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Bad recording/master: it is a crime!!!

amirm

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It definitely is when it happens to one of your favorite singers. I think this is the third time one of my favorite singers has produced music that is almost unlistenable. Such is the case with Ingrid Michaelson's latest album, It Doesn't Have to Make Sense. Check out this track. It starts off kind of OK but then it goes downhill and fast after 1:30:


By 1:45 I can't listen to it anymore. It is so distorted. It is as if they took a clock radio, played it at full volume and recorded the output of that.

Is there this much incompetence out there? This is not just loudness compression. It just flat out super distorted.

And what about her? Does she not have ears good enough to tell what got produced at the end?

I mean it is not like it sounds good on a headphone either. That is where I first heard the problem. I thought it was the headphones (IEMs) first but now confirming on my Stax headphones, and external DAC, it is just as hopeless.

Sigh. It guess "it doesn't have to make sense" as she says. :(
 
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Blumlein 88

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If you stopped at 1:45 you didn't get to the good part. Sorry, I chopped off the time, but it is a 4 min 7 second track.

upload_2017-9-14_16-27-5.png


I don't know how you stop this damned garbage. I am sick to death of it. This is not at all uncommon or even worst of these days. Completely normal. I hear music I really like, and you can't get it without it being effed up like this.

We don't know who is responsible. Who knows, she may not have had a say in it depending upon her contract. I'm at a loss. You see something incredibly stupid, awful and fully not needed, over and over and over again, and you can't stop it.

You literally could take this girl, a piano, and lay a cell phone next to the piano and record something far superior.
 

Sal1950

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And what about here? Does she not have ears good enough to tell what got produced at the end?
Yes it very bad, even just a quick listen on the laptop speakers reveals it.
I hear so much of that crap today, I think that's the sound they're working for, with that distorted overdriven sizzle that sounds like damaged tweeters.
I don't understand it and can't imagine why, we know they have to hear it, why they don't believe it sounds horrid I can't understand.
 

Wombat

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It definitely is when it happens to one of your favorite singers. I think this is the third time one of my favorite singers has produced music that is almost unlistenable. Such is the case with Ingrid Michaelson's latest album, It Doesn't Have to Make Sense. Check out this track. It starts off kind of OK but then it goes downhill and fast after 1:30:


By 1:45 I can't listen to it anymore. It is so distorted. It is as if they took a clock radio, played it at full volume and recorded the output of that.

Is there this much incompetence out there? This is not just loudness compression. It just flat out super distorted.

And what about her? Does she not have ears good enough to tell what got produced at the end?

I mean it is not like it sounds good on a headphone either. That is where I first heard the problem. I thought it was the headphones (IEMs) first but now confirming on my Stax headphones, and external DAC, it is just as hopeless.

Sigh. It guess "it doesn't have to make sense" as she says. :(



Do any of us give the artist feedback?
 

Rodney Gold

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I just played it on my main system via tidal...terribly compressed towards the end but its quite listenable ..and i played it LOUD
I expected it to end with a crescendo of grunge and hash but it kept together.
Wouldn't want to listen to it again tho
 

mitchco

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Recording, mixing and mastering has become a lost art... Or put another way, the advent of Garage Band and all of the DAW variant's are so inexpensive, anyone can become a recording, mixing and mastering engineer, in one's living room or basement.

Gone are the day's of real studios, real equipment and trained professionals, or certainly drastically reduced. Gone are really good microphones (e.g. Neumann U87, AKG 414 to name a few), in favour of cheap USB mics. Also, very few training facilities exist these days for anyone to be schooled in the fine art of recording, mixing and mastering. Most won't even pick up a book in which there are hundreds to choose from on the subject area...

Gone are the days of recording budgets from record companies, who can now pimp out artists for a fraction of the cost... who cares about quality... A buddy of mine from the past who is still in the business went from recording records with budgets in the excess of a hundred grand down to 6 grand per album. He tries his best, but with such a limited budget, there is only so much one can do...

Even if you are not a fan of Dave Grohl, the movie Sound City https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sound_City_(film) shows an excellent example of a once famous recording studio turned to dust, even if Dave did save the famous Neve console... No doubt most if not all of us here have heard mixes from that Studio (especially that drum sound!) that is simply no longer. What once was will never be again...

