Metallica - Death Magnetic - new album discussion

A friend of mine who works for Blender gave me a copy of it from his office. Yee gods it's a brick wall. And the drums really get lost in the mix. Good music too, which stinks.

So the vinyl is better? Is it the same issue as here though: made from the same master, but since it's quiet and has the oh so nice vinyl warmth, it's easier to swallow?

-HM

 

In my world, Digipak = crap. So my choice was the jewel case version. Hence Jensen's name in the credits.

[And this is my 2,000th post! Look out Grant! ]

 

I'm not impressed with the vinyl so far. Haven't heard the CD, but I don't think you'd be missing much by getting that and for much less money too.

 

Looks like the vinyl was cut from the same master as the cd, and the master was already peak limited. So, it appears the only way to get a good version of this album is to wait for a re-mix.

 

I speaking of the REM Accelerate volume. As I said in earlier posts, I have the 2 disc Death Magnetic vinyl, and while I feel it's warmer and easier to listen to than the CD, the distortion/haze of the CD is still there. It's just less noticeable.

-HM

 

And how long would you wait for one of those? 20 years? I'm afraid this is the only game in town, folks.

For the sake of comparison, how does the compression on D-Mag compare to previous Metallica albums?

 

Dave... listen to Kill 'em All, Ride the Lightning or Master of Puppets . If I give the highest rating to these albums, I must give the lowest rating to DM.

Maybe it's a good record for a new band.... but Metallica have set a very high standard with their classics.

DM has the same formula.... like St. Anger! I can't hear much differences.

Well.... just my opinion about one of the best Metal band (at their peak).

 

Hey, can you go on a little fishing expedition for us, and look at the zoomed-in waveform plots of the vinyl and see if you can spot "sloped" clipping (clipping with some amount of phase distortion, so that it's at an angle rather than flat)? And post a screenie with a timestamp of where you found it on the record?

It would be awesome if we could show that the clipping is the same between the vinyl and the CD.

 

Well I think it's better than St. Anger, but that could be because Lars no longer sounds like he beating on a oil drum.

 

I will do that but I'm making a needledrop as I listen. On side 3 now. Beginning of side 3 has less pops and clicks than side 1 and 2. On my copy anyway.

 

So just a quieter version of the cd really. Maybe I'll cancel the LP. I'll wait and see how this thread progresses, but maybe I'll use the $12 I'll save to buy new Slipknot.

 

I fixed the Cd as best I could. Got rid of the clipping and quieted it down and UNcompressed it. It worked quite well! I can crank it now without blood coming out of my ears. I can also actually hear the different tones in the bass now too!!! Thank you Wavelab!!!

Frank R.

 

Do you mind posting what you did?

 

From what people have posted in this thread, the 2-LP set was mastered/cut by Kevin Gray. Kevin Gray signs the DW as (KG@ATM) Now, since MOFI's supposedly doing the 45RPM version, they will have their own in house mastering/cutting person for those. I can't imagine them beating Kevin Gray's version... The 2LP will probably be the best version to own.

 

I'm sure Kevin did an excellent job, but what was he given to work with?

 

Yes, it's hard to make out, but it does have KG@ATM on all the sides.

 

That's being a little presumptive, seeing as the masters may wind up being the same.

That said, on the finer merits, the 45rpm version will certainly have a small edge on dynamic range and tracking distortion, simply due to the higher rotational speed, but I'm sure that the small variations in laquer and vinyl variations that are a fact of life nowadays may play a big role. KG/RTI's master might be superior just because he got luckier with his materials. Or vice versa.

I suppose one of us could just email KG and ask him in what condition the mix was when he received it?

 

IMO, the new Slipknot is a weak album overall and is probably even worse mastered than D-Mag.

 

Sure, they're all prob mastering off the same crappy mixes they've been given. There's been complaints about the bass regarding the 1/2 speed 45RPM Metallica remasters that MOFI's done recently and I would bet this new release will suffer the same fate. Kevin Gray is a world class mastering/cutting engineer and I put my money on him. Look at what Kevin did with McCartney's Memory Almost Full. His version beats the UK version by a country mile. I don't think Metallica really benefits from the 45RPM added fidelity like mellower music like say Jazz or Vocal does...

 

I can show a picture... Don't know how to post sound clips. If someone wants to explain, I will gladly do that. Here's a picture of my "fix" of My Apocalypse.

Frank R.

 

Vinyl 2LP Whole album:

http://img386.imageshack.us/my.php?image=83673532cv7.jpg

Zoom of track 1:

http://img90.imageshack.us/my.php?image=82686979qp5.jpg

 

Keep fishing I'm looking for stuff like this:

http://www.devir.de/temp/slayer-ci-closeup-vinyl.png

 

I can't imagine Death Magnetic sounds worse (hyper-compressed) than Christ Illusion, but something always comes along to surprise me.

Blabbermouth posters' new hip derisive name: Deaf Magnetic. When even Blabbers complain about the hyper-compression, that says something.

 

I agree with ya Spirit... Christ Illusion is bad - once again - Rubin Construction built that too... Bad phase distortion, you can ski them slopes.

But 'normal' guys at work and my 13 year old nephew is wondering what the heck is wrong with their stereos / cd. I have to explain whats happening here, it does say something.

 

That sounds really great. How did you do this? Could you post a short tutorial for the rest of us? I'll be making a digital backup of my vinyl lp for whenever I get that iPod, so I'd appreciate any tricks you can share.

I really do hope the music business turns away from these loudness wars. It must be obvious to everyone at this point that something is terribly wrong. Right? Is this because all the music stars are old people now?