ON THE AUDIO QUALITY OF DEATH MAGNETIC
Tuesday, September 16th, 2008 at 2:17pm by Vince Neilstein
Now things get really interesting. It turns out there is a second mix of the audio-quality atrocity that is Death Magnetic. MetalSucks reader Edward H. sent us a link to the Damn-Games blog who summed it up rather nicely, so rather than trying to paraphrase we’ll just repost. With a special added wrinkle at the end.
A short-short recap on how making albums work. In the recording studio, the artists will assemble and record their songs. Then the songs are mixed into a final mix. Finally, the album is sent to the mastering engineer for final mastering. There’s a lot more involved in making commercial albums, but that’s the quickie explanation.
The mastering engineer for the CD version of D-Mag was Ted Jensen of Sterling Sound. He wrote an email to a concerned fan, who then posted it to the Metallica forums:
“I’m certainly sympathetic to your reaction, I get to slam my head against that brick wall every day. In this case the mixes were already brick walled before they arrived at my place. Suffice it to say I would never be pushed to overdrive things as far as they are here. Believe me I’m not proud to be associated with this one, and we can only hope that some good will come from this in some form of backlash against volume above all else.”
Death Magnetic appears to have been ruined in the final mixing stage. It’s here that all the songs were heavily compressed, peak limited, and otherwise turned into static mush. That’s where all the problems lie.
That would normally be the end of the saga, aside from our grumbling of the latest casualty of the music industry’s insipid loudness wars. But suddenly a new wrinkle appeared from an unlikely source: the video game Guitar Hero.
Metallica made its new album available for play on Guitar Hero the same day as the commercial album’s release. Because of the game’s development time, Neversoft, GH’s creators, were given tapes that preceded the final mix. Put simply, they have a second mix of the album.
This is a stunning surprise, one that will in all likelihood save this album. The GH mix contains none of the heavy compression of the CD or LP versions. None of the squashing, none of the squeezing of the sounds. None of the painful jabs into your ears. Dynamic range is present in the songs. Quiet moments in songs like Unforgiven III and The Day That Never Comes are quiet, and the loud parts are loud. This is a completely different album than the version the mixing engineer destroyed.
The next question is rather obvious. When will somebody rip the GH mix so we can listen on our iPods? It’s really only a matter of time. We’ll have to troll through the internet for the fan mixes. Even better lies the possibility of fan-made mixes of D-Mag. This is possible because Neversoft
was given the separate tracks for their game. When you miss notes in the game, the guitar cuts out, but the rest of the band continues. This means Neversoft managed to create an album mix of their own, while also retaining the separate channels.I don’t know about you, but I would love to tinker around and create my own D-Mag mix. Even this idea isn’t a new one; Nine Inch Nails’ Trent Reznor recently made his latest raw tracks available to the fans, so they could create their own custom mixes. In our internet age, I wouldn’t be at all surprised to see more of this in the future. Games like Guitar Hero point to the future of pop music interacting with fans in new ways.
All of which points back to Metallica. In a perfect world, the band would deal directly with the terrible mixes on their new album. It really is terrible, and I remain speechless that such shoddy work would be released to the general public. If we are correct, that all the problems lie in that final mix, then this is a problem we can easily solve. I would prefer that Metallica themselves handle this. After all, it’s their album.
But if that doesn’t happen, we the fans are more than ready to step in. If that happens, expect “the Guitar Hero mix” to become the stuff of rock legend, like that original mono mix of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.
And now for the wrinkle; obviously, the GHIII version of Death Magnetic is now floating around the Internet [thanks: MS Reader "groverXIII"]. Check your favorite torrent site. In addition to the full album there is an alternate version of “Suicide & Redemption” included as well. We haven’t listened yet, but the consensus seems to be that the audio quality / loudness issue IS mostly better in the GHIII mixes. Which confirms what I said in my album review: Greg Fidelman royally fucked up on these mixes. Ted Jensen had the balls to respond… So, Greg, where art thou?
