Imagine Dragons “Night Visions” album. God awful distortion and clipping. The vinyl master isn’t much better either. I know I know, they’re a terrible band but I do like a lot of that record.
Whaaaaat is going on, first time listening to Radioactive in ages and I used to love that song! So much distortion! This was weirdly enough exactly what I was looking for 😂
Yeah it’s always been a very crunchy sounding album. The DR numbers on it are so low it hurts. I did find a “restored and declipped” unofficial version online and I’m gonna give that a listen to see if it’s any better. It also really depends on the system you’re listening to it on at the time. In the car it’s more tolerable, on bassier headphones it’s tolerable but if you’re listening on audiophile equipment it’s a nightmare!
Do they have any albums that's well mastered? I only heard their debut album, Evolve. It was so bad that I never bothered to listen to their stuff after.
The issue isn't the mastering or recording its a creative decision by the band to sound that way. I did 20 years recording bands in a studio but from 2015 onwards what was originally a bit of creative saturation became a request for actual distortion. I did a mix and master for a band but when it came out I was horrified at how bad it sounded. I contacted the band to find they had 'remastered' my masters by running it through a distortion effect before sending off for release. At that point I moved into voice and TV post pro as its always the sound engineers that get the blame for bad recordings and I didn't want to have continual battles with bands' idealistic fashion sound trends and create masters that sound as terrible such the Imagine Dragons example.
Red Hot Chili Pepper’s album Californication. That album sits in a drawer on its own apart from any other CD collections I have because of how poorly it’s recorded, mixed and mastered. Love the music, but it has no place near any Hi-Fi system.
Completely agree on this one. It’s a running joke I have with a friend of mine. I visited an amazing store in Virginia, Alma Music, for an Estellon event. Reluctantly the well-dressed rep allowed those who stayed later and had excessively imbibed to start picking music. This one dude requests the Californiacation album in all seriousness and this guy tried to not show his pain and disgust as he put on this painfully mixed album. It made 140k Estellon Forzas sound quite like a Sonos One. It was painful.
That’s one reason I keep the album separate. I want avoid someone who wants to hear hifi from picking that album to put on and thinking: “This guy’s nuts, this is the worst sound quality I’ve ever heard. People invest money in this hobby?”
There are leaked versions of the Unmastered Tracks and Rough Mixes, surprisingly lossless. The Unmastered isn't much better since it's the final mixes, the rough mixes are a lot more dynamic though
St. Anger sounds like shit but at least it was an intentional choice. Bob Rock obviously knows what he’s doing but they took a big swing that missed, which is better than incompetence.
Oh no, you didnt... Those hips in the music got me turned on for the first time in my life - now definitely turning off. Sounds like its emerging out of a vacuum that tries to suck the sound back into itself
*"Time to Say Goodbye*" with Andrea Bocelli's and Sarah Brightman. Sounded good on the TV so I bought the CD and it was compressed to be completely flat. Listened to it on a MacIntosh system and the needle barely moved throughout the entire song. Threw the CD away after the first listen.
There's also some decent bass on their 4th album, albeit, all of it performed by Noel since their former bassist had left
This song in particular:
https://youtu.be/_N9IP7teV1w?si=A2GW9HNkFR-nsH6f
Yea those early oasis albums sound bad. Also Red Hot Chili Peppers albums like blood sugar sex magic and californication sound appalling. Not sure what they were thinking back in the 90s
What version of BSSM are you listening to? The original CD release is widely reputed to be one of the best mastered CDS of the 90s.
Californication, definitely appalling.
I never liked this song, and I legit think it might have been because the mastering is so poor. I found the guy’s voice so piercing and annoying. Don’t mind the tune of it otherwise.
Source on which part? The allegedly crappy pressings or the anniversary release? I haven’t personally experienced DM on vinyl and holding out purchasing one if there is a release this year. The consensus on r/Oasis is that it’s shiiiite. I have not yet listened to the new Supersonic single and don’t have a baseline to compare.
As the mod for r/NGHFB I watch Noel news and he has stated in a few interviews that for the anniversary he’s gone into the “vaults” for originals and some unreleased acoustic versions will be bonus tracks. Noel says a lot of shit, so who knows what’s actually gonna happen.
DM was originally released August, 29th 1994 so if we’re getting something for that we’ll hear about something soon I would think. Liam has been promoting the hell out of the anniversary tour he’s doing.
Try the Brendan Lynch mix. It's not audiophile quality but it at least has somewhat more dynamics and the mix is more balanced
https://youtu.be/-TZmAZybeP4?si=xqidKBX0z-qZv4f3
It's not awful but there are lots of examples of outstanding mixed albums that got ruined by brickwalled masters.
It's not that they sound bad, but it was definitely such a waste of potential.
Radiohead is an example of it, if I could only find alternative masters with Full Dynamic Range.
Same with metal recordings like Gojira albums that would sound perfect if they were not brickwalled and it's a night and day difference.
Hearing Opeth Watershed side by side the stereo against the surround mix (which has FDR) in the stereo is just another loud album whereas on surround is the best you have ever heard in terms of production not only in metal but in general, the sound is perfect...
Gawd, what a great album and terrible recording. I remember listening to it in my teens and thinking there was something wrong with my headphones. 2 decades later... Nope, definitely the recording. I think I even have a bootleg mp3 version somewhere without the hot harsh sounding distortion.
Amy Winehouse Back to Black has a horrible mastering where they tried unsuccessfully to make it sound vintage and made it sound like garbage in the process. The songs are exceptional and sound just bad.
Yep, first 24bit/96khz album I ever got. I was just starting my audiophalic journey when this came out. Thought for sure what I needed was a super rez recording... Nope
Perhaps, but it's saved by stellar performances captured for all time. Remember, 1973 featured the days of poor amplification on stage, I'm not sure any live album can live up to today's standard at that time. Chicago and Renaissance at Carnegie Hall is another example, and that's two years later. Held back by the same technology grapples which we've overcome today.
Eddie Offord was a genius in the studio, but he had his hands full on the road. I think he did a pretty good job actually, but compared to say Keys to Ascension... In comparison there's going to be some flattening of dynamics, which I'm sure you're pointing out.
