[sonicm]

Is it just my copy or does most of System of a Down's cd 'Mesmerize' have a lot of crackling? I notice this the most in Radio/Video during the lines

Look at me rockin' out,
I'm on the radio

Does anyone else notice this? Its very noticeable with my SR-225s and IMO ruin the record.

 

[mdjenders]

You are correct, this CD is full of distorted crackling; this is yet another example of lousy modern CD mastering. Brick wall compression + jacked up volume = tons of clipping which is the "rice krispy" sounds you are hearing.

 

[sonicm]

Awww..that was one of my favorites...well, is there any way that anyone knows of that'll get rid of/lower the presence of that annoying crackling sound?

 

[infinitesymphony]

Rick Rubin has been producing SoaD's albums for a while. From listening to these albums and some of his other production credits, it's clear he doesn't care about clipping in heavy rock or metal records. Pushing a hot/clipped signal often results in speaker thrashing with cheap speakers, which makes the sound even heavier

. That's one reason so many rock and metal bands go far beyond "a bit" of clipping. Plus, consider that rock 'n' roll distortion is clipping, by definition.

Unfortunately, once a record is ruined, it's ruined for good. Thank the mastering engineer.

 

[ameyer17]

Quote:

Originally Posted by infinitesymphony Rick Rubin has been producing SoaD's albums for a while. From listening to these albums and some of his other production credits, it's clear he doesn't care about clipping in heavy rock or metal records.

It's not just his heavy rock or metal. He produced Johnny Cash - Anerican IV: The Man Comes Around and it was pretty badly audibly clipped. There were layers of clipping in places (Like at the end of Hurt, the instruments and vocals seemed to be clipped seperately. Nasty stuff.)

 

[wolfen68]

Sorry to revive an older thread....but I've been aghast lately at how bad this problem is. I should keep a list of songs/albums I find with this problem. So far I've discovered at least 30. The last one I discovered was last night in the last seconds of the song "Snow ((Hey Oh))" on the Chili Pepper's Stadium Arcadium album...the discovery before was a song on the Dropkick Murphy's newest album. In every hour of listening, it seems at least one or two songs will demonstrate this (5 - 10% of all of my tunes).

I was hearing low crackling quite often that usually occurs during the busier parts of tunes (but not always). I started hearing it so frequently I was convinced there was something wrong with my optical drive or ripper/encoder. I screwed around with inconclusive results as some of these are just on the edge of my hearing (others are quite obvious). Ultimately, I've learned that most of these seem to also be on the original cd. For the cost of CD's, you would think that the quality control on the final recordings offered to the consumer would be more strict.

Since I started using a MicroDAC with my H140, these really jump out at me now. This problem is IMO the single largest issue remaining concerning my enjoyment of played back music. These occasional crackles takes me away from the sense of being there live, and ticks me off every time.