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Metallica's new album


sean5340

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Yesterday I bought "Death Magnetic". After the first listen I was pleased. After the second listen I was thrilled. I didn't know what to expect when I purchased it but liked it right away.

It's heavy.

It's loud.

It's good.

Anybody else have an opinion on this?

Sean

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Interesting topic for this forum, the music is much better than their previous releases but the sound quality is the worst I have ever heard. The album has actually received a lot of negative press due to the extreme dynamic range suppression and subsequent clipping. It is the loudest, most distorted CD I have ever heard. I like the content but only listen to it in the car and in short doses.
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"Interesting topic for this forum, the music is much better than their previous releases but the sound quality is the worst I have ever heard"

Quoted for truth. If this is the best the industry can do with one of the biggest bands out there, then you are pretty much FINISHED. Message to Metallica and the people in charge of bringing this new release forward: It's not worth paying for, and you should give all purchasers refunds. Also, all wages earned by studio producers should be refunded, because you earned those wages in fraudulent fashion.

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If this is the best the industry can do with one of the biggest bands out there, then you are pretty much FINISHED. Message to Metallica and the people in charge of bringing this new release forward: It's not worth paying for, and you should give all purchasers refunds. Also, all wages earned by studio producers should be refunded, because you earned those wages in fraudulent fashion.

You do not buy an album from The Stooges for the sound quality. You do not buy an album from Sebadoh for the sound quality. You don't buy a Clash album for the sound quality. And so forth.

Yet if you don't, you will miss on something.

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Firstly, the Guitar Hero 3 version (available from any good torrent tracker) is the exact same Metallica album without the "drastic" final mastering and is a much better listen.

Secondly, although I agree we don't buy albums solely for the technical quality (at least on this forum thank goodness) I have to agree with AN, couldn't we do better? Having recently bought 2 Coldplay albums on 180G vinyl to find out that they sound as flat, lifeless & compressed as the FM radio version I feel somewhat cheated too.

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I borrowed my brothers "DM" cd and played it on my system and must agree that the production values are so bad that I can't take it.......I'm still on the fence if I'm going to by the 180 gm vinyl........I know it won't be great on my main system....but thats where Groomslake came to the rescue!!!

He hot-rodded a pair of my heresy I's into 2.5's and I run a vintage Sansui 6L6GC amp with nos mullards and it is a great RAW solid rock set-up.....It has saved my listening enjoyment of all that older and newer, poorly recorded material that sounds like garbage through the main system.....

I suppose sometimes you need a scalpel and other times a cleaver!!!!

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Well I finally got a chance to listen to Death Magnetic on the home stereo. Huge difference from my truck. I do here distortion and a kind of flat sound. It's hard to describe but it is not very good. I do not understand the compression thing and I don't know why it sounds good in the vehicle but not at home. Can anyone put it in laymans terms?

Thanks

Sean

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I don't know why it sounds good in the vehicle but not at home.

Therein lies the problem. Mastering for an Ipod or truck.

Google "music compression wars" and you will get lots of info.

I have a freind who is a talented musician and his recording stink. He compresses them so much and makes them so loud. He says, "Yea but they sound so good when recorded hot, at least at first." I don't know, I like to listen to a whole album, not the first 30 seconds of each song.

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I do not understand the compression thing and I don't know why it sounds good in the vehicle but not at home. Can anyone put it in laymans terms?

Music on-the-go is usually played under high ambient noise conditions. Compression makes the loud sounds and the quiet sounds nearly the same level by "turning down" the loud sounds and "turning up" the quiet ones. This makes the music sound louder overall, thus punching through the noise. Radio and TV stations routinely compress their audio in this manner for that reason.

A quiet room in a home should be around 40 dB SPL.

A quiet car going down the road will be 65 - 75 dB SPL.

You will need the quiet passages at or above these levels in order for them to be intelligible.

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