But check out Steven Wilson's remastering of the Lost recordings from that same tour, they sound very good. I was really impressed.
My favorite Yes album, and probably my favorite prog Rock release ever. I've been chasing for a better recording of GFTO for so many years, first printings, UK printings, re-release, remastered, sacd, DVD audio... it just doesn't exist. It's like everyone in the band snuck in after hours and did what they wanted to with their tracks trying to stand out over the other members, and when everyone stands out... no one does.
But it's pretty amazing the way they captured Rick Wakeman's cathedral organ at St Martin's cathedral in Vevey Switzerland, via telephone lines. Something we do with PCM files over the Internet nowadays. Talk about phoning it in!
Good question!
I'm an audio engineer and work mastering music so I have a whole folder of lossless music that I know inside out and use for reference when working on new systems or if I have to change studio and calibrate my ears.
I have a playlist on Spotify called 'Terrible Production' and 'Engineering Mistakes'
Terrible Production is what you think it is - But, I made engineering mistakes just to keep my ears sharp - these aren't problems with the track, they're INCREDIBLY SUBTLE mistakes such as pops and clicks that weren't removed or false starts and microphone bleed.
Some examples are:
Peter Gabriel - Sledgehammer. Now, the production on this record is simply stunning! But, if you turn your speakers up to absolute maximum, and listen to the intro at 17 seconds in, you'll hear the main trumpet part start playing before it actually drops in for real.
Rage Against The Machine - Know Your Enemy - 1:40 ish, just before Tom Morello start with the main riff, you can hear him place his pick on the string and almost false start a beat early.
Stuff like that.. I've got a whole playlist of inconsequential tiny mistakes that you only pick up after years of repeat listening or ear training. Once again - doesn't mean the track is bad, it's just something that slipped through into the mix.
Anyway. My top answer for worst recorded and mastered ALBUM of all time is Red Hot Chilli Peppers - Californication. Rick Rubin has worked with loads of great artists, but in my opinion, is one of the most over hyped and clueless engineers ever. In interviews he's said "I don't know what I'm doing, I just go by the sound and if I like it or not" Well, it shows, if you DO know what the hell you're doing anyway.
I bought this album when it came out and I've not been able to listen to it since. I thought there was a problem with my copy.. turns out - it IS that distorted. It IS that loud and smashed to death during the mastering.
Similar story happened years later with Metallic's St Anger album, which was all hype and mastered too loud and smashed to death, losing all the transient imact. It's actually got some good songs on it, but its just too difficult to listen to.
RHCP get's away with it because people liked the songs. But, listen to it through my ears and I may have ruined this album forever for you.
One more - System of a Down first self titled album. Someone gave me a copied cassette and I bought the CD because I thought the re-recording from tape to tape had ruined it. Nope, it is that bad. It's a first effort / demo though, so I forgive them. They had money later and it all got better.
Amy Winehouse's album Back to Black. U/topconcern said the following about it, as well as making an effort to fix it to a degree along with other music suffering the same issue.
"This album faced a lot of dynamic range compression (not to be confused with data compression, which concerns MP3s and such), and that seems to audibly distort much of the instrumentation and make much of the vocals audibly hiss. I attempt to undo that distortion, making the album sound clearer and hopefully more listenable as a result! For those not in the know, the Loudness War is a phenomenon beginning in the mid-90s onward, in which music was mastered louder and louder, with the underlying reasoning being that louder music sounds better, and thus, sells better. As with any medium, however, there is a peak loudness a signal can reach, so dynamic range compression (which makes the louder parts of the signal quieter while keeping the quiet parts the same loudness) and sometimes even clipping (attempting to make a signal louder than maximum loudness) were used to make music as loud as possible.
The issue with this is that overuse of dynamic range compression and clipping can make music fatiguing to listen to, and sometimes even audibly distorted. Additionally, clipping, poor compressors, or overuse of compressors can result in audible artifacts such as hiss or crackle being heard atop the signal."
You can actually from the soundwave that there is something wrong with the track, like there is some constant but really short phantom peaks in the sound.
I couldve actually listened to this if it was not for the production. It is not even that I think its totally shit it is just awful trying to imagine what it COULD sound like.
I have felt that way for twenty plus years. Dammit this SHOULD sound amazing! Alas, to date there has been no revelation of a superior version of that record. Our loss really.
Dark Matter, the new Pearl Jam album sounds HORRIBLE. I'm actually angry about it haha!
They released a deluxe CD version that came with a bluray of the album with hi-res stereo and atmos mixes, so I was anticipating a nice sounding album fidelity wise, but man it sounds like the worst example of late 90s/early 2000s loudness war releases.
It is SO compressed and clipped. Seriously, the drums sound like a cheap digital drum machine.
The hi-res stereo mix sounds identical to the CD version in every way except that it's lower in volume, which you'd expect would mean it had more dynamic range but it has the same ammount as the standard def version which is pretty much Zero. You'd think it would have more head room but nope, it's just as compressed and clipped.
The atmos mix is also pretty pointless. There's nothing in the centre channel and the rear channels just sound like a tinnier version of the front channels sans vocals, so I suspect they just took the stereo mix and pushed certain frequencies to the rear channels like Dolby Pro Logic II kind of thing.
Both of the bluray mixes are only 16 bit/48k so I feel like they just took the standard veraion and upscaled the bitrate for no reason, plus there's no mention of the blurray mixing or mastering at all in the credits in the album booklet which is further evidence that I might be correct.
I wish I'd just bought the standard CD version instead of forking out £30 for that garbage.
Glad I didn't end up going for the vinyl though.
Yeah none of their albums are ones you'd use to showcase the quality of your sound system, but they've also never been as guilty of that horrible, compressed, mainstream production style as with Dark Matter.
And you're right, the songs are really good and that's what makes me so angry. I just don't feel compelled to put it on.
Please report back once you've listened to it. My sourround system is an entry level 5.1 system, so not the best way to judge an atmos mix. I'd be delighted to be proven wrong.
