Ghostsof1915 Posted March 18, 2011 Share Posted March 18, 2011 I remember in the 80's the reason behind everyone dumping vinyl and tapes was to improve the sound. Digital is fine as long as it's in a good format and it's engineered properly. I think the problem is the system to get music from the artist to the people is where it's broken. In addition it's harder to find good music instruction, and get people who know how to compose music. The craftsmanship in music has gone to hell. No one experiments. No one wants to take the time to improve. The distribution system is fracked all to hell. This is why the industry is what it is. They are selling products now, not music. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JoGuitar Posted March 18, 2011 Share Posted March 18, 2011 The real problems started happening when we started loading our songs onto computers and iPods, the mass compressed crap sound became the "norm" and you didn't have to make an effort to put decent mastering in place cause it was just going to get butchered through some sub-par ear buds anyway...I put on my Al Green records and marvel at how rich they sound...same with most Motown, and 80s new wave/rock. EDIT: for Typo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Venom52 Posted March 18, 2011 Share Posted March 18, 2011 i'm always adjusting my volume so I can listen to the good parts of the song, but when I get it to the volume, all of the other crap is so loud that I have to turn it down anyways. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BurnabyJoe Posted March 18, 2011 Author Share Posted March 18, 2011 The real problems started happening when we started loading our songs onto computers and iPods, the mass compressed crap sound became the "norm" and you didn't have to make an effort to put decent mastering in place cause it was just going to get butchered through some sub-par ear buds anyway...I put on my Al Green records and marvel at how rich they sound...same with most Motown, and 80s new wave/rock. EDIT: for Typo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
toshabaker Posted March 18, 2011 Share Posted March 18, 2011 I remember in the 80's the reason behind everyone dumping vinyl and tapes was to improve the sound. Digital is fine as long as it's in a good format and it's engineered properly. I think the problem is the system to get music from the artist to the people is where it's broken. In addition it's harder to find good music instruction, and get people who know how to compose music. The craftsmanship in music has gone to hell. No one experiments. No one wants to take the time to improve. The distribution system is fracked all to hell. This is why the industry is what it is. They are selling products now, not music. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JoGuitar Posted March 18, 2011 Share Posted March 18, 2011 Listen to the new album by My Chemical Romance if you want to hear the worst mastered POS that I have ever heard. Welcome to the Black Parade on the other hand was brilliantly engineered Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Echo Park Posted March 18, 2011 Share Posted March 18, 2011 I can't say that I'm really into MCR, but, I have listened to the new album, it really is terrible mastering, at least to me. I don't know if either JoGuitar or nux4lyfe are into Radiohead, but I think that their new album is quite well mixed. Everything has it's own place and you can pick out every little detail. I know it's not everyone's cup of tea and the first few songs are a little frenetic for my taste, but I was wondering what other people thought of the mixing. Also, being in a band myself I actively take part in the recording and mixing of our songs, and none of them look like a big wall of sound. Mind you we do all our recording and mixing ourselves - great results when you know what your doing, but since none of us really know what we're doing it's hard to get the desired results. Also, since most of this is new to me (as we've just recently started recording our music) I wouldn't mind some clarification on what the difference between mixing and mastering is. Thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JoGuitar Posted March 18, 2011 Share Posted March 18, 2011 Mixing is what the producer/engineer in the studio does..he is resposible for capturing each instrument and sending a mix to the mastering engineer...a mastering engineer is responsible for making sure that from track to track an album has the same consistent volume...so it doesn't go LOUD SONG...really quiet song...Medium Song... The problem here is mastering is being taken up to the highest peak and then squashed back down...sure everything sounds equal but it also sounds like mush...a good mastering engineer can balance from track to track while maintaining a high dregree of fidelity from the original mix... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
