This is something that always intrigued me to know is how people prefer their music sounding regarding production. These days a lot of albums are mastered with a lower gain and a warmer sound with more bottom end. I happen to prefer a more treble punchier sound with more gain. I know a lot of engineers use a "brick wall" program to maximize gain and eliminate digital clipping which is great to my ears and what I prefer. I guess it depends on the style of music but prog metal in my opinion needs to be less bottom end to be able to hear clearly the separation of the instruments especially when the music get's busy. Please weigh in on this topic as I'm very curious to know your preference and why.
Audiophile alert! How do you prefer your music?
- Thread starter ForeverProg
- Start date
lasercd
Man Behind The Curtain
What you are describing is the exact opposite of what I like. Brickwalled mastering robs the music of dynamics and the breath of life. Horrible.
First, thanks for your opinion but I think I may have not worded correctly or you misunderstood me. Second, I said Brick wall saves digital clipping a distortion. Everyone's ears are different, what's wrong with a crisp production? I didn't mean a screechy high end mastering job is my preference. Example, I think the punchiness and the "in your face" mix and master of the latest Divided Multitude is a good example, same as say the last Eumeria album. The new Collibus, though a great album is very low and almost muddy sounding. Dynamics get LOST in a low muddy master. What's HORRIBLE? I personally think some albums are inaudible because of low gain and near hissy sounding, examples: Darkwater "Where Stories End" and yes even Haken's "Aquarius" sounded a bit low, hence Haken "Visions" was far more punchy and in your face sounding. Ken, give one example of what you think is a great production and one that's not, you have me curious.
lasercd
Man Behind The Curtain
You are mixing up your terminology. First of all you are not talking about music in general. You seem to be talking about metal. There are a handful of metal albums that sound decent. Most are slammed to death in both recording and mastering. Most are ineptly recorded and mixed on low budgets.
When you use a word like "low" you are losing me. It happens that there was significantly less compression used in the mastering of Visions than Aquarius. Dynamics get lost with LOUD mastering. Not low. Make it louder by turning the volume knob up.
Its very simple. You want "clarity" and loud? Compression is your friend...but it will come at the expense of dynamics. You want music to be robbed of subtlety make it LOUD!
When you use a word like "low" you are losing me. It happens that there was significantly less compression used in the mastering of Visions than Aquarius. Dynamics get lost with LOUD mastering. Not low. Make it louder by turning the volume knob up.
Its very simple. You want "clarity" and loud? Compression is your friend...but it will come at the expense of dynamics. You want music to be robbed of subtlety make it LOUD!
Well clarified Ken.
. When an album sounds "low", I mean volume/gain in regards to an album having poor sound quality. But I guess it does come down to recording,mixing and mastering budgets etc.
Mullmuzzler
Member
I agree here...
Now, I bring up this point and maybe you can help me out Ken...With new technologies and services (Neil Young's POno Music, HD Tracks), could the same happen to this 24bit/192khz recordings? Brickwalling their ass and loose dynamics?
lasercd
Man Behind The Curtain
Higher bit rate and/or sampling rate is no guarantee of better sound. Its all a function of what the recording and mastering engineer does with the source material. Shit in = shit out. I have Redbook 16/44.1 CDs that are phenomenal sounding. I've also heard 24/96 files that are an abomination.