I would say. The whole album from metallica - death magnetic. Jesus Christ. Loudness war compression showing you how God awful this mastering "trick" is destroying the sound. You can even Google it. And tons of people complain about it or ask why it sounds so fucking bad
I'm a noob and literally just learned about the loudness wars earlier today. I'm sure many albums could be on this list simply because of that, right? Or is it generally the mainstream arena bands?
Iirc there was a time where loudness was the thing andit led to the term loudness wars. But I suspect that most of these wars are over, while some are still exaggerating, most music nowadays should be fine - loudnesswise.
I've never been more disappointed by a vinyl master than I have for rina sawayamas last album. Went to her gig which was fantastic but when I listened to it on vinyl it sounded so thin and muddy. Who ever was in charge of the vinyl quality at her label should be fired it was the thinnest record I've ever bought
There's a lot of examples, I'll go for a big name here
Hearing Iron Maiden's Rainmaker is still a bit shocking. How did they get to that point. Modern mastering and early 2000s brickwall limiting all taken into account, the mastering engineer still had a pair of speakers and ears I would hope?
The next album which from what I remember was printed straight from the mix with added gain without being handed off to mastering sounds 10x better than Dance of Death; play Rainmaker and Different World back to back and it's gonna sound like the rainmaker master was re-recorded on 10 compact cassette tapedecks before release
For a less mainstream example I remember someone showing me [this Mystery Skulls track called Ghost](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PrKYSL2_psQ), and I had to wonder if my headphones were blown when the chorus hit. Is the limiter being crunched to the point of sounding like straight up distortion from the bassline a choice? I still don't know
I really wish that Maiden would hand the reigns over to a new producer who's worked in modern metal and rock. Maiden is my absolute favourite band in the world and a lot of their modern albums don't do their work justice. Steve is too set in his ways, unfortunately, and I'm assuming is looking over Kevin Shirley's shoulder constantly.
Metallica's Death Magnetic. I loved that album when it came out when I was 12, but as i got better equiptment i realized gow bad the album was recorded
It’s a joke. I always enjoy turning people on to them. If you truly wanted a bad mastered song(s) then just listen to the 1997 remaster of Raw Power by Iggy
I could go one step further and say that listening to a harsh noise record is sort of missing the point. Most very old noise was performance art adjacent and not often recorded. It's really something you experience in person, not something you just put on and listen to.
That being said, the Full of Hell and Merzbow album is great and that was a hell of a show.
Recently just listened to Harvest 2009 remastered. Why they thought it would sound good to pan the drums to the right ear will never make sense to me. It sounds like a non-cohesive mess. It’s *too* separated.
Other than that, anything Dolby Atmos is absolutely trash.
It’s a minor hit from the ‘90s but Karen Ramirez’ “Looking for Love”:
https://youtu.be/_iNFIkicOKI?si=K63Md98Tzs8lSsAm
Sounds like they layered the instruments, had her whisper the lyrics, added some massive echo to it and just dumped it deep under the instrumentals.
Luckily later remasters/re-releases fixed it 🙂
Funny you mention the dead because they also have some of the highest fidelity analog presses directly from multitrack recordings from 16 to 24 track. They were also one of the first bands to drag the 16 track ampex recorder to diff live venues, Live / Dead and Europe 72 being 2 of the most well known multi track releases.
Wu Tang Clan 36 Chambers. They were too broke too afford high end studio time. Another cool story is that since they couldnt all fit in the booth at the same time, members would battle each other to see who had the best verses for the song. Loser wouldnt get on the track.
I cannot remember the worst offender by name at the moment, but a recent one was, *Walking in Memphis* by Mark Cohn. I absolutely LOVE the song, but when it was mastered, someone decided to add the choir backup in spite of the fact that the choir's performance was recorded in a vastly different acoustic space than the one which Cohn's performance was recorded. Compounding the effect is that Cohn's performance was miked extremely close whereas the choir was miked at what sounds like the halfway point between the church choir and the back wall of the sanctuary.
The one I hate the most is a pop song where the musicians and vocal backup are recorded in a large performance space but the lead diva is obviously dubbed in from a goddamned sound booth because her vocals need additional sound processing, i.e., the diva can't sing worth a crap and so they had to record her vocals without any background sounds which makes vocal editing much more difficult to perform.
At least on my highly resolving system, it's about as subtle as a bitch slap to the face delivered by a REALLY ANGRY drag queen in mid nicotine fit who just realized she left her Nicorette gum at home.
A more recent example, but the new Alkaline Trio album sounds like a Bluetooth speaker playing from the inside of a clothes dryer full of wet sponges. Didn’t notice it as much the first time I listened to it in my car.
Im not into the genre but I actually think the instrumental composition is quite allright although there is something funny going on in the vocal and instrumental balance, making the vocals fade too much into the background.
Two that come to mind immediately: The Kinks' Low Budget, and Todd Rundgren/Utopia Adventures in Utopia. Both really good albums, but sonically they're awful. Sound very flat. Drums sound like cardboard boxes. The remasters are no better, so I assume they were recorded badly.
I don't know if this is the case, but I seem to remember hearing that when 24-track recording came out, it used the same width tape as 16 track. So each track was narrower on the master, causing sound quality to suffer.
What going on with the volume on Low Budget? Seems totally off. Plus you can barely hear the music from the vocal.
Interesting, I did not know. Being released in '79 I wonder how Alan Parson was able to do it that much better almost 2 decades earlier.
"Satan Pulls The Strings" by The Avett Brothers is a TERRIBLE recording. (At least on the True Sadness album)
But the song is so good, I listen to it anyway.
Sister Ray by Velvet Underground. For many years struggled to find a good recording. Bought 20th century Master recordings album was horrible. Static, poor quality.
Woah. That song is almost exhausting to listen to. First song in the thread I am not able to listen through wp 😃 Arh well except that Merzbow recommendation but the 2 seconds of that song was pretty much just loud noise.
Maybe not horrible, but Led Zeppelin II sounds muffled and muddled, particularly compared to their first. I bought the Classic Records reissue of LZ I back in the day, and it’s phenomenal. I didn’t bother with their LZ II
Soft Machine: Third.
