Critiquing Music Quality: "Pump Up The Volume" Rants...Rants*
Remember two and a half months ago, when I talked about how music labels are increasingly insisting that recording engineers run artists’ tracks through drastic dynamic range compression algorithms such that the average loudness level of the track can subsequently be boosted without causing undue clipping? Thanks to Gizmodo and Slashdot (via Wired), I’ve got a prime example of the disappointing trend to share with you, along with an ironic workaround. Take a look at the screenshot below:
The two-channel waveform at the bottom is from the CD version of Metallica’s new Death Magnet release and comes from mastering engineer Ian Shepard. Here’s another view of Metallica’s CD-sourced material, from one of Ian’s previous posts:
Now compare these compressed clips with the two-channel set at the top of the first image. It comes from the exact same song, albeit the version on the Guitar Hero videogame soundtrack. This YouTube clip provides another comparative perspective:
That YouTube is sufficient to show the difference is particularly ironic given that, as Slashdot and Wired recently noted, YouTube also recently added quality-mangling dynamic range compression to the algorithms it runs submitted video clips through before publishing them on the site.
Metallica fans are justifiably enraged, although it’s not clear what (if any) role the band itself had in the ’squashing’ decision for the CD release. Cynically speaking, I guess this situation provides a revenue-boosting opportunity for an ‘audiophile’ re-release down the road. But given the ill will that the band has already cultivated with its fans via its (equally justifiable, IMHO) past vigorous criticism of copyright-infringing content sharing, further fanning the flames may not be advisable at this stage in the game.
Personally, I think Metallica hit its creative high point 20 years ago with the release of One and has been on a slow but steady decline ever since. Then again, though, I’m looking forward to the new Guns N’Roses release…
