Received my artbook from Laser CD yesterday. A beautiful package with some very cool images. I ripped the Blu-Ray last night to add the Hi-Res files to my library, and out of curiosity, I opened them in my DAW. The waveforms were a complete crew cut across the board. I don't get balled up over DR numbers, but I'm very disappointed that they did this, especially with the Blu-Ray. They have never done this with any of their previous Blu-Ray releases, so I don't understand why they chose to slam any sense of dynamics out of this release. I'll be ripping the CD later today, but don't expect it to be any different. I hope the musical content makes up for this mastering. What a shame.
If the HD Tracks version turns out to be different, I'll have to pull the trigger on that, but for now, I'm bummed.
DanLore
That sounds really disappointing. It's shameful how most bands release a brickwalled version of their music, and most don't provide a different option. There is simply no excuse. Why brickwall so hard in the first place? There's nothing to gain, but the product quality suffers. There are records that I can't listen to at all, including the CD versions of DT12 and DOT. They're literally broken IMO.
Are the HDTracks version of DT12 and DoT significantly better? The previews for DT12 sound good to me but that could also be some kind of psychological bias at work.
Spending $35 for both is hard to justify unless it's a significant improvement. But on the other hand I know your pain with the CD masters.
DT12 is a massive improvement (as is Dramatic Turn (and BC/SL and SC from the MP era), but the best version of D/T is on the audio bluray. (I know, because I own them all)
I can concur. The HD Tracks versions of SC, BC&SL, ADTOE, and DT12 are all superior and have been my only version of them on any device for years now. I never did keep up with the HD Tracks after DT12, so I'm not sure if there's one for The Astonishing (despite how little I listen to that album to begin with), but if the BD audio for DOT is better, I need to find a way to get a rip of that. I own the big deluxe box set but I don't have a BD player to rip it from. Hopefully there's a decent digital HD version of AVFTTOTW that I can get. I think I read earlier in this thread that the audio on the BD is better? Can someone confirm this?
-Marc.
In what ways can you explain how the Systematic Chaos HD version is better than the cd?
https://dr.loudness-war.info/album/list?artist=Dream+Theater&album=Systematic+ChaosLooking at the average DR levels for the original CD and the HD Tracks versions, the former sits at 6 while the latter is around 10. You can even see the difference in other albums, like
the self-titled one, where the HD Tracks versions has an average DR of 12 (compared to the CD's 6), which has the most improved DR over any of the albums that have been released through HD Tracks. Nearly all of DT's studio albums after FII have had poor DR, and their first two releases have the best DR of all of their albums on CD. Of course, most HD digital and vinyl formats have much better DR, but because of the loudness war, anything released by anyone but Steven Wilson tends to get brickwalled to hell and back, but unless you have an ear for dynamic range or own a very high-def stereo system to play music on, it might not matter to most listeners, especially if you stream or listen to music on less-than-professional audio equipment.
-Marc.