[Alc Jr]

As I was listening to the new Black Eyed Peas song, Meet Me Halfway, I really started to enjoy it... I noticed a tiny bit of distortion along the way to the chorus, I could deal with it as I know it was mastered loudly, but once the chorus came along, Fergie's singing was unbearable!
I can hear audible crackling and distortion in her voice, even through lo-fi equipment like my PC's speakers. How did a track like this get past mastering?!

You can even hear it through a Youtube link, moreso with a more revealing copy:

+ YouTube Video​

ERROR: If you can see this, then YouTube is down or you don't have Flash installed.

Waveform to Meet Me Halfway:

It is a mystery, is there a guy who just says "Screw it..." and decides it's "good enough"?
This is a top 10 song on the billboards, I know they had to have heard it, it's outrageous that something this poorly mastered by such a successful group is able to be released.

 

[LFF]

Not that uncommon these days. Play it on your laptop...I bet it sounds good on tiny speakers.

Great mastering seems to be a thing of the past. I have talked to so many mastering engineers in the past months and they all do this because "it's the standard". Artists also expect a sound like this for the same reason. They expect "punch" and a certain loudness to their music that is absolutely insane. They are also falsely told that if it's not loud, it will not sound good on the radio or on ipods.

Moreover, the more I talk to industry professionals, the more I have noticed that most mastering engineers are also primarily mix engineers and recording engineers. Seems it's a norm to be jack of all trades and a master of none.

On the artists side, they do not see the point in paying someone like me when all I have to do "is make it loud". Artists fail to see that a proper mastering engineer must also EQ and make tons of choices for their music to sound good. They figure they rather pay the mix engineer $20 and have him/her run it through a loudness maximizer and call it a day.

SAD!

 

[Alc Jr]

That is pretty sad, yet evident in modern day recordings, especially rock.
Wouldn't the BEP have enough to pay someone to master their stuff though?

 

[SoupRKnowva]

That is sad, cause even lady gaga sounds incredibly clean with no distortion, though i've never looked at in the a wave analyzer.

 

[BryanP]

Quote:

Originally Posted by SoupRKnowva /img/forum/go_quote.gif That is sad, cause even lady gaga sounds incredibly clean with no distortion, though i've never looked at in the a wave analyzer.

I actually agree. There's some songs she has that have a crapload of layers and yet she can still pop up with her vocals without any distortion.

I know what this guy is talking about, a good chunk of the songs in the Black Eyed Peas album are poorly mastered for sure...

 

[Head Injury]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Alc Jr /img/forum/go_quote.gif That is pretty sad, yet evident in modern day recordings, especially rock. Wouldn't the BEP have enough to pay someone to master their stuff though?

Why should they care? People are still going to buy it. Most aren't going to even notice. Actually, a lot will probably prefer it this way because these days the best dynamics seem to be no dynamics at all.

Probably one of the reasons I became attached to classic rock a lot faster than I did modern rock. The mastering might not have been great back then, but at least there wasn't a magic button titled "Compressorize!" sitting right next to "Finish".

 

[Guidostrunk]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Head Injury /img/forum/go_quote.gif Why should they care? People are still going to buy it. Most aren't going to even notice. Actually, a lot will probably prefer it this way because these days the best dynamics seem to be no dynamics at all. Probably one of the reasons I became attached to classic rock a lot faster than I did modern rock. The mastering might not have been great back then, but at least there wasn't a magic button titled "Compressorize!" sitting right next to "Finish".

Amen Brother.

 

[Anonanimal]

That song is right up there with Death Magnetic. Capable of making my HD650s sound unforgiving...

 

[uraflit]

Quote:

Originally Posted by LFF /img/forum/go_quote.gif They are also falsely told that if it's not loud, it will not sound good on the radio or on ipods.

Not sure what you meant exactly, so correct me if I'm wrong, but I have noticed that I enjoy listening to "pop" music on the radio and on cheaper speakers a lot more than I do on my "better" gear. i love listening to top 40 music on logitech 5.1 speakers

 

[LFF]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Alc Jr /img/forum/go_quote.gif That is pretty sad, yet evident in modern day recordings, especially rock. Wouldn't the BEP have enough to pay someone to master their stuff though?

They probably did. However, most mastering engineers also bend backwards for "know-it-all" producers. Sometimes it really is the mastering engineers fault. Sometimes it's the artists who insists on maximizing the crap out of it. Who knows.

I have heard stories of certain mastering engineers who have a special "producers/artists" console section. They allow the producer/artist to tweak away to their liking. Unfortunately, none of it works because it's all either broken or not plugged in.

That's how it should be.

 

[LFF]

Quote:

Originally Posted by SoupRKnowva /img/forum/go_quote.gif That is sad, cause even lady gaga sounds incredibly clean with no distortion, though i've never looked at in the a wave analyzer.

It's probably maxed out but maxed out properly.

LOL! Maxed out properly...now there is an oxymoron.

 

[SoupRKnowva]

Quote:

Originally Posted by LFF /img/forum/go_quote.gif It's probably maxed out but maxed out properly. LOL! Maxed out properly...now there is an oxymoron.

i was gonna say, im sure its brickwalled, just no clipping because it still sounds good. Theres some metal like that as well, like With Oden on Our Side by Amon Amarth, brickwalled to heck, but no clipping and it still sounds really clean.

 

[noinimod]

Quote:

Originally Posted by SoupRKnowva /img/forum/go_quote.gif That is sad, cause even lady gaga sounds incredibly clean with no distortion, though i've never looked at in the a wave analyzer.

In Bad Romance, her vocals are way too hot, it's painful

 

[Young Spade]

Wow...yea that sucks. I've always though that the quality of some mainstream music would go down eventually and I guess it's happening now :/