-VN
Hopefully this is better quality than most GH rips…cause really, the bitrate and just overall sound on most of those suck
My question is, Who the Fuck Cares?
It’s a shitty album anyway.
WOOT! Thanks for the mention, folks.
And yeah, the GHIII rip really does sound a lot better. Granted, at this point I’m listening to it on computer speakers, hardly the best sound system out there, but the difference is very noticeable just on these speakers.
ReplayGain-wise, the RG on the CD release was a -13.38 db, which is ridiculously loud. On the GHIII rip, it’s a -4.70 db, much better. It’s going to sound very quiet to those who don’t RG their music… but the difference is very noticeable. The alternate version of Suicide & Redemption is nothing special, but a nice addition nonetheless.
For those who enjoyed the album, but hated the sound… check it out. *COUGHPIRATEBAYCOUGH*
Nice. Thank you.
\m/ ^_^ \m/
Awesome. This album isn’t great, but at least it is listenable now. How can a band like them allow something this terrible mixed get out? Oh yeah…they also released the final mix of St. Anger. Thanks GHIII.
i’m going to take up for greg fidelman. i seriously doubt he was handed the pro tools sesions, was told to mix, and then was left to do with them whatever he wanted. to land a gig as prestigious as tracking/mixing a metallica record (whether they’re past their prime or not), usually means you know what you’re doing.
it’s more likely a case that he was pressured to compress and limit the mixes to make them as loud as possible by an outside source. i’m sure warner brothers, the band, rick rubin, metallica’s management, and everyone else involved had plenty of say in the mixing process.
i’ve mixed for bands before where they have literally asked me to make it as loud as humanly possible, despite my preference for mixes with dynamic range. and to be fair, it’s the band’s album so i try to appease them. “death magnetic” mix buss is incredibly slammed. you can even hear distortion at points, but i doubt fidelman wanted it to sound that way either.
ted jensen’s a high-caliber mastering engineer, but there are mastering guys out there who hard limit like this as well. i’ve had plenty of projects where i’ve had to ask the mastering engineer to back off the limiter because the test masters came back with distortion due to how hot they were making the mixes.
the compression and make-up gain levels on “death magnetic” are awful, but i think it’s unfair to place the blame on fidelman’s shoulders. i’m sure there are plenty of other people who had a say in making it sound that way.
Metallica was on tour in Europe and did leave Greg Fidelman and his assistant to take care of the mixes on their own. The band was apparently not present during mixing. James Hetfield has said so in an interview. The band also apparently approved the final masters over the phone during Ozzfest. Go figure.
My question is this: where was Andy Wallace? He’s mixed several “heavy” albums (see Wikipedia), including some that Rubin “produced”. The point being that surely there were several competent engineers/mixers available – why didn’t any of them get the call?
THe point is that it stands out as album… people are talking about it. Justice mix was different, but it stands out… Californicaton was mostly mono wasn’t it… it stands out as a classic album….. the fact is its was released like that – it is now its own beutiful beast.
Jim
An album standing out because of horrible sound – and yes, I mean horrible, try listening to this album with a good set of headphones and a headphone amp and you’ll find yourself looking for a screwdriver to stab your ears with – is not, in any way, a good thing. I’d rather see the album relegated to the dusty back corner of the music closet rather than have people talking about it in 20 years because of the horrible mixing.
The whole “loudness” thing is an issue that’s been debated for a while, and really every audiophile site I’ve been on in the past few years have been adamantly against it. It does absolutely nothing positive for the music, but when the majority of the population (as well as being pants-on-head fucking retarded) thinks distortion is a POSITIVE thing (speakers aren’t supposed to fucking THUMP when you play music, it’s called transparency, assholes) and that turning music up so loud your ears bleed (and that’s been a trend at metal concerts for a while now, too), I doubt we see any changes at the label/studio level. Loud, distorted shit sells better than more dynamic, better sounding, quieter music, and that’s the ultimate checkmate.
