Why do new albums sound like crap?

rikhyray · Post by **rikhyray** » Tue Jun 20, 2006 12:38 pm

It is not just albums. All those automatic plugins, normalising made TV unbearable, advertising idiots dont realise that these mega loud ads have opposite effect to the intended, I woudnt be surprised if there are already TV sets with automatic commercials detectors based on the volume jump.
I do run some demo or myspace songs through my psuedo mastering presets (and they are not too nasty) but would never do it in case of any serious demo not to say production,

nebulae · Post by **nebulae** » Tue Jun 20, 2006 12:53 pm

rikhyray wrote:I woudnt be surprised if there are already TV sets with automatic commercials detectors based on the volume jump.

They do (albeit not based on volume). It's called Tivo...I haven't watched a commercial in almost 4 years.

As for auto-mastering, I completely agree...never use a plugin preset. After many years of varying compression settings, I've finally developed a very good settings chain that gives the best settings for my mastered mixes, but it's always a balancing act. Not enough compression, and the sound is thin. Too much limiting, and the sound is crap.

The reason for this rant in particular, is that lately, the crap is turned into solid gold SHIT. These albums are just plain hard to hear, and it's ridiculous. If you want to hear a really great mixed and mastered record from recent years, check out Cardigans "Long Gone Before Daylight" or Saint Etienne's "Sound of Water". These are examples of warm, tightly produced, full of dynamics, and nicely compressed and mixed loud albums that are ear candy.

pulsoc · Post by **pulsoc** » Wed Jun 21, 2006 4:08 am

bensuthers wrote:if every frequency hit digital zero all the time the overall level would be positive infinity.

I'm using this.

siddhu · Post by **siddhu** » Wed Jun 21, 2006 4:43 am

all I can say is: bob katz and the k-system of mixing and metering!!!

Pitch Black · Post by **Pitch Black** » Wed Jun 21, 2006 5:43 am

Ok, so maybe the music consumer needs to be re-oriented to WANT dynamics. An advertising campaign along the lines of:

"Dude! If you play this CD and turn your volume knob up for it, the louder bits will get, like, even louder! Extreme Dude!! - It's like the peaks are further apart. Woah, That's like jumping bigger crevasses on your snowboard, Dude!!

Or some such. I think The Kids will really go for the "even louderer when its louder" angle.

4rest · Post by **4rest** » Wed Jun 21, 2006 5:53 am

thats pure genius pitch black!!!!!!

MrYellow · Post by **MrYellow** » Wed Jun 21, 2006 6:26 am

I'd say more bands dipping into the bank and making dual CDs/DVDs

You goto CD shop and buy album. Inside are 2 versions, one
labled "Company Mix" another labled "For listeners of music".

Soon people would have CD collections with CDs they actually like listening
to. But then the record companies don't want that either, they want ppl to
get sick of music and buy more rather then hording the good stuff.
Intentional obsolescence.

-Ben

Machinate · Post by **Machinate** » Wed Jun 21, 2006 6:27 am

Pitch Black wrote:"even louderer when its louder"

SIG ALERT!

Pitch Black · Post by **Pitch Black** » Wed Jun 21, 2006 7:31 am

"As the mad loud gets bigger fast, the bits in the middle get more important."

-Karl Hyde, Underworld

nebulae · Post by **nebulae** » Wed Jun 21, 2006 2:19 pm

MrYellow wrote:But then the record companies don't want that either, they want ppl to
get sick of music and buy more rather then hording the good stuff.
Intentional obsolescence.

-Ben

Sort of like self-sabotaged light bulbs. You realize that the original bulb created by Thomas Edison still works?

Sales Dude McBoob · Post by **Sales Dude McBoob** » Wed Jun 21, 2006 3:24 pm

I guess it depends on what you're buying at the record store. You can't expect dynamics from an act that is going for the p-diddy top 40 gold in 2006.

I just picked up an album by a new band called Beruit and it sounds amazing.

Funny you mention The Cure. I was listening to their debut album Three Imaginary Boys the other night while making dinner. The thick and juicy analogness was just oozing off the vinyl. One of the songs ends with with that tape-whizz down trick with an echo on it. It sounded so beefy the first thing I thought was "Yeah, I could never reproduce that sound with Ableton or any digital gear, not in a million years."

M. Bréqs · Post by **M. Bréqs** » Sun Jun 25, 2006 5:03 pm

I read somebody's suggestion that all commercial music be sold unmastered. Then, put a multi-band compressor on each consumer grade stereo, a simple "pump" knob, and let the listener squash it to his/her taste.

I'm sure that latency isn't an issue with consumer grade audio, so you could easily put in some automatic peak detection algorithm that varies the attack, release, threshold and ratio of each band of compression in accordance with the consumer's selected "pump" factor.

I think it's a pretty good idea actually. If the consumer wants their music to burst their eardrums, then let 'em have it, but give me the option to not do so...

pilcrow · Post by **pilcrow** » Sun Jun 25, 2006 7:42 pm

two observations on recently purchased albums:

1) new depeche mode (hold the jokes, please, if you're not a fan...stay on topic) is squished to the walls and the whole thing sounds brittle and glassy as hell. Hurts to listen to it.

2) Thelonius Monk's "Monk's Dream"--wow, recorded in, like 1963, and the dynamics are beautiful. There's so much air around the drums, etc. Sounds wonderfully natural and real.

Studio technique (and gear) for clear sound reproduction was top notch in the early 60s or even earlier. Compression does not equal excitement; variation in dynamics does. It's the difference between youth and maturity, in a way. Young="bugger the quiet parts; I want it loud all the time." Maturity="surprise me with a little variety and sensitivity, please."

tjwett · Post by **tjwett** » Mon Jun 26, 2006 2:54 am

recently i had iTunes on Shuffle mode while working around the house and some new shit came on, Black Eyed Peas or something awful. anyway, i was thinking how the song was shit but production sounded pretty damn good. the next song that came on was a Steely Dan tune and it truly made the previous song sound like a steaming heap of freshly-shitted shit. way more alive, full, open. all that good stuff. have a listen to some Thin Lizzy as well for some truly big sounding production.

Anubis · Post by **Anubis** » Mon Jun 26, 2006 4:26 am

eyeknow wrote:Is anybody old enough/or been turned on to the likes of steelydan/aja or like fleetwoodmac/rumors...........of course there is pinkfloyd dsotm (duh).......there are many many many examples from that era.........the carpenters are another example......old chicago...........

Anyways, regardless of musical taste.........you cannot beat the fidelity........it's sick! They sound better than beautiful.......it's like the engineer/producer were as much a part of the magic/music as the musicians...................

Yes, I remember the stunning dynamics of that era, But most of you are still using the CD as a reference, but it's gotten much worse than that. Most music today is sold (and listened to) in the ubiquitous mp3 format. This (as we all know) lossy compression further degrades the audio quality. Alot of the music today is ultimately experienced by the listener at 128kbps, at that. Bottom line is DVD audio is not selling, iTunes is! It's amazing to think that consumers are spending hundreds of dollars to listen to music of considerably less fidelity than they did 20 years ago... with ridiculous things like this.

And eventually this is where we'll all end up... iPod Nation baby!