Anyone just appalled by Metallicas ignorance?

[Orion1806]

Been a fan of theirs for years, and their attitude towards this problem is shocking, Lars pretty much is like the little kid whos mother asks him to do something and wont do it, "la la la I'm not listening" *fingers in ears.*

[Superunknown]

i dont think its as black and white as that. i'm pretty sure it was in their contract that they CANNOT say anything bad but more than that i feel they're being a team. they formed a team to create DM years ago. all of them are members of this team including the band, producer and engineers. they suddenly can't just blame Rubin (or whoever) and walk away. Its like how you'd stick up for one of your team mates against hostile (or any kind of) opposition. he's protecting his own in a way.

[Jan]

i dont think its as black and white as that. i'm pretty sure it was in their contract that they CANNOT say anything bad but more than that i feel they're being a team. they formed a team to create DM years ago. all of them are members of this team including the band, producer and engineers. they suddenly can't just blame Rubin (or whoever) and walk away. Its like how you'd stick up for one of your team mates against hostile (or any kind of) opposition. he's protecting his own in a way.

Team spirit = good

But in some cases the whole team has to show some responsibility and say something. Usually in a sports team this is the coach. In this case it would be Rick Rubin, he was hired as the producer.

In every football (for americans: soccer) team the coach will have to answer to the fans and to the club in case of a desaster. I'm surprised that Rubin doesn't see this as a responsibility.

[Superunknown]

unfortunately Rubin is the one who thinks music sounds GREAT like this.

[Jan]

I read somewhere that Rubin admits not knowing anything about it and let a testing crowd decide which master they would choose – and that would be in his words the loudest masters.

And that is even worse. He doesn't seem to care for the sound. He cares for what sells. That's good for a business man, but not for someone who should create art. At the end it would have been the job of the record company to sell what Metallica delivers, not creating a master that someone only wants because it sells. Rubin wants to sell, nothing more.

I asked myself after reading those comments why Metallica hired him. Obviously, Metallica is one of the biggest names in music. Under the premise that even they think that it sounds terrible (I honestly cannot believe anyone could think otherwise): Why should they have to look at what sells? They don't need more money, and they didn't start making music because they wanted to be millionaires.

They had time, they could afford whatever highend equipment they wanted, they could have hired everyone they liked to make this record for them and they could have put out whatever they think is cool. And they were in the studio a long time with highend equipment and the supposedly best people for recording a good album.

Then why does it looks to me like Rubin did one of his marketing research sessions and picked the loudest thing he could get. Metallica doesn't need that. They could release a CD with Lars farting in his bassdrum, recorded with a shitty tape recorder and a $5 mic – it would still go platinum. And regarding the sales: the Black Album has got a really good, heavy production with no sonic problems I know of – and the selling was amazing.

But maybe I'm asking too much of

a) people who fucked their hearing in over 20 years of Metal.

or

b) people who have too much money and it still isn't enough.

or

c) people who don't care, because it's the mighty Rubin and he must be right.

Either way, it is sad.

[overcompressionsucks]

I think the best we can do is to get a large majority of the record buying public educated on good mastering and dynamics
once we do that they'll be a demand for more dynamic recordings. The problem is that the average music listener has been subjected to loud brickwall mastering for so long that they think that this is how records should sound

one way we can work to enlighten the public is to put a dynamic recording side-by-side with a brickwalled master.
an example of this is to take the original 1990 cd release of The Long Run by the Eagles at put side by side with the album's brickwalled 1999 remaster. lowered the volume of the 1999 version to match the 1990 release and have people take a listening test. the punchier, lively 1990 release with its waveform peaks intact, should triumph over the flatter more compressed 1999 remaster.
just a suggestion

[soulburner]

The sad thing is, the average or casual listener doesn't care and do not wish to be educated. Most people don't hear the difference between a dynamic original and a flat remaster. The good thing is, though, that when they hear a DR10+ record, they do not complain it's too soft - I guess most people are like that, so if the record companies would stop the overcompression trend... it would only be good.

[drzoidberg1987]

We live in an era where the value of music is at an all-time low. Where many can be seen with their iPod headphones sticking in their ears 24/7, going in one ear, and out the other. The music market has followed this. Music is more available than ever before, and since it's all about sales anymore, that is what the music (and the production) caters to. Most people don't care if a song has dynamics - most people think that if it's louder, it's better. There are people who are aware of this - some who work to maintain this, and some who work to change it. Steven Wilson is a great example of someone who maintains the quality of his releases, despite his distaste for this cheapening of music. Others (often in the big record labels) focus on quantity over quality. The big labels (and the recording business model) are dying off, and they aren't going out without some casualties.