Slashdot Mirror
Is Louder Better?
GoodNicsTken writes "Rip Rowan over at prorec.com did an
analysis of 5 different Rush CD's released from 1984 to 2002. The results show a definite trend in the recording/mastering style from each album. Rip contends that louder is not necessarily better as the record execs believe. The artist however, is often left with little choice in the matter."
I'm a fan of the heavy metal genre and I've seen (or heard, more like) many songs that would be absolutely great if they weren't subjected
to the same LOUDER IS BETTER butcher job Rush's Vapor Trails went through. One example is the song "Here Comes the Pain" on Slayer's latest album. I can barely make it past the intro because it simply sounds so terrible. Or if I really want to listen to it, I turn my volume down so my speakers don't peak or bottom out. Turning metal DOWN??? That just ain't right. Damn their sound engineers to hell.
On the other hand, In Flames' latest album entitled Reroute to Remain sounds absolutely beautiful on any speakers I play it on. Same holds true for other Nuclearblast artists such as Old Man's Child and Dimmu Borgir. Kudos to foreign audio engineers!
When I working in a night club, I would receive promotional music on vinyl and cd formats. I could not tell the diff until the volume was way up. Bass sounded amazingly deeper and cleaner from the record. The speakers were flubbering at the same volume from the cd. http://www.howstuffworks.com/question487.htm
Nope. If you were to try to compress some of those harsh clipped signals, you'd get much better compression than trying to compress a signal with good headroom to it. Go read the article and look at those signals. The peaks and troughs are just way the hell off the scale. When you clip a peak or trough like that, you're essentially throwing away all signal information that was in there. It's really easy to compress something when it's made up of all zero's.
- Give a man a fire and he's warm for a day, but set him on fire and he's warm for the rest of his life.
Indeed. There is a point after which you begin to clip the music and reduce its dynamic range. If you record the damn thing too high, I will never be able to play it loud without distortion.
My brother tought me this 20 years ago when he showed me how to make tapes. I would sit there and stare at the VU meter throughout the WHOLE song, turning down the record volume slightly every time it hit red. Then rewind the song, and now with the volume properly set, record it.
Later I learned to let a bit of red slip in there, to taste. If its loud and distorted, its just pure garbage.
Personally I do not like rock and roll. But if its lound and 'clear' I can dislike it with a sort of appreciation...
I just set my target for unity gain no matter what I'm recording. That way it's as clean as you can get given the source material.
What annoys me is the poor audio engineering in movies and DVDs today. I have fine hearing, but I often have to turn on the subtitles because if I turn up to hear alot of the dialog, other sections of the movie will fry the voice coils on my speakers. I like dynamic range and all, but there's such a thing as a signal that is too low.
I'm a fan of the heavy metal genre and I've seen (or heard, more like) many songs that would be absolutely great if they weren't subjected
to the same LOUDER IS BETTER butcher job Rush's Vapor Trails went through.
The article mentions that artists usually don't have a choice in the matter, but Geddy Lee himself did Vapor Trails. He stated in interviews that he was having breakdowns because everything was digitally clipping, but that he was reassured that it sounded okay by the rest of the band.
"Sufferin' succotash."
Funny, but I kinda agree. As a percussionist, I am always surprised at how terrible every drummer on the planet it... What do they all do? 4 hits on the ride cymbal, and one on the snare... In some songs, just to be innovative, they use the hi-hat instead of cymbal, and maybe even hit a drum other than the snare... Gasp! How incredibly skilled these highly-paid artists are!
I just wonder if a monkey can keep a beat, that'll show 'em. Hey, you know you aren't doing a good job if a beat-box can replace you.
Personally, I think what music needs is some of the cooler instruments out there. I can't imagine why none of the metal bands out there have heavily used low-pitch chimes, or tympani. It would have such a different sound than people are used to that they'd certainly get serious airtime. And in case your monkey of a drumer can't handle it, I can certainly find millions of Jr. High band students that can replace him in an instant...
What I want to see is a drummer for a mainsteram band stand up in the middle of a song, and go over and play the vibraphone for at least a minute or so. That would show they aren't all chimps with sticks.
Slashdot gets worse every day... Pipedot: News for nerds, without the corporate slant
And I quote "No computers were used during the writing, recording, mixing, or mastering of this record"
"All songs on this record recorded to eight track reel to reel at Toe-Rag Studios, Hackney, London, England by gentleman Liam Watson in Apil 2002 except track 4 recorded at the BBC Maida Vale studio by Miti"
I haven't seen liner notes like this (i.e. referring to the recording process) on a rock album in a really long time.
This was the same album that was sent to radio stations in vinyl only, the speculation being, they were trying to avoid it being uploaded to a P2P network. But accoring to an interview, vinyl is their preferred listening medium, and they wanted people to hear it in that same manner.
I have both versions of this album, and I must say, that the vinyl disc, on a VPI Aries Scout and a tube phono preamp are not subtle.
And the detail! It sounds glorious!