Quality of recordings

Red hot chili peppers californication sounds very very bad. Tinny, compressed etc.

Shame as blood sugar, and one hot minute are great sounding albums.

Steve O.

I've not got the Rush album, but I have the DVD and agree with you about the sound, the visuals are a good compensation on the DVD though

The are plenty of compressed recordings, Califorication (and By the Way) are both full of Mastering distortion. Also many modern recordings have the bass so overpowering as to be bearly listenable.

I've got several historical recordings (Woody Guthrie -- Dust Bowl Tapes etc) that understandably are pretty ropey.

I have Coldplay's 'Rush Of Blood' and love the music, but never play it because it sounds shite.

Some jerk(s) thought it was hip/fashionable to make it sound compressed, murky and Lo-Fi on purpose.

I've heard Buddy Holly stuff (on CD) recorded in the late fifties, that pisses on it.

Outrageous!

John.

I detest the Bowie 99 remasters, particularily Ziggy. so bright it chipped one of my teeth.

I find it so annoying that you can splash out on expensive kit and at the end of the day the shiny silver (or black plastic) disc can have the biggest impact on the sounds you hear.
regards,
Steve O.

I bought the Rio DVD. Brilliant concert but absoultly awful sound. Very disappointing - I'm still waiting for a definitive Rush concert on DVD - maybe their last tour will make it out. On the strength (or weakness) of the Rio DVD I didn't bother buying the CD. I'm not surprised about the sound - a missed opportunity.

Cheers

Harry

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Originally posted by Steve O:
I find it so annoying that you can splash out on expensive kit and at the end of the day the shiny silver (or black plastic) disc can have the biggest impact on the sounds you hear.
regards,
Steve O.

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Yeah. tell me about it! But it serves us right because we're all criminals ripping off the record companies.......

I sat down with a friend of mine during the summer to listen to the remaster of Yes's Close To The Edge. It was appalling!! We put on my old copy from about the first transfer, probably late 80's, scratched up case the lot, and it sounded great.
What were they playing at?
I also did my usual trick of buying a CD on ebay that I already had, so eneded up with an Italian copy & a UK copy of a Lenny Kravitz CD. We compared them carefully, and the UK copy was miles better (which surprised me). I can't think why there should be differences.

i recently bought californication and by the way, both sound absolutly amazing but there again thats on Vinyl
Phil

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Originally posted by HTK:

Yeah. tell me about it! But it serves us right because we're all criminals ripping off the record companies.......

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Maybe they deserve to be ripped off, if all they want to give us are crap recordings like these. May as well get a £4 bootleg at the local market.
Steve O.

"Red hot chili peppers californication sounds very very bad. Tinny, compressed etc."

I've got Californication on USA vinyl and it sounds excellent.

so the moral of the story is .. buy Vinyl

on the opposite end of the scale I have just bought Lenny Kravitz gts hits on 180 Vinyl (simply vinyl) and its the best recording I have heard. Just goes to show they can do it when they want to.
I paid only 12.99 from Hmv for it then went back to the hmv web site and they have changed the price to a whopping £25.99 !!! this is not the first time and they keep saying its going to be on 24hr delivery then you place the order and they change it to "on special order" what the hell are they up to ?
Phil

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Originally posted by HTK:
I bought the Rio DVD. Brilliant concert but absoultly awful sound. Very disappointing - I'm still waiting for a definitive Rush concert on DVD - maybe their last tour will make it out.

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Having left the SECC concert just after half time because the sound was so shocking, I wouldn't be too optimistic :-( (Neil and (especially) Alex were coming over very well, but Geddy's bass was rendered pointless by the soundman thinking more was better, and turning up the quantity so much that no quality was left and that killed the music, despite the evidence on the screens that his hands were playing a blinder. Bah!)

"What's The Story" deserves an award for truly horrible recording and production...

Pete.

Wembley was the same for the Rush concert. I hope they can get a good sound off the desk if they do another live DVD/CD.Geddy is so important to my experience of Rush and as Pete said the bass was so loud as to be just a "lump" of noise.

Howard

fled,
unfortunately vinyl can also suffer from poor recording/mastering. A bad job in the studio cannot be redeemed by a turntable, no matter how good. If you don't have any vinyl in your collection that makes you wince you're a lucky man. Some Supertramp LP's sound like the blueprint for digital hash. And did you ever buy the cheap bargain bin cut-outs? Some of those are trashy European pressings that sound as bad as any CD I've heard.
Regards,
Steve O.

yes I have had some bad vinyl as well but its rare not like the 90% CD's I seem to get. just listened to living colour on CD or should I say just listened to the first 15 mins and blood came from my ears so that was enough. God why oh why do these producers/sound engineers get jobs !!!
Phil

fled,
I believe the problem lies in the loss of dynamics (as mentioned in another current thread) due to the way albums are mastered now.
I also find I generally enjoy new purchases on vinyl less than my older recordings.
I'd love to know what kit they use in the studio to monitor the recording. How they can sit back and listen to it thinking that it's a job well done is beyond my comprehension.
Regards,
Steve O.

Rasher

Close to the Edge - Get the Japanese mini lp HDCD version - stunning. Available at 101cd.com. Go into music and click on the Japanese flag. Expensive and you may have to wait for delivery but worth it

Obviously I bought it for my girlfriend, but Will Young's 'Friday's Child' is one of the only recent pop recordings I've heard on CD that actually sound good. Almost Audiophile good actually. Well, actually I reckon you should give it a chance as the music's good too. All real instruments and a good mix of pop, blues, jazz.

Worst recent pop recording: Girls Aloud. I do not own this! Girlfriend's sister's, but it is one of the most compressed and rough sounding pieces of sh*t I've ever heard.

IMO both CD and Vinyl can sound great and awful. I prefer vinyl though overall. Keane 'Hopes and Fears' on Simply sounds pretty good.

The thread in the hifi room on the 'death of dynamics' was very interesting.

matt

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Originally posted by Sloop John B:
I detest the Bowie 99 remasters, particularily Ziggy. so bright it chipped one of my teeth.

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Sod bright - try FLAT. The Hunky Dory copy I had was so bad, I gave up and went back to my 8track cartridge. And no, I'm NOT joking. It sounds excellent on a 1972 Akai CR81D. I also scored a green lable RCA vinyl copy for £4 that's EXCELLENT.

Finally, curiosity got the better of me, and I located a 1983 RCA original CD. It leaves the EMI 1999 remaster for dead - and that shocked the hell out of me! Still not as good as the vinyl though.