firefoxUSSR Posted February 28, 2013 Share Posted February 28, 2013 I have an idea for the audiophile crowd here: how about a "it was obviously sourced from a CD/loud master" thread? That said I know some of you just like the physical product, CD mastering is just fine, in my case buying vinyl has more to do with getting that nice gentler, natural sound. Let's not be absolute or anything either, please keep in mind digital recording or formats can be done well. It would be wise to simply dis-include bootlegs, e.g. "Made in Europe", "Made in Germany", "IMPORT" which are clearly not licensed. Learn more about the loudness war and why it's destroying what are otherwise excellently produced records: Take it from the pros: http://www.gearslutz.com/board/mastering-forum/811557-mastering-vinyl.html I'll start: Mr. Bungle - California (Plain Records) Queens of the Stone Age - Rated X (Interscope Records) Red Hot Chili Peppers - Californication (Warner Bros, excludes newest pressing) *Suggestions and corrections welcome. **FWIW- Plain records reissues proper vinyl masterings too (EG Elliott Smith and Fiona Apple). mrrom92 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dreamover Posted February 28, 2013 Share Posted February 28, 2013 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gmoney Posted February 28, 2013 Share Posted February 28, 2013 Some good information here: http://wiki.hydrogenaudio.org/index.php?title=Vinyl_Mastering I won't even touch this: That said I know some of you just like the physical product, CD mastering is just fine, in my case buying vinyl has more to do with getting that nice gentler, natural sound. plasma36 and firefoxUSSR 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nothingnatural Posted February 28, 2013 Share Posted February 28, 2013 Queens of the Stone Age - Rated X (Interscope Records) The reissue is the one that sounds like absolute shit (I think there's at least a couple reissues). You want to look out for an original as it sounds great. The original has a few distinct markings including a picture inner sleeve (same artwork as the insert of the reissues). The original also has a square with a bare ass on it on side B. The biggest thing to lookout for is the etching. You want to get a copy that has 'RAYS' etched on side A. As long as you find a 'RAYS' copy, you'll be happy. firefoxUSSR 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
828321 Posted February 28, 2013 Share Posted February 28, 2013 The Loudness war is largely a red herring. There are clear exceptions but these examples are so extreme that they don;t really mitigate the argument they try to present. Mr. Bungle's California is mastered quite lowy and contrary to it being a good recording with a dynamic range, it has a very very poor low end, muddy mid range and the high ensd is very restrained,, everything sits quite muddily around the mid range and there's absolutely no dynamic range to really speak of. DR measurements are a bit of a joke and cannot be taken seriously when the thing just sounds so poor. I would avoid all the Plain recordings of Mr. Bungle Records. A good comparison is Disco Volante both Warner (US) and the Plain reissue are mastered on the same sort of level, the difference is that the Plain version simply fails to deliver. Not only does it lack range, but the vinyl is so poor that a mint copy hisses like a lisper being raped and they cut the record in such a poor way that instead of cutting it over 2 records, they did on one, for whatever reason the original doesn't suffer for it, but with plain, you get terrible distortion and bleed, unforgivable for a recording mastered so low. The thing is woefully underwhelming. The CD source is not the issue. The issue should not be hot versus cold as DR seem to insist, it should be about using a hot mastering to compensate for poor mastering with no range as this is worse than what Plain did as they didn;t even try to disguise the problem (they couldn;t because they had to compress the hell out of the album). Regarding the QOTSA LP, Ray Staff's cut is excellent I agree. firefoxUSSR 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mattisr1984 Posted February 28, 2013 Share Posted February 28, 2013 meh, this is too much for me to be concerned with but i will say that i always thought death magnetic sounded like shit. now i know why. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
