Pearl Jam - Backspacer: Another Release Ruined By The Loudness War!

I'm SO disappointed that Pearl Jam's *excellent* new record Backspacer, is ruined by being compressed to crap and hot to the point of clipping. It's as bad as Death Magnetic by Metallica, or Magic by The Boss. This is just getting ridiculous. Bob Ludwig mastered this so you'd think he'd know better, or at least convince the powers that be, to not make it so hot. Not sure it was a band decision either as Ed Vedder is a big Vinylhead and is into good sound.

Boo Hoo.

 

I'm sure that Bob Ludwig was in no position to argue about these things. He has to keep his job, and part of that is taking orders from others. It's either a scenario like that, or a Memory Almost Full type of situation where it came to Bob Ludwig already squashed and mutilated.

Frank R.

 

If I get a chance, I'll ask Ed about in when hes in Philadelphia next month. I'm also going to ask why The Super Deluxe edition of Ten didn't include a Hybrid SACD.

Cheers, Michael

 

Thanks Michael. I'm very interested in what Ed and the guys think of the mastering.

 

While far from being perfect, it's nowhere near as bad as DM..

 

The End was the bomb...

I just finished spinning the black circle of Backspacer, and although I was not overly impressed with the music--Vedder's ballads excepted, I heard nothing wrong with the vinyl, sounded good to me...

Yet another case for vinyl over Cds!!!!

 

The last album by them (self-titled) was a loudness war victim as well. It's really messed up when you think about it; the majority of stuff released to CD at this point has compromised (usually quite seriously compromised) dynamics thanks to this mastering trend. Imagine if all the art out there was being reissued with loud, obnoxious colors that were untrue to the original. Same damn thing going on here!

 

Can't see that it wouldn't be; the band may no longer be Flavour Of The Month but I assume that their opinions carry some weight with the suits, esp since IIRC this is released through their own major-distributed vanity imprint.

Could be just another or those weird situations where, like with the White Stripes, the band can put a lot of thought into the recording but just dosen't care that much about the final mass-produced product, or at least not about the digital version.

 

Damn iPods...

 

Wow, Backspacer is not even close to Metallica's Death Magnetic. Sounded pretty good to me on CD compared to other recent rock releases. And def. an improvement over PJ's '06 self-titled album.

 

+1

Also better then the ten remaster !

 

Can anyone print out one of those screen caps so I can print it out for illutration purposes?

FYI, my wife ordered the vinyl single but I haven't played it yet.

Cheers, Michael

 

interesting observation, because during my first listen I was thinking it sounded good and not overly maximized. The tonality and texture seemed natural, and I was thinking it redeemed the O'Brien/Ludwig team who were so thrashed for the last few Springsteen releases. Curious what others have to say, and what I hear on other systems and not my computer.

 

This CD sounds fine. Yet another thread for industry types to give the ol' to...

 

I guess I should say that I made my comment without having heard the disc, and taking the OP's word that it had been smashed.

 

I bought the Back Spacer vinyl last week and thought it sounded pretty good. Nowhere near as bad as Death Magnetic. Songs weren’t too bad either. I had to give it couple of listens but over all thought it was a decent effort by them.

 

The iPod was released in 2001. Albums were commonly being ruined at least as far back as 1995. Blame something else!

Tim

 

No, it doesn't sound fine. It's obviously had the life compressed out of it. Sure, not as bad as some of these wretched mastering jobs, but bad enough. No way in hell would I call it "fine". Unacceptable is more like it

 

Which was the first brickwalled CD

 

We should take this elsewhere, but to finish up, I don't know. I know that I've got some pretty loud ones from 95 (Phish - A Live One comes to mind. Compare with their newer official SBD recordings. Much better now!). Start a thread, I'm sure you'll get better answers!

Tim

 

Couldnt be more wrong. Sounds great in my room. DM or Magic? Come on....

 

it's not as bad as s/t, but it's still compressed quite a bit. The waveforms look like squares, but not a block or full square....a picture should help explain what I mean.

Supersonic:



Comatose (from s/t):



While it's a step in the right direction, there is still a lot of room for improvement. I'd like to see what the vinyl looks like.

 

Compared to some other recent releases, this is a godsend.

 

Cant you guys create one of these threads for every new modern release that comes out? Why does the OP act so surprised that this album wasn't mastered with the audiophile in mind?

And honestly, as others have pointed out, Backspacer isn't near as bad as some modern releases, and it's light years better sounding than the 2006 self titled release.

 

Sheesh, what standards. We should all accept this crap and be happy with it because it could have been worse?

A "godsend"?

Pathetic.