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.
Re:Well... (Score:5, Interesting)
"...studio's decision to sacrifice range for loudness."
That's retarded. Loudness is no good if it sounds like it's coming out of a tinny radio, which is what too much compression and limiting [harmony-central.com] can do. They apparently did such a poor job of it that the Cd signal was clipped! They certainly forgot what good "metal" is supposed to sound like.
:(
Knowing Metallica, they probably cranked out a half-ass 10-minute session in the studio and had their "mastering" engineeer Pro-Tool the hell out of it, cut-and-paste style. Then they laughed, high-fived each other over beers, coke, and their solid gold Ferraris as they continue to be out of touch with reality.
And yes, in case you all were wondering, their new album most certainly does SUCK. 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
Re:i can't stand this. (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Recent "loudness war" discussion on /. (Score:3, Interesting)
This is such a sad topic. On the one hand, I think that there's nothing wrong at all with raising the average volume of an album when you're remastering. The early CD releases were often lacking in volume, because the mastering engineers were doing the exact opposite of what they're forced do these days. Back then, a single very loud snare hit would automatically lower the maximum volume of the whole album, because the engineers didn't want to introduce artificial compression. That's the reason why old CDs sound a little muted. Thank god, that changed, and they soon started to use moderate compression by default when mastering to CD.
But what we have today is just bizarre. Nobody can tell me with a straight face that the newest Red Hot Chili Peppers CDs sound good (ignoring the music here). There's more clipping than music on those discs. I really *really* hope they're keeping all those original recordings safe, because there *will* come a time when quality will trump loudness again. Maybe we'll even get lucky soon, and Replay Gain will go mainstream. Here's hoping...
Re:i can't stand this. (Score:5, Interesting)
Similar effect in Rock Band. Probably most tracks. (Score:3, Interesting)
I was chatting with a Harmonix rep at their booth at PAX. He mentioned that the Paramore song is really compressed/limited on the CD (in the sense of lack of dynamic range). No surprise there. I asked him whether that affected their game at all, and he said that since they got access to the master tracks and mixed it themselves, not really. I'd expect the same is true of almost any Rock Band or Guitar Hero track.
That was great to hear, because the loudness war [youtube.com] sucks. There have been a number of albums that I would have liked listening to, but can't stand because of the loudness war. They sound the same all the way through, and the drummer sounds like he's playing in the other room while everyone else is standing too close to the mics. A drum hit, during the brief moment it happens, should be much louder than the rest of the band! Instruments shouldn't get quieter when other instruments start playing! Blech.
Interestingly, I was listening to the Rock Band 2 setlist to get to know the songs I'd never heard (downloaded mp3s), and one song in particular stood out as being very well mixed with great dynamic range. I don't really like the music of Modest Mouse, but it was definitely a pleasure to listen to Float On just for that. They earned a bit of respect from me that day :).
Re:i can't stand this. (Score:3, Interesting)
I've seen people explain that the real reason why SACD and DVD-Audio sounded better than CD is not much about the higher sample rate and bit depth, but because they don't use dynamic range compression on the SACD or DVD-Audio.
I think there have been recording standards all along, the problem is that no one abides by them. I think one standard is to record standard dialogue at -12dB of max.
Re:Well... (Score:3, Interesting)
As I've said many times (just not here..), if any other band had released those two albums, they would have been hailed as musical geniuses.
St. Anger, on the other hand... no thanks, I burned my CD of that (literally) and purged the hard drive the MP3s were stored on.
Well Said. (Score:2, Interesting)
These asshats only get my pity...
1. Fire your main talent. (Dave Mustane)
2. Use the cheapest transport company, drive insane hours, and kill a popular bassist off.
3. Alienate your fans by being corporate suits instead of the hard-core guys you image portrays.
4. Put out a series of albums that confirm how much you've lost it, and can't write music anymore. These albums were only bought by fanboys, afaik.
Somewhere, there should be a 'Profit' step; I'm not seeing it from here...
Re:Recent "loudness war" discussion on /. (Score:3, Interesting)
My question is why do we only have one volume knob on most devices?
We always should have had a volume knob, and a compression knob. The common folk would quickly learn that the volume knob does what you think it does, but the compression knob brings the softest sounds closer in volume to the loudest, when you dial it up. It is not too hard for the average person to figure out.
Re:Concerts (Score:2, Interesting)