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Jeff Buckley and Diana Krall, isn't that music that's supposed to sound nice? - Page 3

post #31 of 36
10/3/09 at 12:04am
The clipping on the Diana Krall track is as clear as day to me. Here's another example that's a little more subtle…

I just bought a pair of midrange Sennheisers -- my first new headphones in 10 years that aren't cheesy earbuds. So of course I've been scouring my music library for test tracks and finding nothing but over-compressed crap. Anyway, I settled into Norah Jones' "Come Away With Me", a CD that has a reputation for being a non-combatant in the loudness wars. And it does sound very good -- except for the clipping! The clipping on this album has always stood out for me, but it's particularly noticeable with the new cans.

So I took a look at the waveform… and questioned my sanity. It looks fine. I dug in further and eventually found some funny-looking peaks. I can't tell if the samples are right at the limit (clipping or shredding?), but they're definitely in an unnaturally straight line.

One Flight Down

Can anyone else hear this? Am I super-sensitive to clipping or is it all in my head?
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post #32 of 36
10/3/09 at 12:54am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Pentops View Post
The clipping on the Diana Krall track is as clear as day to me. Here's another example that's a little more subtle…

I just bought a pair of midrange Sennheisers -- my first new headphones in 10 years that aren't cheesy earbuds. So of course I've been scouring my music library for test tracks and finding nothing but over-compressed crap. Anyway, I settled into Norah Jones' "Come Away With Me", a CD that has a reputation for being a non-combatant in the loudness wars. And it does sound very good -- except for the clipping! The clipping on this album has always stood out for me, but it's particularly noticeable with the new cans.

So I took a look at the waveform… and questioned my sanity. It looks fine. I dug in further and eventually found some funny-looking peaks. I can't tell if the samples are right at the limit (clipping or shredding?), but they're definitely in an unnaturally straight line.

One Flight Down

Can anyone else hear this? Am I super-sensitive to clipping or is it all in my head?
It is definitely not in your head.

As an aside, I was going through some old drone metal to see what the worst clipping I could find was, and came across this. This song is an hour long drone metal sludgefest from a Japanese band named Boris. The top graph shows the self released version(1996). The bottom graph shows the commercially remastered and re-released version from America(2001). Now if even drone metal bands don't want their stuff to be butchered for the sake of 'impact', the music industry really has no excuse.
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post #33 of 36
10/3/09 at 2:00am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Pentops View Post
The clipping on the Diana Krall track is as clear as day to me. Here's another example that's a little more subtle…

I just bought a pair of midrange Sennheisers -- my first new headphones in 10 years that aren't cheesy earbuds. So of course I've been scouring my music library for test tracks and finding nothing but over-compressed crap. Anyway, I settled into Norah Jones' "Come Away With Me", a CD that has a reputation for being a non-combatant in the loudness wars. And it does sound very good -- except for the clipping! The clipping on this album has always stood out for me, but it's particularly noticeable with the new cans.

So I took a look at the waveform… and questioned my sanity. It looks fine. I dug in further and eventually found some funny-looking peaks. I can't tell if the samples are right at the limit (clipping or shredding?), but they're definitely in an unnaturally straight line.

One Flight Down

Can anyone else hear this? Am I super-sensitive to clipping or is it all in my head?
Yup. The CD does indeed clip and distort at various points in various songs.

This is a case where the vinyl wins over the CD. There is no distortion on the vinyl at all. The vinyl is sublime.
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post #34 of 36
10/3/09 at 1:17pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by LFF View Post
This is not shredding. It may just be a small distortion caused when recorded or caused by the synth. IMHO, this sounds just fine.
It would be pretty disappointing if that track clipped or was shredded badly because that track comes off of My Morning Jacket's Evil Urges, which was Sound and Vision magazine's Album of the Year for 2008.
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post #35 of 36
10/3/09 at 11:50pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Pentops View Post
Can anyone else hear this? Am I super-sensitive to clipping or is it all in my head?
At 2,5s (from your NJ example), yes it sounds TERRIBLE. Subtle is a very generous way to put it.

Quote:
It would be pretty disappointing if that track clipped or was shredded badly because that track comes off of My Morning Jacket's Evil Urges, which was Sound and Vision magazine's Album of the Year for 2008.
Indeed, but that sound (0:33, Touch me I'm going to scream) led me to believe (I didn't realize that I was describing two different issues) that something could be wrong with my headphones / amp, which is why I'm trying to find out what makes it sound so, well, not right. It does indeed sound like clipping although I reckon that it isn't.
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post #36 of 36
10/4/09 at 3:49am
Grace sounds great on vinyl. Maybe it's just the CD that's screwed.
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