RANT : HOT Recordings are NOT HOT

[gsferrari]

Yeah...

Just picked up a few trance albums and various new singles and I am thoroughly disappointed with the results. The sound is HORRIBLE...distorted, frills on the bass notes, flubbery mids and unbearable highs. Sounds better without an amp straight out of the CD Player...this is terrible sound.

Quick measurements out of the analog outs on my CDP shows that these CD's output at levels significantly higher than my other Telarc CD's and SACD's.

I then read about HOT recordings...why the #### would anyone want to record music like this? Out of my PCDP it sounded LOUD and absolutely one dimensional...I guess this is for the boombox characters?

But why the singles? Why set out to rape yourself by mauling the only thing that will possibly help you sell a full record or bag a contract!!

I can visualize a bunch of homies standing around a crappy boombox playing their single and going "Aw man! Tats Da crap!

" and trading high fives!!

Some recording companies are more guilty of this than others. I have wasted $45.00 on crap and I just went back to the store to explain and demonstrate my problem. They listend carefully and told me that it sounded pretty darn good!!!

I guess some people have different expectations or exposure than other people but good music IS good sounding music and I cannot imagine why anyone would think that this crap sounds good. I left the CD's on the register along with my receipt and walked out telling them I would not be back there until they gave me store credit or refund for that crap.

My uncle's neighbour in London suggested these budding trance/R&B artists and asked me for an opinion because he is in the recording business. (I will get more details about him and the records he turned out shortly). I told him that until these stupid recording companies come out with decent quality on the singles...these poor guys are going nowhere....

Some Seriously Stupid crapheads Stoned Senseless

 

[Vosper]

It's 2am and thus this may be a stupid question... what do you mean by "hot recording"?

 

[Mr.Radar]

Check out this website on overly hot/dynamically compressed CDs. Right away when I heard Weird Al Yankovic's Poodle Hat I could tell that it was crap, and that was listening to it through the STOCK SOUND SYSTEM in our family's MINI-VAN. And another CD my mom owns (Just What I Needed: The Cars Anthology) has wonderful music but I can't stand to listen to it because it's so horribly compressed. You should try ripping those discs to your computer and running them through ReplayGain/WaveGain/MP3Gain to see how hot they are.

 

[Vosper]

So that's why A Rush Of Blood To The Head sounds awful sometimes. I can hear the distorted bass guitar from Amsterdam clipping quite clearly. What a shame! I thought I just had bad gear or cd or something

That's an excellent site by the way. Pity it crushed my Coldplay hopes, but now I can understand gsferrari's anger!

 

[roadtonowhere08]

I am so sick of hearing the rice crispies and horrible dynamics of these new albums. There should be a bill passed prohibiting this, just like the one for spyware. We are all wasting our money on this. Great recordings ruined by jerkoff mixers and record companies.

 

[gsferrari]

There is the other extreme as well. I have some discs recorded below -12db I think and they sound "falsely" good - blackness in between the notes and clear sound - but missing details...

I dunno - want to have my own recording studio to do things right

Gah! Nirvana has the same problem -1 dB, Metallica BLACK has -3dB

Total BS

 

[Mr.PD]

I just learned a lot. Thanks Mr.Radar for that link. I have a couple of the albums they list as hot, I am going to play those and this old America Greatest Hits CD which is the quietest CD I own. Just so I can learn what it is I'm listening for.

I think the latest ZZ Top album, Mescalero is way distorted. The subbass is very blurred on most of it.

 

[Dane]

How incomprehensible it might seem, I think most people cant hear stuff like this. I once reluctantly borrowed a CD from one of my co-workers but quickly returned it because it was impossible to listen to (some chart junk of some sort). He and others were quite surprized and they thought it was pretty good. I was totally amazed that they couldn't hear how crappy it sounded (even with my A900) and they just smiled at me. The argument was finally settled when I found a review on the internet which said that the recording quality was bad on that CD. After that, one tried my A900's again and said that maybe perhaps there was this and that wrong - but it was clear that he was totally lost and just guessing, deaf as he was - he simply couldn't hear it. It's amazing, it's like an elephant standing right in front of you and nobody but you sees it.

 

[mulveling]

I had this problem bite me for the first time last night. Much of what I listen to is from Japan, and the majority of these CDs in my collection sound excellent. I just bought the Rush "Counterparts" remaster, and the sound quality is awful beyond belief. I had to turn the volume down about 8db below my normal setting, and even then it was too harsh, bright and painful (with no dynamics or punch). What's sad is that "Vapor Trails" is supposed to be even worse! This is unlistenable on any of my hifi headphones; in fact it's basically a more enjoyable listen over my accord's stock speakers. At least my sonic expectations are much lower there, lol.

Luckily the older Rush CD's (of their recordings from the 70's) sound ok; I like their music from that time period best. I just can't see myself purchasing any recent US CDs if this is the standard.

Edit: I see Counterparts is on the "Hot but not squashed" list in the above link, regardless, it still sounded terrible to me. Hot CDs of any kind? NO THANKS!

 

[Jahn]

yep, it's a recent horrible phenomenon. they mastered CDs perfectly fine in the 80s - "In my tribe" by 10,000 maniacs and "nothing but the sun" by sting are well balanced. and you can't beat "DDD" lol!

but it's truly unfortunate some albums like Maroon 5's "Songs about jane" are mastered too hot - white boy funk needs a clean detailed delivery, and the crap master just ruins all the songs.

no doubt's earlier album "tragic kingdom" is great, "return of saturn" is getting a tad hot, and "rock steady" is full blown ghetto blaster master ugh. settle down, sista!

you know what's a great album? don't laugh. "His"tory, Michael Jackson's greatest hits. Mastered perfectly imho.

 

[Wodgy]

It's a shame they do this. An album with only 3dB of headroom is basically only 2-bit audio (this isn't strictly true, but it's closer than not). They're throwing away the other 14 bits of resolution. No wonder it sounds terrible.

 

[Budley007]

DAMN IT!!! gsferrari just blew my Trance CD collection sale. The guy wants a refund now.

j/k bro - (Trying to help you get over the blown amp sale debacle.)

 

[petery83]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jahn no doubt's earlier album "tragic kingdom" is great, "return of saturn" is getting a tad hot, and "rock steady" is full blown ghetto blaster master ugh. settle down, sista! you know what's a great album? don't laugh. "His"tory, Michael Jackson's greatest hits. Mastered perfectly imho.

Too bad the only No Doubt CD I have is their greatest hits one...it has a replaygain_album_gain value of -10.14dB, so it's pretty hot

What does the CD cover of the Michael Jackson CD look like? I might want to go buy the CD...

 

[Oliver :)]

Usually compression done so that stuff sounds louder from the radio. Imagine some quiet music such as Norah Jones stuff on your typical 24/7! BIG! BS! STATION! and *not* being inflated in volume. It would get totally lost

Not that I cared much for radio, but I *hate* paying good money for a compressed recording. I might as well buy it from the iTMS then, saves space.

 

[bundee1]

I read that post Billy Corgan made regarding the levels of his ZWAN album. What a f*#*in' jerk! I want to club him to death with a frozen ham. Me and the robot from "Small Wonder" can take turns.