terrible.dee Posted March 18, 2011 Share Posted March 18, 2011 As a professional in the field, let me tell you this: If I DON'T Compress the snot out of my mixes durring the mastering phase of a project my clients bitch untill I DO. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JoGuitar Posted March 18, 2011 Share Posted March 18, 2011 It's really kind of a catch 22...you have to keep the clients happy in order to get paid...but sometimes it's at the cost of personal preference even though we're paid for our listening skills... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BurnabyJoe Posted March 19, 2011 Author Share Posted March 19, 2011 As a professional in the field, let me tell you this: If I DON'T Compress the snot out of my mixes durring the mastering phase of a project my clients bitch untill I DO. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BurnabyJoe Posted March 19, 2011 Author Share Posted March 19, 2011 I can't say that I'm really into MCR, but, I have listened to the new album, it really is terrible mastering, at least to me. I don't know if either JoGuitar or nux4lyfe are into Radiohead, but I think that their new album is quite well mixed. Everything has it's own place and you can pick out every little detail. I know it's not everyone's cup of tea and the first few songs are a little frenetic for my taste, but I was wondering what other people thought of the mixing. Also, being in a band myself I actively take part in the recording and mixing of our songs, and none of them look like a big wall of sound. Mind you we do all our recording and mixing ourselves - great results when you know what your doing, but since none of us really know what we're doing it's hard to get the desired results. Also, since most of this is new to me (as we've just recently started recording our music) I wouldn't mind some clarification on what the difference between mixing and mastering is. Thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BedBeats™2.0 Posted March 19, 2011 Share Posted March 19, 2011 I am a audio engineer myself and I cannot help but shake my head every time I get a client who destroys their song by asking me to master it as loud as possible...great example of a horribe mastered Album is Eminem's latest one, great cd but man did they do a crap mastering job..too loud! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BedBeats™2.0 Posted March 19, 2011 Share Posted March 19, 2011 Id pay Satan to have a remastered copy of the Deftones "White Pony". Oh...and every single Nickleback album has to be some of the worst mastering/mixing ive heard in awhile. Absolute garbage. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Echo Park Posted March 19, 2011 Share Posted March 19, 2011 Mixing is what the producer/engineer in the studio does..he is resposible for capturing each instrument and sending a mix to the mastering engineer...a mastering engineer is responsible for making sure that from track to track an album has the same consistent volume...so it doesn't go LOUD SONG...really quiet song...Medium Song... The problem here is mastering is being taken up to the highest peak and then squashed back down...sure everything sounds equal but it also sounds like mush...a good mastering engineer can balance from track to track while maintaining a high dregree of fidelity from the original mix... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JoGuitar Posted March 19, 2011 Share Posted March 19, 2011 Thanks for the insight on the mixing/mastering difference. It makes sense that you wouldn't want the album to off the charts loud on one song and barely a whisper the next. I just don't understand why some people want to compress the sh*t out of everything and have it as loud as possible; it ruins the dynamic range, movement and emotion of the song (I'm generalizing, sometimes it doesn't ruin the song). In the end, it's the consumer who has his hands on the volume nob, and will control what he/she listens to and how they listen to it. Agreed that it is a good album, the last 4 are amazing - at least more amazing than the first 4, in my opinion. Upon re-listening I can definitely tell that the dynamic range isn't the most pronounced, but I got to give props (again) to the mixer - phenomenal. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
D-Money Posted March 21, 2011 Share Posted March 21, 2011 What do some of you guys think about the engineering/mastering on the Nick Cave/Grinderman albums?! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
*PrimeTime* Posted March 21, 2011 Share Posted March 21, 2011 interesting stuff Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BurnabyJoe Posted November 4, 2012 Author Share Posted November 4, 2012 *BUMP* -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Some audio evidence: http://www.youtube.com/user/1000k4DynamicRange Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
I♥Wellwood Posted November 4, 2012 Share Posted November 4, 2012 If I was going to watch on a home theater setup, it would be great to have the peaks and valleys all over the place, it does sound way better. However, if I'm on my laptop at 3am and want to watch a movie, it pisses me off to no end. My Lord of the Rings Extended DVD collection is the classic example. I literally cannot hear any of the whispering or talking, even with laptop set to max volume, yet the music and shouting and fighting is way too loud to be played in my apartment (my laptop speakers are actually fairly loud). Its like dynamics gone mad, and its really frustrating. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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