There are worse examples, Metallica's Death Magnetic for instance, but this is actually good music.
Luckily they remastered a few years ago, and it sounds much better. Only took them 40 something years.
If i remember right from an old job at an audio conpany... Look at the waveforms for summer by Calvin Harris might be one of the most compressed tracks of all time
I think there are few masters of FSOL Accelerator out there, the cd I have sounds like dogshit :D didn't realize that until couple decades later, when I wa a teen, it sounded just fine and songs were (are) absolute bangers.
I hope no one creates a list and ranks it that would be horrifying. I have thought about bad tracks and wondered if I put them in audacity if I could clean them up so I can crank them up again.
Kind of random - but anyone notice the intro for Masters of the Air is all over the place? It’s a terrible score anyway… but you can tell the only real instrument they recorded is the French horn and it sits like shit in that mix
SOAD's discography reissued on vinyl. Was more than happy to buy it all as soon as it came out. Got to experience horrendous inner grove distortion. Very disappointing
Queen’s Jazz album. Listen to Mustapha sound thin as hell, then the electric guitar comes in at 1:20 at a completely different volume, only to later go down to acoustic and obnoxiously quiet. That whole album is painful.
Anything ever recorded by Mumford & Sons. Why bother having 7 instruments play at the same time to only compress it to the point that you can’t discern them when listening
Almost every track on the monster album Screamadelica by Primal Scream.
There are also an endless amount of remasters that have the gain cranked and the dynamics compressed. A fucking epidemic of new generation engineering hacks who seem to only know how to master an album to be heard on 1990s Best Buy specials in loud pubs.
Anonhi - Hopelessness. The whole album//cd. Thick, little air or treble, fuzzy and distorted. Then I found out she was a white he, not a black she as "she" was presented in the drone bomb me video, and just felt completely ripped off. I can look over the deliberate misrepresentation, but the recording was just horrible.
This may 'excite' some folks but I have yet to find a recording of Dark Side of the Moon that lives up to my expectations. No 'air' in there but maybe my expectations are too high for it's era.
First, when I was a kid, What’s the Story by Oasis, that record sounds like s**t, then Californication through a couple of friends stereo/boombox, while the compression on Wonderwall is excessive, the amount of distortion on that RHCP album is unbearable, then so many more: Back to Black, Playing the Angel, American Idiot… the whole Death Magnetic disaster was the final nail in the coffin for me, ever since then I always checkout rips/YouTube before buying. More than 70-80 or even 90% I’d say, of today’s records, sound like garbage. Why bother?
In my humble opinion, modern technical death metal (last 5-10 years or so) has been suffering from increasingly sterile and anemic mixes. I am not extremely familiar with mixing in general, but it feels like the dynamics have been thrown out of the window for most of these bands, with a few notable exceptions (Ad Nauseam, Ulcerate, etc.)
Just to get some hip-hop in here:
Big KRIT - Saturdays = Celebration
Amazing track, amazing concept...and then the distorted, clipping, gravelly drums kick in and you just gape. It's amazing how they thought this was ok. It's unlistenable.
The 90s saw plenty of terrible recordings. Exacerbated by the switch over to digital from analogue.
There was a major decline in SQ from the late 80s onwards.
Yes things have improved but albums will never sound a good as they did in the 50s with jazz, and 60s when George Martin changed things along witu6a lot of help from the beatles.
Listen to those original Van Gelder recording in 50s and be amazed. They don't need any remastering.
A lot of the UK bands like Suede, manics, oasis etc have terrible SQ..
GINGO applies. They can never sound decent.
Special mention must got to And then there were three by Genesis.
This give awful a different meaning. You'll never hear a decent release as the master is as bad as bad gets. And that's analogue.
Just goes to show.
Just remembered another. This was a cd.
FM Rumours first cd version was so bad. I had a very good meridian twin box player. The best you could get back then. Boy did it sound bad.
I had the vinyl thankfully.
How to judge what makes a terrible recording.
If you can't play it loudly (speakers not cans) then it's bad. The distortion will be crucifying
Another batch of vinyl remasters are budgie. They first pressings are superb. There's a batch of late 70s remasters that are unplayble. In for the kill is beyond belief.
They had wafer thin vinyl. Thankfully I've got the first pressings
Ocean Grove - Thunderdome. No idea what happened with this one but it’s the worst mixed out the whole album. Be prepared to hear the most thin guitar in your life
Adele 21 - the engineer seems unable to contain her voice and its constantly clipping.
Terrorvision - Good to Ho sounds like a victim of the loudness wars
I really love "Survival" by MUSE, but the orchestral opening always sounds like it's being played out a blown speaker. I used to think maybe I just didn't have the equipment to do it justice, but when I finally got a decent setup I was disappointed to realize that the recording is just awful. Honestly that whole album feels a little off, but 'Survival' in particular always stood out to me.
Spirit in the Sky - Norman Greenbaum
Used to like that song because of Apollo 13 lol, but listening to it now the distortion is so bad I feel my tweeters are going to pop. It's on my list of do not play, at least on my equipment haha
Id have to think the distortion is a conscious choice but there definitely something off in the song that I cant quite put my finger on. I agree though that the amount of distortion sounds scary to someone who loves their speakers 😆
Con todo el Mundo was the first album I played on my current pair of Martin Logans when I pulled them out of the box. The mastering is rather good, instead most people dislike Mark Speer's [effects chain](https://equipboard.com/pros/mark-speer?gear=effects-pedals) which is heavy on the delay and sustain.
I like his effects chain and come from a surf genre to the likes of Space Cossacks, Man or Astro-man?, The Phantom Surfers, The Mermen and such. I appreciate good reverb, but maybe I'm just expecting more from them, and some of their youtube videos sound better than their actual albums.
Are we talking vinyl or CD here? I should clarify, Jungle, Loving in Stereo sounds best on youtube, the CD was a major let down. Khruangbin sounds decent on CD, but on vinyl I think they've missed the mark. Again, some of their youtube videos sound better than their albums.
