[Sladeophile]

Quote:

Originally Posted by vagarach Indeed. I could have downloaded it, but no, quality sound I said, just imagine these brilliant songs but with CD quality. None of that badly ripped mp3 for me, ooooh no. $12.50 later, it sounded just as crap. This CD introduced me to the concept of poor recording, I mean before, comparing an mp3 (128kb and similar) to the CD, there was always a definite increase in quality, worth actually buying the CD for. It does add a certain flawed quality though, perfect songs with imperfect presentation, or in other words, my bad justifying .

Sadly enough, a lot of these albums sound better in lower quality mp3 format. That takes away some of the rice crispies and other poor sounds.

 

[milesbeyondjazz]

The best of the red hot chili peppers,Its the worst mastering job I have ever heard.

 

[zoboomofo]

About Oasis - Morning Glory. It might not sound great, but I know that the recordings on "Swamp Song" and "Wonderwall" get louder and more dynamic than whatever issue my cd was cut on. It would benefit from a remastering for sure. I'm not sure I'd let the producer off the hook for the crap sound, though.

One remarkably bad cd in my set has already been mentioned - New Pornographers: Twin Cinema. It sounds like somebody forgot to mic. the kick drum and bass, then eq'd away whatever bass was left.

Other cds with sound that exudes "excremence" - U2 greatest hits 1990-2000 may as well have been mastered on a Memorex cassette (those cheesy ones from the 80s with pastel colors). It takes Red Hot Chili Peppers' Californication to new depths. Coldplay albums 1 & 2 have nice vocals and occasionally guitar, too, but thin-ish piano, and dungy bass & drums.

I still think OK Computer sounds like ass, especially when compared to such a nicer sound out of Amnesiac.

I took a chance "feeling lucky" on a google search on "remastered" Beatles cds, so I should find out soon if these have the nuances and warmth that my old ones don't

 

[trains are bad]

Quote:

I still think OK Computer sounds like ass

I listened to the whole thing on vinyl last night. Amazing.

 

[zoboomofo]

Maybe Dr. Ebbetts can transfer Ok Computer, too.

 

[Daryn Alexander]

Definitely the album "Born Innocent" by the Proclaimers, and the songs recorded during that session that wound up on their Best Of. They wanted it to sound live. Instead, it sounded crap.

 

[sheik124]

Quote:

Originally Posted by zoboomofo Other cds with sound that exudes "excremence" - U2 greatest hits 1990-2000 may as well have been mastered on a Memorex cassette (those cheesy ones from the 80s with pastel colors). It takes Red Hot Chili Peppers' Californication to new depths.

Tell me about it! When I was listening to the Mike Hedges Mixes ("New Mixes") of the Pop songs I was wondering if I hated them because they were too different or because they sounded like turd. They also killed all the Achtung songs on there by compressing the life out of them.

U2's How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb and Keane's Under the Iron Sea tie for the worst mastered albums I have. Whenever a Keane track begins to play I always have to turn down whatever I'm using to listen by at least 50%, lest my ears begin to bleed. HTDAAB is equally loud; it's ridiculous, especially when you consider that All That You Can't Leave Behind wasn't butchered as far as other CDs released during that time period were, and that Pop was actually recorded in a pretty damn awesome way. 'tis why it's my fav U2 album, the fact that it was so different than all their other work and that it sounded really different just made it awesome. I also noticed that Hot Fuss was way too loud, but I think it was intended to sound that way.

One other thing, Arabic music tends not to be destroyed with gobs of dynamic range compression, but a CD I bought in 2004 by Amr Diab was HORRIBLE. Drums didn't sound like drums anymore, they sounded like farts, that's how badly clipped this disc was. Needless to say, the album he released the year after sounds just dandy

 

[zoboomofo]

Here's a little follow-up to my earlier Beatles comment. The vinyl ripped cds that I have sound better to me than the official cds in some ways, and weaker in others. A few things that bothered me about the proper EMI cds: flat image, thin on vocals, and fatiguingly wide staging.

The stereo mixes on the vinyl rips sound, in one word, cohesive. The center stage is denser sounding and has better transience, while the left and right edges are narrower, and less meaty. The presentation on the unofficial cds is less dumbbell like from left to right, and more even. The benefit of this effect is that the duophonic mix isn't exaggerated, but the drawback is that some things don't jump out at me the way I am accustomed to. It's still early for me to really analyze each cd in detail, but I was impressed with the Sgt. Peppers clarity and tidiness - no hiss, and brilliant highs. I was a little underwhelmed by the Abbey Road tone - not as warm and sweet as I was used to, but better treble control.

Other things that I noticed on the vinyl rips:

Paul doesn't sound like he's singing into a fluffy microphone
Songs with dirty sounding vocals now have dirty sounding instruments to match
-eg Strawberry Fields, Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds, Penny Lane.
There isn't such treble emphasis at around 10KHz with a void at 5KHz on these same dirty sounding recordings
Paul and John's vocals are more distinct sounding on Revolver, and Ringo doesn't get drowned out on Yellow Submarine.
Tracks on Let It Be don't sound so tinny and 2D.
Mono mixes can sound nice! - there's bass.

My comparisons to the official Beatles cds are based on the Blue Greatest Hits, Revolver, and Abbey Road.

I'm now curious about the newer EMI remasters of Let It Be and Yellow Submarine.

 

[Debaser86]

The Mountain Goats - "All Hail West Texas"

Sounds like it was recorded on a consumer home boombox... because it was! Awesome album, nonetheless.

 

[jimmy_007]

"This is Love, This Is Murderous" - Bleeding Through

Needs better instrument seperation and has to be less muffled.

 

[mrhappy]

I could name off a lot of albums that were just mastered too loudly and suffer as a result, but really, accept no substitute:



"It is said that Ulver received a great deal of money from Century Media for the recording of Nattens Madrigal but then proceeded to record it with cheap equipment, spending the money on a Corvette and some Boss suits."

Edit: haha oops, should've noticed the image was on a "hotlinking is evil" server. my bad.

 

[Demetrio]

Some I can recall at the moment:

- RUSH – Vapor Trails
- GENESIS – Trespass, Nursery Crime
- NEKTAR – Remember the Future
- MARILLION – Script for a Jesters Tear, Fugazi
- DREAM THEATER => many of their recordings sound over-compressed (a very common problem with virtually all prog metal recordings I know)

 

[Contrastique]

Sunrise-Sunset by Blue Note Trip. Realy too much bloated bass and a lot of distortion. Too bad, cause I like the music.

 

[goldenratiophi]

No contest.

System of a Down - Hypnotize

 

[FalconP]

The Nimbus recording of the opera Horia, composed by Nicolae Bretan. A mono recording in 1980, is this a joke? The recording personnel is not mentioned, but it sounds like an audience bootleg: you can hear people mumbling during the applauses.

Nimbus acknowledges the Nicolae Bretan Musical Foundation for "generous cooperation of the production of this project", and the booklet features an essay written by the composer's son. Why could they not make a proper recording is beyond me.

It is a shame because the music is really really good.