I was really excited in the mid 80's, as a pro recording mixing engineer, as the first wave of digital came through our studios and after some trial and error, started coming up with some pretty good recordings/mixes where the dynamic range was used and people still cared about sound quality. It seems not so much anymore... More details here if interested: https://www.computeraudiophile.com/ca/ca-academy/dynamic-range-no-quiet-no-loud-r643/
 

RayDunzl

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fas42

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Just had a listen on the laptop - the aim is for a certain type of sound - big and dense. There's no distortion, but the denseness of the sound would be hard work for many systems. I have heard "much worse" ... this track would be spectacular to listen to if the setup was in good order - IOW, I would use it to check out unknown rigs ... ;)
 

Soniclife

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Recording, mixing and mastering has become a lost art... Or put another way, the advent of Garage Band and all of the DAW variant's are so inexpensive, anyone can become a recording, mixing and mastering engineer, in one's living room or basement.

Gone are the day's of real studios, real equipment and trained professionals, or certainly drastically reduced. Gone are really good microphones (e.g. Neumann U87, AKG 414 to name a few), in favour of cheap USB mics. Also, very few training facilities exist these days for anyone to be schooled in the fine art of recording, mixing and mastering. Most won't even pick up a book in which there are hundreds to choose from on the subject area...

Gone are the days of recording budgets from record companies, who can now pimp out artists for a fraction of the cost... who cares about quality... A buddy of mine from the past who is still in the business went from recording records with budgets in the excess of a hundred grand down to 6 grand per album. He tries his best, but with such a limited budget, there is only so much one can do...

Even if you are not a fan of Dave Grohl, the movie Sound City https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sound_City_(film) shows an excellent example of a once famous recording studio turned to dust, even if Dave did save the famous Neve console... No doubt most if not all of us here have heard mixes from that Studio (especially that drum sound!) that is simply no longer. What once was will never be again...

I was really excited in the mid 80's, as a pro recording mixing engineer, as the first wave of digital came through our studios and after some trial and error, started coming up with some pretty good recordings/mixes where the dynamic range was used and people still cared about sound quality. It seems not so much anymore... More details here if interested: https://www.computeraudiophile.com/ca/ca-academy/dynamic-range-no-quiet-no-loud-r643/
Whilst I sort of agree, I think some of the worst offenses are committed by people who know exactly what they are doing, even if they claim to have been told to do it by someone else from the record company.
The great thing about a laptop + DAW + decent mic is that people who don't have a budget, and never would have done can get good results, whereas in the past they would have got fairly grotty results, at much greater cost.

I hope the industry wakes up to the change that to me streaming should logically make, that developing artists and recordings for the long term makes more sense that going for the quick sale. In the past all the profit was up front, just sell the record, it makes no odds to the business if it's never played, but with steaming if it has no long term replay value it won't keep making money. I keep hoping they do something like the dvd market did and release some sort of 'directors cut' mastering after the commercial master, one version for iBuds, one for 'proper' hifi, probably never happen.
 

fas42

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An awkward situation has arisen - people mastering records can do what they damn well like and get away with it, technically - and these days they want to push the boundaries on just about everything. Which, perversely, means that one has to have an absolutely excellent system to reproduce exactly what's on the recording - with nothing added. I have had the hardest times getting lateish pop recordings to come together - most older material is far, far easier, because the recordings are extremely conservative in terms of the recording techniques used.
 

Timbo2

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I was really excited in the mid 80's, as a pro recording mixing engineer, as the first wave of digital came through our studios and after some trial and error, started coming up with some pretty good recordings/mixes where the dynamic range was used and people still cared about sound quality. It seems not so much anymore... More details here if interested: https://www.computeraudiophile.com/ca/ca-academy/dynamic-range-no-quiet-no-loud-r643/

I know this is a dead thread, but thanks for this. One of the main reasons I became uninterested in HiFi was the loudness wars. We can leave the abuse of Autotune for another discussion.
 

restorer-john

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The thread isn't dead, but that recording is.

Poor recordings like that (it's truly disgusting) do no credit to the artist. She may never get a chance to fix that song either. That is her legacy now and I'm sad for her.

Such potential for a soaring clean, detailed song and it was wrecked by ass-clowns on the mixing desk.
 

NorthSky

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It's a very painful tune. I don't call this music, I call it total irritating crap.
Sorry for the honesty. I don't even want to pursue the whatever it's called, ever.

She killed all the future essence of life. There are real talents somewhere else.
 

milokinni

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I think classical music is the only genre where loudness war doesn't reign supreme. Even sadder to think future generations might not know what a concept album is, thanks to this travesty.
 
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