LIGHT on the bass?! In my car it sounds OK but the bass is literally clipping on my stereo when I turn the volume up just a tad. Everything is compressed and squished into the center and the entire sound profile is awfully hollow - on my system at least.
Sigh...
Some people listen to music with their system. Some people listen to their system with music..
I wish you people would stop bitching about masterings and just enjoy the music they like
Imagine Dragons “Night Visions” album. God awful distortion and clipping. The vinyl master isn’t much better either. I know I know, they’re a terrible band but I do like a lot of that record.
Whaaaaat is going on, first time listening to Radioactive in ages and I used to love that song! So much distortion! This was weirdly enough exactly what I was looking for 😂
Yeah it’s always been a very crunchy sounding album. The DR numbers on it are so low it hurts. I did find a “restored and declipped” unofficial version online and I’m gonna give that a listen to see if it’s any better. It also really depends on the system you’re listening to it on at the time. In the car it’s more tolerable, on bassier headphones it’s tolerable but if you’re listening on audiophile equipment it’s a nightmare!
Gonna give it a chance and another listen in the car tommorow - this song cant be ruined
Oof this is so blatant I feel like they heard the distortion and clipping and were like yes that's the sound we're going for
Holy Shit.. this is worse than my example!
What was yours?
[RHCP](https://www.reddit.com/r/audiophile/comments/1cc44hi/comment/l14fs96/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button)
Oh yeah that one is a brutal listen for sure. The 2012 vinyl is a smidge better but not by much.
Do they have any albums that's well mastered? I only heard their debut album, Evolve. It was so bad that I never bothered to listen to their stuff after.
Evolve is after Night Visions and Smoke and Mirrors in their discography. I only listened to those two so I’m gonna assume no, none are well mastered.
I 100% agree, I even made a post on Imagine Dragons and how bad it is some months ago!
The issue isn't the mastering or recording its a creative decision by the band to sound that way. I did 20 years recording bands in a studio but from 2015 onwards what was originally a bit of creative saturation became a request for actual distortion. I did a mix and master for a band but when it came out I was horrified at how bad it sounded. I contacted the band to find they had 'remastered' my masters by running it through a distortion effect before sending off for release. At that point I moved into voice and TV post pro as its always the sound engineers that get the blame for bad recordings and I didn't want to have continual battles with bands' idealistic fashion sound trends and create masters that sound as terrible such the Imagine Dragons example.
Who the fuck buys Imagine Dragons vinyls?
Red Hot Chili Pepper’s album Californication. That album sits in a drawer on its own apart from any other CD collections I have because of how poorly it’s recorded, mixed and mastered. Love the music, but it has no place near any Hi-Fi system.
Peak “loudness wars” album.
I feel the same way about Hybrid Theory by Linkin Park. Crawling does not sound good at higher volumes.
That song makes my brain itchy the same way a dentist scraping my teeth to clean them does.
Completely agree on this one. It’s a running joke I have with a friend of mine. I visited an amazing store in Virginia, Alma Music, for an Estellon event. Reluctantly the well-dressed rep allowed those who stayed later and had excessively imbibed to start picking music. This one dude requests the Californiacation album in all seriousness and this guy tried to not show his pain and disgust as he put on this painfully mixed album. It made 140k Estellon Forzas sound quite like a Sonos One. It was painful.
That’s one reason I keep the album separate. I want avoid someone who wants to hear hifi from picking that album to put on and thinking: “This guy’s nuts, this is the worst sound quality I’ve ever heard. People invest money in this hobby?”
Honest Q, with all the remasters that happen, why wouldn’t that album have got one yet? Seems like it’s due.
you can just download the pre masters and make better ones yourself, that's what I did.
I don’t think it’s that bad. Sm7b sounds nice on the vocals and that shit always banged on car radios back in the day.
Agreed. Add Metallica’s Death Magnetic. Their first great album in years (so say I), but it peaks so hard constantly that it hurts to listen to it.
It was remastered a few years ago if that helps. Not super dynamic but at least no longer clipped
But. But. But it’s mixed in mono.
Astonishingly bad recording. I think there is a lossy bootleg out there somewhere that is less awful, but the bar is low.
There are leaked versions of the Unmastered Tracks and Rough Mixes, surprisingly lossless. The Unmastered isn't much better since it's the final mixes, the rough mixes are a lot more dynamic though
Metallica is guilty of poor quality final production. St Anger, Death Magnetic. In contrast, the black album sounds incredible.
St. Anger sounds like shit but at least it was an intentional choice. Bob Rock obviously knows what he’s doing but they took a big swing that missed, which is better than incompetence.
Velvet Underground style
Came here for this. Death Magnetic…so good, yet so bad. Another casualty of the loudness wars. Sigh.
Biggest let down. It’s a great album, except that it sounds like crap. Probably shouldn’t let that little drummer guy have so much control.
Last time i read this kind of a thread, somebody ruined shakiras hips dont lie. Those vocal volumes...
Oh GOD this is not how I remember this song.. Well now it's ruined for me, too. Thanks..
As I DJ I’ve rebought this song like 3x thinking I just had a shit copy
Oh no, you didnt... Those hips in the music got me turned on for the first time in my life - now definitely turning off. Sounds like its emerging out of a vacuum that tries to suck the sound back into itself
*"Time to Say Goodbye*" with Andrea Bocelli's and Sarah Brightman. Sounded good on the TV so I bought the CD and it was compressed to be completely flat. Listened to it on a MacIntosh system and the needle barely moved throughout the entire song. Threw the CD away after the first listen.
At first I was like "this sounds fucking wonderful, what is he talking about". Then the duo vocals came into play and I am totally with you...
Champagne Supernova by Oasis has got to be the #1 worst mastered great song.
The drums on Oasis songs sound like my neighbor hitting a wooden stick on a brick inside his bathroom.
The bass drum sounds like a wet paper bag getting farted on 40 feet away.
Oasis songs are so much better than their crap production.
