New RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS "Stadium Arcadium" 4 LP WB set mastered by Hoffman/Gray

Great news. We need more current releases like this.

 

If Rick Rubin is reading this thread, I just want to say thanks for picking Steve. Next time, could you have him do the cd also. And if you could convince Neil Diamond to let Steve remaster the bang masters, that would be good too.

 

Is the CD compressed or did they control themselves this time? IIRC Vlado Meller did the last one and took some criticism for the results. If this new disc is compressed then I'll settle for a needle drop of Steve and Gary's LP.

 

No kidding! You can't even turn around without seeing the name Rick Rubin these days. The man gets around more than Paris Hilton at a brothel

 

Very cool, I've heard a copy of this album and it's the best of their career. "Wet Sand" may be my favorite Chili Peppers song.

Look forward to getting the vinyl release!

 

I second the motion on Steve doing the CD also. I could actually have something to get my son to understand how "DAD" hears good music versions over bad ones. Because he really likes the Chili Peppers and there would be a cool common ground for me to explain to him how much of his CD collection of groups and artists he likes are totally NR'd and compressed to the forever loving MAX. OH WELL, it would've been great.

I also think what an awesome idea it would be to have a collection of well remastered Neil Diamond stuff from his BANG record masteres!! Great idea!!

 

Pardon me for asking, but does the above statement mean that the whole album was recorded/mixed/mastered on analog multitrack equipment (with tape hiss etc, ...) or is the analog tape 'just' a down-the-line copy of a digital tape (or hard disk, or something else)?

 

This is fantastic news! It sounds like the RHCP's really do care about fidelity. Hopefully, this is a trend that many other respected and coveted bands will follow!

 

Wow! What a pleasant surprise. Have to definitely get this on vinyl instead of CD then. Warner seems to be seriously back in vinyl business. First new Fagen, now this.

 

Great Googly Moogly! Another one to pick up. Great to see that Steve and the guys at AcousTech are busy.

 

I hope this sells so well that Warner (and the band) go back and reissue new vinyl versions of By The Way, and especially Californication.

I meanwhile now need to buy a new record player!

Are there any online stores doing pre-orders for the 180 gram version?

Vlado Meller, he has done the last three RHCP albums.

Unlike the previous album By The Way, apparently Stadium Arcadium was an all analog recording affair. I think it was done this way at the insistence of the guitarist John Frusciante.

 

Actually, By The Way wasn't compressed as badly as Californication.. I think they realized that they went way over the top on that one.

 

It still has problems, there's a lot of clipping towards the end of Midnight, to my ears anyway. I haven't looked at a waveform though.

 

This is brilliant and has made my day! I opened the track By The Way in an audio editing program and was quite surprised. It looked more like the unmastered Californication than the mastered one.

 

Wow, a major label leading the way!? Never thought Id see this day! Way to go WB. Damn I didntthink anyone was doing all analog these days, all the way to vinyl, at Acoustech no less, I cant say enough about this!

 

I think Rick Rubin is probably behind it, he realises that for a huge band like RHCP the CDs need to be mastered for the equipment, and environments where they are played. I completely understand this, but it disappoints me, especially considering I think BSSM is a great sounding CD.

However, Rubin himself is an audiophile, and a big fan of SACD. There is an interview with him here where he discusses these issues, he even mentions about wanting to support SACD on his popular releases, but apparently the cost of doing so is prohibitive.

 

Yes, thanks, greetings and congratulations!

 

WB seems to be heading in the right direction:
- the last Neil Young album releases have all had HiRez versions
- the same goes for the latest Donald Fagen (+ vinyl done by Hoffman/Gray)
- and now RHCP is coming out on vinyl by Hoffman/Gray (how 'bout HiRez for this too?)

We need more releases in HiRez and vinyl (and if mastered by Hoffman/Gray all the better)!

 

I'm currently listenin' to cd and surely will get the Steve and Kevin mastered black gold version of it.

 

I agree, there's still too much compression, but it is an improvement.

 

Aren't Warner behind DVD-Audio? How many DVD audio discs would a 2 hour double album require?

I'm just hoping this is the start of some audiophile releases of Californication and By The Way. Even non-audiophile fans of RHCP are hearing clipping related glitches (may require registration) on the CD single of Dani California.

 

Great news! I hope they tap Steve and Kevin for the new Paul Simon rekkid.

 

What is your source for this information? So Stadium Arcadium was recorded on an analog multi-track tape machine, mixed through an analog console and mixed onto analog 1/2" tape @ 30 ips? So the vinyl LPs will indeed be 100% analog, yes?

 

Steve said it is ALL ANALOG in his thread starting post!

 

Apparently By The Way was tape for the main drums, guitar, bass tracks. But after that the vocals were done in ProTools. I'm sorry I can't direct you to a specific article, but I read this around the time By The Way was released.

Between albums, the guitarist John Frusciante recorded several albums for a Warner subsiduary called The Record Collection. For these albums Frusciante adopted a pure analog recording and mixing method, that he feels is superior to the more modern ProTools recording approach. I believe it was at his insistence that the same method was adopted for the recording of Stadium Arcadium, which really just meant reverting to the recording method used for Californication and before.