The Dead Weather new album 'Sea of Cowards'

I am anticipating the vinyl to arrive soon too : )

Just FYI from the last album their third single release 'I Cut Like A Buffalo' was mastered by Robert Ludwig. I think it sounds better than the LP. Seems to have more bass. I hope 'Sea Of Cowards' will be good on vinyl; certainly it'll sound better than the CD if only because of the clipping. Love 90 percent of these songs : )

 

This is a much better record than Horehound, but agree with the others that it is unlistenable at least via high-bit MP3. Amazon should be shipping my LP tonight for arrival tomorrow... I'm anxious to hear it.

 

I saw a picture of the insert that comes with the LP and it says that the vinyl was mastered by Meller.

 

Dude, it ain't the MP3 format. It's the way this thing was mastered.

If it was the MP3 format, surfingelectrode would be raving about the sound quality of the physical CD itself.

I can tell the mastering on this thing is lousy but it's not bothering me much...I think since I'm young and grew up listening to compressed/brickwalled stuff, I'm pretty tolerant of it...

That said, there's still absolutely no excuse for how this sounds.

 

I found a needledrop online. Jawbreaker:



Top is vinyl, bottom, is CD.

 

I feel the same way and I'm so confused because IT and COTL sound so good and even Elephants. Elephants even goes so far as to boast "Absolutely no computers were used in the recording, mixing and mastering of this album" I remember the Racs stating that the LP was the correct way to hear the proper master of their music. Why the depature?

 

Wouldn't this indicate that the vinyl is much better and may be a different mastering than the CD. I'm sure Vlado mastered the CD but maybe the LP got a proper mastering, maybe not.

 

I find it's best to discuss a musician or their product on a board not dedicated to them. This gives more opportunity for actual discussion and not feverent crazed fanboy behavior.

Over on the Little Room message board, someone posted an angry message complaining about how much clipping was on the CD of Sea of Cowards and he got a torrential outpour of people telling him to go screw himself because he's overly negative, Jack has given him so much and he's so ungrateful, shut up, etc. It blew me away how immature. One person even said his post was invalid because he wasn't talking about the songs or musicians but the CD itself. It made me glad I just lurk over there and save my posting for here. Sheesh. No technical conversation over their apparently.

A lot of it comes from the fact that Jack White apparently reads that board, saw somebody dog Dead Weather and the new album and replied angrily, so now everybody's falling all over themselves to say nice things in case Jack may be watching. Sad. The best thing you can do is just tell an artist how you feel about their material in a fair but critical way if you don't enjoy it. Just had to vent...

But I'm glad to see the waveforms on the vinyl for Sea of Cowards, I was starting to get afraid it was going to be a clipping mess! I do enjoy the album so far on mp3, despite its beeing too loud...

 

I hate that place anymore... it might as well be a teenybopper pop star forum at this point. The Third Man forum is the only part of the site that's tolerable and there's always good info on upcoming releases there. Otherwise, I stay far away from the DW and WS forums.

 

I'm losing respect for Jack White the more and more time goes on.

 

Get in line!

 

Well, that at least makes me optimistic that the vinyl will top the god-awful mastering on this CD. I'm listening to it right now, and while I LOVE the music, the sound is definitely crap. I understand that they're going for a really dirty / dark / heavy sound, but I don't think screwing the mastering is the best way to get there... I'm also someone that consistently throws on Icky Thump and Consolers of the Lonely LPs to demonstrate to people what well mastered modern rock can sound like on vinyl -- both completely kick-***; I just wish that the same care would be taken with The Dead Weather releases, because I'm also a big big fan of this new band. (Going to see them for my second time live in Chicago this summer - yay!)

Looking forward to reading more reports re: SoC vinyl sound quality!

 

Aw, I didn't mean to stir up anti-Jack sentiment! He's still one of my favorite musicians of the 21st century and I'm even a subscriber to the Vault service. He has a right to defend what he feels is good work, just as much as people do to diss it. He even had a sense of humor about one negative post and put it on the Vault saying something like, "apparently I'm losing it" or something to that effect, which to me can only be taken as light-hearted self-deprication. Not saying he's not a monumental grump, because anyone that's seen the tour doc can see that, but I think he's got a sense of humor too.

I've pretty much accepted that most of my musical heroes are not the nicest to fans and people in general: Maynard from Tool, Thom Yorke of Radiohead, the list goes on. Such is the difficulty of being a musical genius: lack of social skills.

 

Listening to the vinyl now and it sounds a little bit better. Everything still sounds just as muddy compressed, though. The loud parts on 'Die by the Drop' just mush together. This album really, really needs a remix.

 

"Muddy, compressed" -- this is pretty much what all Third Man vinyl sounds like to me. Music like this needs some air, it needs to breathe -- but it is so distant and congested, it becomes fatiguing.

Once again, a damn shame, because this album is full of such damn rockin' stuff. The (guitar/organ/keyboard/synth/machine gun/something) solo in "I'm Mad" is possibly one of the most brilliant and innovative works of instrumentation I have heard in a long time. The Dead Weather are one of the few bands (to me) who can put a new spin on the concept of the "instrumental solo" -- and in "I'm Mad", I think they hit violent musical perfection.

If only it was presented in a way that did aural respect to the material.

 

You've said it better than I could.

The vocals on 'Blue Blood Blues' are so shrill that they give me headaches. It's a good song but it just sounds awful.

I could probably do a better job of mixing and mastering this than they can and I have no education in audio.

 

This is so disappointing to read. I own Consolers and Icky and was really hoping this new one would be a killer slab of vinyl as well.

 

If you want another really good sounding Jack White album on vinyl, get the red and white 2LP version of Elephant! It's all analog and sounds pretty amazing.

Oh, and my other complaint with the Sea of Cowards LP is that it doesn't come in a heavyweight Stoughton jacket like all of Third Man's other releases have. It's a thin cardstock affair.

 

I wish I could find one of those copies of Elephant, but I'm assuming its only available for large sums of money on fleabay?

Also, can't believe they lowered the quality of the jacket, TMR is really dropping the ball here.

 

I'm only 1 click up on the volume control on my preamp and the CD is still fatiguing to listen to. This is probably the worst mastered album I've heard, probably worse than Californication

 

I got it for 30.00 at a local store along with an XL pressing of the first album and V2 pressings of De Stijl and White Blood Cells. It was nice to get an instant White Stripes collection .

 

Nice, so which label actually put out that pressing then? I see a couple different ones on the bay. I wan't to make sure I get the right one if I come across it. It looks like my local shop has one listed from Holland.

Thanks!

 

V2. It's special, because it's got this cover, with Meg's dress being black:

 

According to United, it wasn't hard to press grooves onto the labels of this LP. It's such a bizarre thing, though.

Oh, and for those with the CD, one of the two hidden tracks is hidden in the pregap before 'Blue Blood Blues'.

 

Sorry about triple-posting, but someone on another forum sent Vance Powell, who engineered and mixed the album, an e-mail. Here's what he got back:

"As for the mastering...
Well, I don't have a lot to say except that Vlado's work speaks for itself.

My mentor in my professional life (Lou Whitney)told me something once, he said "One man's OMG is another man's WTF" or basically you can't make everyone happy.

Technically speaking, the record never exceeds digital 0 dBfs. I have imported the entire record into a digital audio workstation, and in fact in the digital world it does not clip.

But the record is definitely limited (analog soft clip, which is, in effect, distortion..) but because there is so much energy (entropy) in the mix and it is at such a elevated level it distorts the analog section of your convertors. Right?
May I ask what are you listening on?
Thanks for your concern and your questions...
Vance"