Metallica’s co-manager, Cliff Burnstein is quoted as saying that fans find the sound on Death Magnetic exciting, and are really responding to it – Well if that is the case, one of our supporters here have made this litte video giving their past catalogue the ‘Exciting’ makeover so you can judge for yourself if this is ‘good’ for music.
If you agree that this new ‘exciting’ sound is ruining music, please sign the petition to re-mix and master Death Magnetic to sound like decent music and not an earful of crackle & distortion.
Original Youtube Page: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YUGSrzTNjZw
LOL!, Burnstein is a dinosaur, typical.
The loudness wars must come to an end, Death Magnetic is a awesome albums marred by typical destructive mastering. It’s the latest casulty of the war.
It’s time to send a message. Make sure to send in your retail CDs and/or a bunch of burned GH3 version CDs to Metallica HQ. Make sure to send it so it arrives on October 17th. Address for Metallica HQ is:
Metallica HQ
369-B Third Street
PMB #194
San Rafael, CA 94901-3581
Jesus H. When are yall gonna learn that NOTHING will be done. Deal with it and stop crying.
I’m an audiophile and I found nothing wrong with the sound at all, good album too. I actually like how cd’s sound these days. Go listen to some older cd’s from the 80’s and 90’s from the Cure or Dinosaur Jr (even old Metallica albums), the volume is TERRIBLE. They then were remastered (Dinosaur Jr at least) and they sounded 20 times better. Stop whinin’ and start rockin’
What I don’t get is why everyone wants this re-mixed? remixing isnt gonna make the songs any better, sound quality maybe but song quality no… this is the same tired drivel these money grubbing whore have dished out for years. Black album was the last good Metallica Album made. Not the best but the last “good” cd. Im tired of lars tired pompous attitude. Lars your not as good as you think you are. And Rick Ruben is NOT gods gift to production. hes just become a name like ferrell and Timberland. A name for a product for the sheep to buy. The Music Industry is KILLING music.
Instread of dumping a million more dollars in remixing this corporate shite, why not invest it in some smaller bands with heart! And lets start teaching kids just because a NAME produced it dosent make it. good. But who am i kidding, the vast majority of people that buy Metallica shit and other cooperate crap are the same idiots who let Bush in office 2 times. so i guess in the end , were gonna be stuck with Metallica and Mc Cain…. god have mecsy on our souls….
TAMJAM13, you call yourself an audiophile and still say the new albums sound better? LOL! So the volume of old CDs is terrible? Doesn’t your amp have a volume control?? Duh!
Like many people, I got rid of my entire Iron Maiden and Slayer collection when the remasters came out. Oh yeah, the remasters sound great…for 5 minutes. Then it becomes irritating. After a while I stopped listening to them altogether. I didn’t realize why until I read about the loudness issue.
Recently I found some 1st pressing Maiden and Slayers CDs. #$%#$! I couldn’t get enough of the naturalness of the sound. I kept going back to boost the volume. Now that’s quality recording and mixing.
You want to know how good Metallica should be sounding? Get a DCC remastered copy of Master of Puppets or Ride The Lightning. I paid $100 for them since they are long out of print…best money I ever spent on a Metallica CD.
you guys are overreacting.btw the songs in the new album are not that boosted as they sound in this video!!!
Absolutely hysterical!! highly exaggereated, but it makes the point very well. I don’t understand how an artist if they oversee the remastering can allow this? Do they not hear what has happened or are they stuck in how it used to sound & can’t percieve the damage that’s being done?
Nothing worse that what used to be powerhouse drumming now becoming a guy beating on some cardboard boxes. Don’t forget what used to be gut wrenching bass & power chords + those blistering leads has now become just an aural assualt of noise. Just like most of the newer metal bands…
I wonder if 1-800-LOUDNESS has TTY service for the deaf?
So where do I go to sign this petition? It ain’t the only thing that’s ruining music right now, but it’s a start.
— Gos
The Death Magnetic petition was a great start, but the average person sees the title and just assumes it’s a bunch of whiney fans who want the album changed. They don’t see the big picture. I have created a new petition to raise awareness. Please check it out and sign.
http://www.gopetition.com/online/22419.html
I cracked up at the LOAD part and your favorites off ST. ANGER!!!!