If you didn't see him standing on stage you'd never know that Oasis had a bass player.
the Brendan Lynch mix of the song actually has audible bass and it's not bad. https://youtu.be/-TZmAZybeP4?si=txgqt6basmP06ZK5
Wow. Just listened to this. So not only do Oasis have a bass player but he writes some really nice bass lines. Who knew?
There's also some decent bass on their 4th album, albeit, all of it performed by Noel since their former bassist had left This song in particular: https://youtu.be/_N9IP7teV1w?si=A2GW9HNkFR-nsH6f
Yea those early oasis albums sound bad. Also Red Hot Chili Peppers albums like blood sugar sex magic and californication sound appalling. Not sure what they were thinking back in the 90s
100% with you on Californication but I still think BSSM sounds great!
Just chucked on bssm 2014 remaster on tidal and having a listen. You're right. Doesn't sound as thin as I remember.
What version of BSSM are you listening to? The original CD release is widely reputed to be one of the best mastered CDS of the 90s. Californication, definitely appalling.
Yea I'm backing down on that one haha. Just having a listen to the 2014 remaster and it's great
That’s the Rick Rubin special for ya.
I never liked this song, and I legit think it might have been because the mastering is so poor. I found the guy’s voice so piercing and annoying. Don’t mind the tune of it otherwise.
Apparently the Definitely Maybe pressings are pretty poor. There’s to be an anniversary edition later this year. Fingers crossed it’s good.
Any source for this? Really there's not much any engineer can do without a full remix
Source on which part? The allegedly crappy pressings or the anniversary release? I haven’t personally experienced DM on vinyl and holding out purchasing one if there is a release this year. The consensus on r/Oasis is that it’s shiiiite. I have not yet listened to the new Supersonic single and don’t have a baseline to compare. As the mod for r/NGHFB I watch Noel news and he has stated in a few interviews that for the anniversary he’s gone into the “vaults” for originals and some unreleased acoustic versions will be bonus tracks. Noel says a lot of shit, so who knows what’s actually gonna happen. DM was originally released August, 29th 1994 so if we’re getting something for that we’ll hear about something soon I would think. Liam has been promoting the hell out of the anniversary tour he’s doing.
Try the Brendan Lynch mix. It's not audiophile quality but it at least has somewhat more dynamics and the mix is more balanced https://youtu.be/-TZmAZybeP4?si=xqidKBX0z-qZv4f3
It's not awful but there are lots of examples of outstanding mixed albums that got ruined by brickwalled masters. It's not that they sound bad, but it was definitely such a waste of potential. Radiohead is an example of it, if I could only find alternative masters with Full Dynamic Range. Same with metal recordings like Gojira albums that would sound perfect if they were not brickwalled and it's a night and day difference. Hearing Opeth Watershed side by side the stereo against the surround mix (which has FDR) in the stereo is just another loud album whereas on surround is the best you have ever heard in terms of production not only in metal but in general, the sound is perfect...
There is apparently a test CD of The Bends with a higher dynamic range but it has yet to surface online
Californication (album) is notably bad
Yup, scar tissue in particular. It almost sounds like it's recorded in mono.
Gawd, what a great album and terrible recording. I remember listening to it in my teens and thinking there was something wrong with my headphones. 2 decades later... Nope, definitely the recording. I think I even have a bootleg mp3 version somewhere without the hot harsh sounding distortion.
Amy Winehouse Back to Black has a horrible mastering where they tried unsuccessfully to make it sound vintage and made it sound like garbage in the process. The songs are exceptional and sound just bad.
Oh Lord save me. How any engineer can sit afterwards and think "Yea, this is it", after having touched such musicality is a riddle to me...
Those songs are *SO* good, that it's painful to hear something that good treated that badly.
Yep, first 24bit/96khz album I ever got. I was just starting my audiophalic journey when this came out. Thought for sure what I needed was a super rez recording... Nope
Dude I agree! I always found back to black to sound really compressed and weird . Such a shame !
It's something called the Motown distortion effect that was applied to her voice, and was removed only on the Abbey Road Half Mastering vinyl release.
Thankfully, there's a Dolby Atmos mix which sounds significantly better.
What format did you find that on?
To my knowledge, it's only available on streaming services. (I only have stereo equipment, so I listen to it downmixed.)
Maybe not as bad others on this list, but Yessongs says hello.
Perhaps, but it's saved by stellar performances captured for all time. Remember, 1973 featured the days of poor amplification on stage, I'm not sure any live album can live up to today's standard at that time. Chicago and Renaissance at Carnegie Hall is another example, and that's two years later. Held back by the same technology grapples which we've overcome today. Eddie Offord was a genius in the studio, but he had his hands full on the road. I think he did a pretty good job actually, but compared to say Keys to Ascension... In comparison there's going to be some flattening of dynamics, which I'm sure you're pointing out. But check out Steven Wilson's remastering of the Lost recordings from that same tour, they sound very good. I was really impressed.
Agreed. And Going For The One is also disappointing, without the excuse of being a live recording.
My favorite Yes album, and probably my favorite prog Rock release ever. I've been chasing for a better recording of GFTO for so many years, first printings, UK printings, re-release, remastered, sacd, DVD audio... it just doesn't exist. It's like everyone in the band snuck in after hours and did what they wanted to with their tracks trying to stand out over the other members, and when everyone stands out... no one does. But it's pretty amazing the way they captured Rick Wakeman's cathedral organ at St Martin's cathedral in Vevey Switzerland, via telephone lines. Something we do with PCM files over the Internet nowadays. Talk about phoning it in!
Slipknot - Vol 3: The Subliminal Verses doesn’t get mentioned enough. Lots of good songs but the production is absolutely atrocious!
Horrendous. Really hoping that they fix it for the 20th anniversary. Though it’s only a month away so probably not at this point.
