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Sound quality of new D/T

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aglenn01:
I was intro'd to DT in the fall of 2007. Was blown away. Lifelong RUSH fan, and was so exited about a band I was not familiar with to bring so much to the party musically. So I've been listening to the band for over a decade. I've read the complaints and personally experienced the issue over the years re:sound quality of the albums released in that time. It's a known issue in the last decade, the loudness wars, etc...it has affected so many bands, releases...what I don't understand is that with a band like DT, who is really trying to sell albums to their fans, why they get caught up in the "loudness wars" issue, compression, etc.  It's not like DT are going to get massive airplay on mainstream radio, so from what I understand, that whole issue began because bands wanted their sound to be LOUD to be heard thru the radio and shitty earbuds/headphones.
The new record sounds so much better than the last several releases. Drums sound great, JM is clearly heard (this is huge!), I just don't understand what is so difficult to make a good sounding record. I've listened in the last few weeks to records from the 80's by RUSH, Steely Dan, Winger, LZ, etc. thru my good headphones, and these records sound so crisp and easy to listen to relative to the albums of the last decade.
My point is.....just make good sounding records. Seperation of instruments. DT is wasting JM's talents over the years by not mixing with clarity. Listen to Zeppelin II...JPJ is amazing, but you would not know it without proper sound engineering. JM sounds so good on D/T, and DT need to keep this up in regards to final product. They can spend months "making" a new record, but if it sounds like shit, it really detracts. It's so easy----spend months making the record. Spend hours mixing it correctly!

The Letter M:

--- Quote from: aglenn01 on March 17, 2019, 07:08:58 PM ---I was intro'd to DT in the fall of 2007. Was blown away. Lifelong RUSH fan, and was so exited about a band I was not familiar with to bring so much to the party musically. So I've been listening to the band for over a decade. I've read the complaints and personally experienced the issue over the years re:sound quality of the albums released in that time. It's a known issue in the last decade, the loudness wars, etc...it has affected so many bands, releases...what I don't understand is that with a band like DT, who is really trying to sell albums to their fans, why they get caught up in the "loudness wars" issue, compression, etc.  It's not like DT are going to get massive airplay on mainstream radio, so from what I understand, that whole issue began because bands wanted their sound to be LOUD to be heard thru the radio and shitty earbuds/headphones.
The new record sounds so much better than the last several releases. Drums sound great, JM is clearly heard (this is huge!), I just don't understand what is so difficult to make a good sounding record. I've listened in the last few weeks to records from the 80's by RUSH, Steely Dan, Winger, LZ, etc. thru my good headphones, and these records sound so crisp and easy to listen to relative to the albums of the last decade.
My point is.....just make good sounding records. Seperation of instruments. DT is wasting JM's talents over the years by not mixing with clarity. Listen to Zeppelin II...JPJ is amazing, but you would not know it without proper sound engineering. JM sounds so good on D/T, and DT need to keep this up in regards to final product. They can spend months "making" a new record, but if it sounds like shit, it really detracts. It's so easy----spend months making the record. Spend hours mixing it correctly!

--- End quote ---

More knowledgeable audiophiles can probably correct me if I'm wrong, but I think the issue with the Loudness Wars stems from poor mastering, not mixing. Often times, the album is mastered pretty hot and the audio tends to clip, which isn't a problem from the mix, though a bad mastering job could muddle the mix to the point of being unlistenable.

-Marc.

TheGreatPretender:

--- Quote from: The Letter M on March 17, 2019, 07:12:48 PM ---More knowledgeable audiophiles can probably correct me if I'm wrong, but I think the issue with the Loudness Wars stems from poor mastering, not mixing. Often times, the album is mastered pretty hot and the audio tends to clip, which isn't a problem from the mix, though a bad mastering job could muddle the mix to the point of being unlistenable.

-Marc.

--- End quote ---

Yeah, I'm quite sure that it's almost entirely a mastering thing.
I mean, if you listen to HD Tracks version of, say, Systematic Chaos, or DT12, they open things up dynamically in a big way. But really, it is still the same mix.
I had an opportunity to master a soundtrack that was already premixed (the only thing I've ever had a chance to master, so I have virtually no experience or expertise in the field, in case you're wondering), and yeah, it was all in my hands. If I wanted to, I could've compressed the crap out of it (which I didn't).

aglenn01:
Awesome guys, I am not technically savvy enough to discern between the mastering and the mixing! Thanks for the insight. I guess what I am getting at is that I just want the fucking records to sound good when I listen to them,, and let each member of the band do their thing. My point was that their are so many albums from the past that sound great, and yet now it's like trying to crack the nuclear code to make a record SOUND GOOD!! I mean if the guys from the 70's and 80's could do it, why cannot we do it now?? Jesus, we can shoot a fuckin dunebuggy from Earth and have it land on Mars, but can't figure out how to make a record that sounds good???

KevShmev:

--- Quote from: aglenn01 on March 17, 2019, 07:45:19 PM ---Awesome guys, I am not technically savvy enough to discern between the mastering and the mixing! Thanks for the insight. I guess what I am getting at is that I just want the fucking records to sound good when I listen to them,, and let each member of the band do their thing. My point was that their are so many albums from the past that sound great, and yet now it's like trying to crack the nuclear code to make a record SOUND GOOD!! I mean if the guys from the 70's and 80's could do it, why cannot we do it now?? Jesus, we can shoot a fuckin dunebuggy from Earth and have it land on Mars, but can't figure out how to make a record that sounds good???

--- End quote ---

It's maddening, I know.  Despite it being mixed very hot, I don't have a big problem with the sound of the new album, although I'd love a more dynamic version.  That said, the other day I had some DT on shuffle in the car and one of the new songs came right after a song from Awake, and the drop-off in sound quality was really obvious when listening to the two songs back-to-back. 

The real pisser is that the hot and compressed versions are the normal releases, and then fans of us who care about albums actually sounding good on a real stereo, as opposed to these stupid mixes that are meant to appeal to the jugheads who only care about it sounding good on their ear buds when hooked up to their iPhone, have to go out of our way and spend more money to get the better-sounding version.  It is disappointing.

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