You can read more of my guff on my website, where I post more often, but I will post here from time to time 
Irony, thy name is Metallic(a)
Posted 18th September 2008 at 07:44 PM by Sar
It's ironic, isn't it, that after that whole nasty Lars Ulrich vs Napster debacle a few years back, that their latest CD is beaten in quality by a downloadable version of the album?
As mentioned in an earlier post over on my website, Death Magnetic, Metallica's 9th studio album, is horribly mastered, compressing the entire audio range down into a narrow band, making the whole affair sound like a wall of noise (not in a good way either).
Audio engineers have compared the Guitar Hero 3 DLC version of the album to the CD version, and they found that not only was the DLC version the proper version that you'd expect, but it showed up how badly compressed the retail CD version actually is:
Yes, those are both the same song.
The top half is the GH3 DLC, and you can see the whole dynamic range fully available there. Stuff like cymbal hits, low bass and quiet sounds are all as they should be.
The bottom half is the retail CD version, and you can see for yourself how very little the range shifts throughout. Everything on the album is virtually the same volume, which makes it hard to listen to.
So if like me, you've bought the retail CD and are disappointed with its quality, well now you know how to remedy it!
As mentioned in an earlier post over on my website, Death Magnetic, Metallica's 9th studio album, is horribly mastered, compressing the entire audio range down into a narrow band, making the whole affair sound like a wall of noise (not in a good way either).
Audio engineers have compared the Guitar Hero 3 DLC version of the album to the CD version, and they found that not only was the DLC version the proper version that you'd expect, but it showed up how badly compressed the retail CD version actually is:
Yes, those are both the same song.
The top half is the GH3 DLC, and you can see the whole dynamic range fully available there. Stuff like cymbal hits, low bass and quiet sounds are all as they should be.
The bottom half is the retail CD version, and you can see for yourself how very little the range shifts throughout. Everything on the album is virtually the same volume, which makes it hard to listen to.
So if like me, you've bought the retail CD and are disappointed with its quality, well now you know how to remedy it!
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Actually this is one of my real big issues with music at the moment. I always prefer to own the SACD/CD and then choose to rip to FLAC and put the physical media away.
Nowadays they prefer to get you to download digitally (most of which is laden with DRM), charge nearly the same and if you lose your downloaded copy, pay again to download the same song. Bollox. Two theories spring to mind:
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It's nowt to do with file size compression deebs, as the physical limit of an audio CD is actually the same length as Metallica's Load: 78:59. They actually had to chop The Outlaw Torn (fantastic bloody song) by 30 seconds to fit all the songs on the CD.
It's basically pushing all the high end and low end sounds into the mid-range (compressing the audio wave), which can distort them (and has done on the retail version of DM). So things like low bass rumbles, high snare hits, quiet vocals and so on, all get smudged in with the mid-range sounds (such as the lead & second lead guitar), so there's no differentiation or variety in the noise level. Imagine listening to a lecturer who drones on in monotone, versus one who shows enthusiasm and delivers a lecture with verve. Or eating plain cooked chicken for every meal for the rest of your life versus eating something different every meal time. Sorta the same thing. That's why it sounds like a big mash of noise, whereas the GH3 rip is superb. Far easier to listen to precisely because there is that range of volume available. |
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Recent Blog Entries by Sar
- Irony, thy name is Metallic(a) (18th September 2008)
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