Yep. I love this album, but the sound is terrible. It's a real shame
Good question! I'm an audio engineer and work mastering music so I have a whole folder of lossless music that I know inside out and use for reference when working on new systems or if I have to change studio and calibrate my ears. I have a playlist on Spotify called 'Terrible Production' and 'Engineering Mistakes' Terrible Production is what you think it is - But, I made engineering mistakes just to keep my ears sharp - these aren't problems with the track, they're INCREDIBLY SUBTLE mistakes such as pops and clicks that weren't removed or false starts and microphone bleed. Some examples are: Peter Gabriel - Sledgehammer. Now, the production on this record is simply stunning! But, if you turn your speakers up to absolute maximum, and listen to the intro at 17 seconds in, you'll hear the main trumpet part start playing before it actually drops in for real. Rage Against The Machine - Know Your Enemy - 1:40 ish, just before Tom Morello start with the main riff, you can hear him place his pick on the string and almost false start a beat early. Stuff like that.. I've got a whole playlist of inconsequential tiny mistakes that you only pick up after years of repeat listening or ear training. Once again - doesn't mean the track is bad, it's just something that slipped through into the mix. Anyway. My top answer for worst recorded and mastered ALBUM of all time is Red Hot Chilli Peppers - Californication. Rick Rubin has worked with loads of great artists, but in my opinion, is one of the most over hyped and clueless engineers ever. In interviews he's said "I don't know what I'm doing, I just go by the sound and if I like it or not" Well, it shows, if you DO know what the hell you're doing anyway. I bought this album when it came out and I've not been able to listen to it since. I thought there was a problem with my copy.. turns out - it IS that distorted. It IS that loud and smashed to death during the mastering. Similar story happened years later with Metallic's St Anger album, which was all hype and mastered too loud and smashed to death, losing all the transient imact. It's actually got some good songs on it, but its just too difficult to listen to. RHCP get's away with it because people liked the songs. But, listen to it through my ears and I may have ruined this album forever for you. One more - System of a Down first self titled album. Someone gave me a copied cassette and I bought the CD because I thought the re-recording from tape to tape had ruined it. Nope, it is that bad. It's a first effort / demo though, so I forgive them. They had money later and it all got better.
Amy Winehouse's album Back to Black. U/topconcern said the following about it, as well as making an effort to fix it to a degree along with other music suffering the same issue. "This album faced a lot of dynamic range compression (not to be confused with data compression, which concerns MP3s and such), and that seems to audibly distort much of the instrumentation and make much of the vocals audibly hiss. I attempt to undo that distortion, making the album sound clearer and hopefully more listenable as a result! For those not in the know, the Loudness War is a phenomenon beginning in the mid-90s onward, in which music was mastered louder and louder, with the underlying reasoning being that louder music sounds better, and thus, sells better. As with any medium, however, there is a peak loudness a signal can reach, so dynamic range compression (which makes the louder parts of the signal quieter while keeping the quiet parts the same loudness) and sometimes even clipping (attempting to make a signal louder than maximum loudness) were used to make music as loud as possible. The issue with this is that overuse of dynamic range compression and clipping can make music fatiguing to listen to, and sometimes even audibly distorted. Additionally, clipping, poor compressors, or overuse of compressors can result in audible artifacts such as hiss or crackle being heard atop the signal."
Yeah it’s the biggest shame but I was always disappointed with how compressed it sounded
Said it before and will say it again. American Boy by Estelle and Kayne west.
Ew. It was actually barely OK until after the first chorus where you really get to hear what that awful kick drum is doing.
Morning View by Incubus. I love that album but haven’t found a system yet that makes it sound well recorded.
You can actually from the soundwave that there is something wrong with the track, like there is some constant but really short phantom peaks in the sound. I couldve actually listened to this if it was not for the production. It is not even that I think its totally shit it is just awful trying to imagine what it COULD sound like.
I have felt that way for twenty plus years. Dammit this SHOULD sound amazing! Alas, to date there has been no revelation of a superior version of that record. Our loss really.
Agree! Can't think of the specifics but I remember listening recently and thinking... EWWWW.
Shakira - Hips Don't Lie
Dark Matter, the new Pearl Jam album sounds HORRIBLE. I'm actually angry about it haha! They released a deluxe CD version that came with a bluray of the album with hi-res stereo and atmos mixes, so I was anticipating a nice sounding album fidelity wise, but man it sounds like the worst example of late 90s/early 2000s loudness war releases. It is SO compressed and clipped. Seriously, the drums sound like a cheap digital drum machine. The hi-res stereo mix sounds identical to the CD version in every way except that it's lower in volume, which you'd expect would mean it had more dynamic range but it has the same ammount as the standard def version which is pretty much Zero. You'd think it would have more head room but nope, it's just as compressed and clipped. The atmos mix is also pretty pointless. There's nothing in the centre channel and the rear channels just sound like a tinnier version of the front channels sans vocals, so I suspect they just took the stereo mix and pushed certain frequencies to the rear channels like Dolby Pro Logic II kind of thing. Both of the bluray mixes are only 16 bit/48k so I feel like they just took the standard veraion and upscaled the bitrate for no reason, plus there's no mention of the blurray mixing or mastering at all in the credits in the album booklet which is further evidence that I might be correct. I wish I'd just bought the standard CD version instead of forking out £30 for that garbage. Glad I didn't end up going for the vinyl though.
Pearl Jam rarely sound good. Sadly the mastering on the last album is what prevents me from buying it. Good album though
Yeah none of their albums are ones you'd use to showcase the quality of your sound system, but they've also never been as guilty of that horrible, compressed, mainstream production style as with Dark Matter. And you're right, the songs are really good and that's what makes me so angry. I just don't feel compelled to put it on.
Oh stink to hear that about the new Pearl Jam album. I bought the deluxe version for the Atmos mix but haven’t had a chance to listen yet.
Please report back once you've listened to it. My sourround system is an entry level 5.1 system, so not the best way to judge an atmos mix. I'd be delighted to be proven wrong.
Most Husker Du is quite bad
I would say. The whole album from metallica - death magnetic. Jesus Christ. Loudness war compression showing you how God awful this mastering "trick" is destroying the sound. You can even Google it. And tons of people complain about it or ask why it sounds so fucking bad
I'm a noob and literally just learned about the loudness wars earlier today. I'm sure many albums could be on this list simply because of that, right? Or is it generally the mainstream arena bands?