I’m a Metallica fan for 20 years and I don’t understand why do all those stupid little hobbits don’t like the sound quality on CD? There is nothing wrong with it and there is no friggin distortion either. I have ‘Death Magnetic’ cd and I’ve been listen to it all day and night because it’s so heavy and fast! I love the new sound and it’s clean and there is no ‘clipping’ and ‘distortion’ in there, so get the point straight ya ignorant fool! I love listen to music VERY LOUD and its my style! I can hear James’s voice, Rob’s bass, Kirk’s guitar, and Lar’s drums and his double bass! DUH!!!!! Guitar Hero 3 is no excuse because if you listen to it from video games, it’s still sound the same as the CD! DUH!!! So, Metallica owns and they will never give up! Down with the haters and die!!!!!!!
May the Metallica Be With You!
Matt. Apologies to be so blunt but you are an asshole! You’re obviously a Metallica fanboy so when you stop jerking off maybe you should get your hearing checked. Also, try and respect other opinions – you’re not right even if you think you are. Just accept that a lot of people, myself included, think it sounds like shit. And as it’s musically a great album that’s a shame.
Matt, most of us “love to listen to music VERY LOUD” too – that’s what we use our volume controls for! Over-compressing the tracks to the maximum peak level ON THE CD ITSELF, so that ALL the vocals & instruments are exactly the SAME volume ALL the time, does not make the track clearer – it makes it more distorted, as each vocal/instrument becomes less defined as the contrast between them is removed. It also screws up the natural dynamics of the perfomances, resulting in a monotonous “processed” sound, when what the engineers SHOULD be doing is making a record which captures the natural excitement and energy of the band. In order to do that, it’s necessary to preserve most of the original dynamics.
When even the engineer who mastered the album disowns the recording, and when Rolling Stone, the Wall Street Journal and the BBC all run features on the inferior sound quality, surely that should clue you into the fact that something IS wrong. Listen to the “Guitar Hero” comparisons on Youtube, and especially the BBC Radio 4 broadcast – the evidence is clear for anybody with ears.
This is sad, and for many reasons. 1-Metallica promised a better album, getting “back to their roots”, and in my opinion they delivered. To have this issue screw them YET AGAIN is a tragedy. But, 2-it IS an issue and I’ll tell you how I know. I have not yet purchased the last offering from MY personal #1 favorite band, RUSH, only for fear that it will be as overdriven as their last album, “Vapor Trails”. Even their classic rock tribute EP “Feedback” is rather loud. I didn’t know the recording industry was doing this on purpose, I thought I was just getting old. So I MP3′d the discs (for my own use of course) and used normalizing on the volume. Unfortunately, a good point brought up here is that everything in the recording is brought up to the maximum volume level. No wonder I find myself listening to my vinyl collection more often! To whoever came up with this stupid idea of compressing everything like this: don’t you think in these trying economic times you should be striving a little harder for quality? You may want to start listening to these people out here, since it IS a consumer’s market these days. Or are you already far too deaf…..
What’s the last song in this video? (The one that starts when “rush” and “aural sodomy edition” come up.) Seems like a nice tune, been trying to find out what it is but no luck.
PS: Just sampled some of the tracks on Death Magnetic, I’m shocked that it’s gone so far.
Re: What’s the last song in this video?
Rush – Tom Sawyer
Sounds like it was recorded on my first (£20) cassette recorder. Is this what music has come to!
Why not use technology to solve the problem rather than create one:
Why not give people a choice – 192kb/s compressed commercial version, 320kb/s uncompressed high quality version and a lossless high quality version. These could be marketed individually or as a single package and also sold as a (double sided?) CD.
Any business should maximise its market, not try to piss it off!!
HENDRIX I HAVE WHAT YOU AL ARE LOOKING FOR!!!!
LOUDNESS WAR IS NO MORE!!!!!!
http://WWW.SIRJOHNMARCUS.COM
As a mastering engineer, I will no longer fight the Loudness War.
It can definately go on without me.
It is self-serving, puerile and insane to think that compressing the crap out of a CD to the point where the texture, tone and shape of it is bleached out beyond listenability is a viable marketing strategy.
If this has precluded any chance of my getting into the big leagues of the industry, so be it – I am not going to be a party to mudering music.
Today the hifi quality on a cd is down to a phonecall. The masses want it, ullrich calls it exciting. Thats the funeral of the cd, every vinyl sounds better.
the dramatic improvements in clarity, depth and the emotional power that comes from variations in rhythm, timbre, pitch and loudness.
It’s here where you’re in total control while experiencing the dramatic improvements in clarity, depth and the emotional power that comes from variations in rhythm, timbre, pitch and loudness. http://www.sirjohnmarcus.com
The loudness war completey rapes an album’s production. Andy Wallace is my favorite mixer. He worked on such masterpieces such Slayer’s Seasons In the Abyss and Nirvana’s Nevermind. It pains me to hear his tastful mixing work on Slipknot’s Iowa album be destroyed by overcompression.