Metallica Guitar Hero Release Has Higher Quality Than CDs 102
Last week Metallica released a new album, Death Magnetic, on traditional CDs as well as downloadable content for Guitar Hero III. Fans quickly noticed that the sound quality on the CD version was noticeably below-par, thanks to the recording studio's decision to sacrifice range for loudness. However, the tracks released for Guitar Hero III made no such sacrifice, as proved by Mastering Engineer Ian Shepherd. NME found an audio clip comparing the two tracks. This comes alongside statements from Activision claiming that Aerosmith's recent venture into Guitar Hero is generating more success for the band than their actual albums.
i can't stand this. (Score:4, Insightful)
i can control my own volume thank-you. and because of records like this, i'm forced to hit the volume every time these songs come up on a playlist. i realize there are volume normalizing pluout there, but i don't like the effect on the overall song.
you'll know what i mean if you jump from a cd made in the 80's to one made in the last 10 years.
hopefully this gets enough coverage to signal the end of this incredibly annoying trend.
Re:Well... (Score:3, Insightful)
Listening to Metallica is like having banged the prom queen in high school only to see her become a queen of the 300-pound welfare sort :(
What's wrong with that? You did bang she who was supposedly the hottest girl at the time. You can't help what happens years later.
Re:Recent "loudness war" discussion on /. (Score:5, Insightful)
Concerts (Score:3, Insightful)
This is exactly why I stopped going to concerts.
They're all terribly loud, so much so that the music just turns into white noise. What the heck is the point of that?
Re:Well... (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Well... (Score:3, Insightful)
If you get a chance I'd give some old Ministry a try. 'The Mind is a Terrible Thing to Taste' is one of the few albums I can listen too all the way through. Thieves, if nothing else, should be on everyone's "Drive Like A Maniac" playlist. It takes a couple of listens before one either loves or hates it.
I play guitar and one of the things that always amazes people is when I pick up an acoustic and start playing things like Metalica. They are surely still full of talent but I have to wonder if they're burnt out entirely and this album is going to be the last flicker of light before they burn out completely. If I can force myself to do so I'll sit and listen to the entire thing and try it with an attempt to appreciate them. I was, it would appear, spoiled by their earlier work and listening to anything "new" from them comes with much higher expectations and much more picky judgments.
Maybe they are a victim of their own successes earlier in life, at least with me. I don't think I have extremely picky taste really just high expectations from bands like them. Most of what is being produced currently, hell within the past fifteen years, annoys the hell out of me. Most... Not all.
As an aside, I have to wonder if it is just my (our) age(s) taking over. My parents did not like my music. My parents parents did not like my parents music. My parents parents parents banged rocks together and music hadn't been invented yet. I think an oddity is that I like much of the music that is older than I.
Re:Well... (Score:3, Insightful)
I like the black album; most of the criticisms I've heard about it deal with the fact that it doesn't sound like their earlier stuff. You'll live.