet. METALLICA's LARS ULRICH Breaks Silence On 'Death Magnetic' Sound Quality Controversy - Sep. 29, 2008

Although Lars, IMHO, has no business commenting on sound quality when it's been know for quite sometime that he's got a very bad case of tinnitus. Of course he can't hear all the clipping. He's got no more hearing left in that frequency range!

 

[playstopause]

^

So there you go.
Like Darren expressed, it's an "artistic direction" they chose to take.

 

[TomAwesome]

Okay, I finally gave the album a listen. I'm on the last track now. The limiting sucks, and the clipping is a lot more audible than I expected, but I don't think it's really as bad overall as everyone keeps saying it is. The limiting/clipping seems to be a lot worse in some parts than others. On the last track I'm listening to right now, for instance, it's pretty bad. The first track was pretty bad, too. A lot of this album gives me some ear fatigue and a little bit of a headache, but I've honestly heard other albums that sound a lot worse. There have been several albums that I couldn't even force myself to listen through because the compression/limiting was messing with my head that badly. However, the really obvious clipping is new to me.

Having put that into relative perspective, though, I still have to say that this album is very poorly mixed. It's sad that such a big budget band can't get a proper recording.

 

[damigu]

If this hasn't been posted yet. METALLICA's LARS ULRICH Breaks Silence On 'Death Magnetic' Sound Quality Controversy - Sep. 29, 2008

i like how everyone is pointing the finger at everyone else.

ted jensen is saying "it wasn't my mastering, the final mix i got was already that way."

and at the end of this article, lars is saying, "rubin wanted it loud and lively and we tried it his way."

no one is willing to accept responsibility for this abysmal production!
i'd be denying responsibility for it, too.

 

[Stealthdjentstic]

i like how everyone is pointing the finger at everyone else.

ted jensen is saying "it wasn't my mastering, the final mix i got was already that way."

and at the end of this article, lars is saying, "rubin wanted it loud and lively and we tried it his way."

no one is willing to accept responsibility for this abysmal production!
i'd be denying responsibility for it, too.

Cant blame them, especially rubin, admitting crap producing would be suicide.

 

[Korbain]

the band, the mixer, the producer, the whole team should be shot for that! lol that is sooooooo bad! Common fucking sense lol. what were they thinking "ok up everything 109db"

 

[Moloch]

I hear they actually wanted it to be closer 140Db- i.e a jet plane, but the mixer told him that wasnt technically possible on a cd so he did the next best thing- compressed it to hell and even let it clip.. massivly.
Btw for those of you that has metallica's whole catalog on their computer- listen to a track from black album(or any album really) and then any track from this one.. amazing how much louder (and shitter sounding) it is. Btw I was somewhat surprised that the black album is actually quieter than AJFA given it's slick production- I looked at Foobar's replay gain values for the two albums, opened it up in nero wave editior to confirm, kind of funny I think that the slick production (in comparison) is actually quieter than their older albums, i expected it to be a bit louder and compressed, i think the (triggered?) snare sound is one reason I figured it was more compressed then it seemed to be.