Sign the petition here to get Death Magnetic fixed. There are over 4600 signatures at this moment:
http://www.gopetition.com/petitions/re-mix-or-remaster-death-magnetic.html
I agree completly DemonicLemming, I just dont see the band re- mixing it because people find the sound not to their tastes. Its already released and for better or worse its already part of rock n roll folklore…. I couldn’t imagine someone asking Dali to make the clocks not so melted……
Listen to the mixes on the BLACK album which were done 20 years ago and tell me how ProTools has made records sound better. The editing portion is the strength of the format.
Even listening to earlier 80’s 90’s records from ACDC and Guns and Roses through monitors and headphones, those mixes are way better than this one, and alot of records today. I think when the “industry” developed the digital recording format they forgot mention that you need talented people to use it. If my little “bedroom” Pro Tools recordings and probably yours, sound better (though we can’t play or write as nearly as well as Metallica) than Death Magnetic then something is terribly wrong! Whether you like or respect Bob Rock, Mutt Lange, Barbosa and Thompson and many of the the 80’s 90’s producers and engineers they made sure their records sounded great regardless if the band hated the mixes. I think Slipknot’s new record sounds unbelievable and could only wonder what Metallica’s record would have sounded like if Dave Fortman produced it. Rick Rubin is a talented producer but I can’t say all of his records “sound” great, which I think he believes is his signature for keeping it “raw” or “real”…Sorry man some of want to be blown away especially if you want us to buy it!
This is the mix to have:
http://thepiratebay.org/torrent/4457458/Metallica_-_Death_Magnetic(The_Moderus_Remix)
made from the 3 stereo files in GHIII, 100X better than the retail CD
17000 have signed the petition to remix. Have you?
http://www.gopetition.com/petitions/re-mix-or-remaster-death-magnetic.html
What I want to know is, what is Metallica’s response? Cliff Burnstein, you can bite me you twat. I’m a fan and I respect the musical legacy of the band, and I can’t really see anyone with the musicality and experience of any of the band members giving the (CD) mix a good listen and actually enjoying how it sounds! Any audio engineering school would fail a mix that sounded like any track on the record if that much limiting was applied pre-mastering (or during mastering for that matter) and these guys (the engineers) were paid a lot of cash for their services. Are they really that scared to confess that someone f__ked it up?
I understand that a remix and re-release is not gonna happen but at the very least I think the group should apologise to those of us with ears to hear the OBVIOUS AND INEXCUSABLY RUINED product that WE PAID THEM FOR. It’s not like we’re gonna pull a class action on their asses for admitting something went wrong. I guess though as with all of the big questions (like the existence of extra terrestrials, who put holes on doughnuts, and why Lars can’t just talk a bit less), we’re never gonna know the real story!
As an aside, making the record that loud served no purpose cuz no (commercially orientated) radio station will ever play a 7 minute song anyway. For those who don’t realise, this loudness war that is being so consistently referred to only came about due to commercial pressures to be the loudest track in a radio playlist… Metallica never were or will be a “Radio” band and I can’t recall anyone at the parties I went to as a teenager whining that Fight Fire With Fire wasn’t loud enough or heavy enough! If you need volume, reach over and turn it up.
Finally, to any of the clowns trying to defend the band with rhetoric I’ve read such as “they just wanted it to sound old school”: SHUT UP! Old school was clean and had dynamic range! Check some of the videos on youtube about this record and you’ll soon get the point. The only distortion on Kill ‘em All is a JCM800 with an overdrive pedal pushing it (or Cliff’s thumping bass on Anaesthesia!!)
[...] have been many critiques of the new record, whether it be that some of the songs are too long or the audio quality of the mix is just terrible. Well, one fan must really hate Rick Rubin, or just have a lot of free time on his hands, as there [...]