firefoxUSSR Posted February 28, 2013 Author Share Posted February 28, 2013 The Loudness war is largely a red herring. There are clear exceptions but these examples are so extreme that they don;t really mitigate the argument they try to present. Mr. Bungle's California is mastered quite lowy and contrary to it being a good recording with a dynamic range, it has a very very poor low end, muddy mid range and the high ensd is very restrained,, everything sits quite muddily around the mid range and there's absolutely no dynamic range to really speak of. DR measurements are a bit of a joke and cannot be taken seriously when the thing just sounds so poor. I would avoid all the Plain recordings of Mr. Bungle Records. A good comparison is Disco Volante both Warner (US) and the Plain reissue are mastered on the same sort of level, the difference is that the Plain version simply fails to deliver. Not only does it lack range, but the vinyl is so poor that a mint copy hisses like a lisper being raped and they cut the record in such a poor way that instead of cutting it over 2 records, they did on one, for whatever reason the original doesn't suffer for it, but with plain, you get terrible distortion and bleed, unforgivable for a recording mastered so low. The thing is woefully underwhelming. The CD source is not the issue. The issue should not be hot versus cold as DR seem to insist, it should be about using a hot mastering to compensate for poor mastering with no range as this is worse than what Plain did as they didn;t even try to disguise the problem (they couldn;t because they had to compress the hell out of the album). Regarding the QOTSA LP, Ray Staff's cut is excellent I agree. I agree strongly about the DR argument, the dynamic range meters are a joke. I also agree about the Plain Recordings issue of Disco Volante. For some reason they included silent passages... on an album over an hour long. That said I have the WB pressing, which is wonderful sounding. The reissue is the one that sounds like absolute shit (I think there's at least a couple reissues). You want to look out for an original as it sounds great. The original has a few distinct markings including a picture inner sleeve (same artwork as the insert of the reissues). The original also has a square with a bare ass on it on side B. The biggest thing to lookout for is the etching. You want to get a copy that has 'RAYS' etched on side A. As long as you find a 'RAYS' copy, you'll be happy. Thanks! No need to further reply to this topic, so let it be buried. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
828321 Posted February 28, 2013 Share Posted February 28, 2013 I agree strongly about the DR argument, the dynamic range meters are a joke. I also agree about the Plain Recordings issue of Disco Volante. For some reason they included silent passages... on an album over an hour long. That said I have the WB pressing, which is wonderful sounding. I was fortunate enough to get the US version on Import back when it was released. I also love it's dynamic. A friend of mine had Billy Anderson sleeping on his couch while he was in town mastering the Charger album 'Confessions Of A Man...' they spoke at length and Anderson says it was the best project he ever, ever worked on and its clear why. That was not analogue either, but the pressing is great. It just goes to show that a good vinyl engineer (Anderson had nothing to do with the vinyl btw) can make magic. Vinyl mastering and indeed mastering in general to me is a damned art. I also own the Plain versions and I don't know why I've held on to them. I had no idea who Plain were and I thought the thing might have surpassed the WBR version. I never heard the Slash/London UK copy. I could have bought it but I already had the US version on import. firefoxUSSR 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
firefoxUSSR Posted February 28, 2013 Author Share Posted February 28, 2013 Yeah it's all about mastering for me, you can't reverse the effects as a consumer, kinda messed up. I wish there were an equalization curve I could use to undo it, alas every recording is different. Now I'm curious whether I have the US or UK copy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrrom92 Posted February 28, 2013 Share Posted February 28, 2013 Green Day international superhits - it's a good sounding cut, just from a shitty sounding master. Obviously taken off a CD Basically all the Blink vinyl put out by MTS. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gumbercules Posted February 28, 2013 Share Posted February 28, 2013 like a lisper being raped Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nothingnatural Posted March 1, 2013 Share Posted March 1, 2013 Each time I open this thread, a file called "dcKDMBuGodU.swf" attempts to automatically download. It also says the file may be harmful. Weird. By the way, I'm using Google Chrome. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
828321 Posted March 1, 2013 Share Posted March 1, 2013 Yeah it's all about mastering for me, you can't reverse the effects as a consumer, kinda messed up. I wish there were an equalization curve I could use to undo it, alas every recording is different. Now I'm curious whether I have the US or UK copy. If it has Warner Bros. Records labels and comes with a 7" on black vinyl of Bungle and the Secret Chiefs 3 then it;s the US. If has a Slash Records label, it's the UK. Slash Records / London Records UK pressing. Warner Bros. Records US pressing. Plain Records US green reissue. A great example of a poorly mastered CD which cannot be fixed is Clutch's Pure Rock Fury. firefoxUSSR 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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