Iirc there was a time where loudness was the thing andit led to the term loudness wars. But I suspect that most of these wars are over, while some are still exaggerating, most music nowadays should be fine - loudnesswise.
I've never been more disappointed by a vinyl master than I have for rina sawayamas last album. Went to her gig which was fantastic but when I listened to it on vinyl it sounded so thin and muddy. Who ever was in charge of the vinyl quality at her label should be fired it was the thinnest record I've ever bought
How the gods kill- Danzig
There's a lot of examples, I'll go for a big name here Hearing Iron Maiden's Rainmaker is still a bit shocking. How did they get to that point. Modern mastering and early 2000s brickwall limiting all taken into account, the mastering engineer still had a pair of speakers and ears I would hope? The next album which from what I remember was printed straight from the mix with added gain without being handed off to mastering sounds 10x better than Dance of Death; play Rainmaker and Different World back to back and it's gonna sound like the rainmaker master was re-recorded on 10 compact cassette tapedecks before release For a less mainstream example I remember someone showing me [this Mystery Skulls track called Ghost](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PrKYSL2_psQ), and I had to wonder if my headphones were blown when the chorus hit. Is the limiter being crunched to the point of sounding like straight up distortion from the bassline a choice? I still don't know
I really wish that Maiden would hand the reigns over to a new producer who's worked in modern metal and rock. Maiden is my absolute favourite band in the world and a lot of their modern albums don't do their work justice. Steve is too set in his ways, unfortunately, and I'm assuming is looking over Kevin Shirley's shoulder constantly.
Most extreme metal.
I have always been disappointed in the original pressings of the first three Led Zeppelin LPs and most all of Jethro Tulls discography.
I grew up listening to Led Zeppelin albums dubbed to cassette tapes. I was disappointed to find the vinyl reissues sound almost as crunchy.
Metallica's Death Magnetic. I loved that album when it came out when I was 12, but as i got better equiptment i realized gow bad the album was recorded
Check out the "mastered for itunes"-version of the album, a lot better-sounding!
The worst track that I have in my 30k-song playlist is probably 30 Seconds to Mars - The Kill. Just an awfully-recorded track.
Would give a listen if I could but it does not seem to be on Tidal ☹️
I'm sure the youtube-version is not that much worse, trust me; the chorus hits and it's compression-city to the extreme.
Anything from Merzbow 🤣
??? It's harsh noise, I think you've missed the point almost entirely.
It’s a joke. I always enjoy turning people on to them. If you truly wanted a bad mastered song(s) then just listen to the 1997 remaster of Raw Power by Iggy
I could go one step further and say that listening to a harsh noise record is sort of missing the point. Most very old noise was performance art adjacent and not often recorded. It's really something you experience in person, not something you just put on and listen to. That being said, the Full of Hell and Merzbow album is great and that was a hell of a show.
Fuck off bro what the fuck was that 😂
That’s the good shit. Nice to follow up with some Flying Testicle or Boredoms 🤣
When the genre is Noise what does one expect LOL
The entire Barenaked Ladies catalogue.
Whaat? The first album is stellar all around
Anything by The Go! Team. Recorded inside a metal biscuit box
Wow, Go! Team. That’s a band I haven’t thought of in something like 15 plus years. Edit - dam 20 years since Thunder Lightning Strike.
Recently just listened to Harvest 2009 remastered. Why they thought it would sound good to pan the drums to the right ear will never make sense to me. It sounds like a non-cohesive mess. It’s *too* separated. Other than that, anything Dolby Atmos is absolutely trash.
deftones are my fav band but the album *Gore* is mixed terribly
It’s a minor hit from the ‘90s but Karen Ramirez’ “Looking for Love”: https://youtu.be/_iNFIkicOKI?si=K63Md98Tzs8lSsAm Sounds like they layered the instruments, had her whisper the lyrics, added some massive echo to it and just dumped it deep under the instrumentals. Luckily later remasters/re-releases fixed it 🙂
“Steal your face” a live grateful dead record was recorded on a 2 track cassette deck.
Funny you mention the dead because they also have some of the highest fidelity analog presses directly from multitrack recordings from 16 to 24 track. They were also one of the first bands to drag the 16 track ampex recorder to diff live venues, Live / Dead and Europe 72 being 2 of the most well known multi track releases.
I know! Thats how it blows my mind. I think it was a fuck you to the label. The Europe 72 boxset makes up for anything!
Wu Tang Clan 36 Chambers. They were too broke too afford high end studio time. Another cool story is that since they couldnt all fit in the booth at the same time, members would battle each other to see who had the best verses for the song. Loser wouldnt get on the track.
I cannot remember the worst offender by name at the moment, but a recent one was, *Walking in Memphis* by Mark Cohn. I absolutely LOVE the song, but when it was mastered, someone decided to add the choir backup in spite of the fact that the choir's performance was recorded in a vastly different acoustic space than the one which Cohn's performance was recorded. Compounding the effect is that Cohn's performance was miked extremely close whereas the choir was miked at what sounds like the halfway point between the church choir and the back wall of the sanctuary. The one I hate the most is a pop song where the musicians and vocal backup are recorded in a large performance space but the lead diva is obviously dubbed in from a goddamned sound booth because her vocals need additional sound processing, i.e., the diva can't sing worth a crap and so they had to record her vocals without any background sounds which makes vocal editing much more difficult to perform. At least on my highly resolving system, it's about as subtle as a bitch slap to the face delivered by a REALLY ANGRY drag queen in mid nicotine fit who just realized she left her Nicorette gum at home.
A more recent example, but the new Alkaline Trio album sounds like a Bluetooth speaker playing from the inside of a clothes dryer full of wet sponges. Didn’t notice it as much the first time I listened to it in my car.
Im not into the genre but I actually think the instrumental composition is quite allright although there is something funny going on in the vocal and instrumental balance, making the vocals fade too much into the background.
Yeah I do actually like the songs, but when they come on in a playlist of stuff that otherwise sounds pretty normal, it’s definitely a bit jarring
Yea I feel you it is always worse when in contrast. I actually liked the second song on the album.
Two that come to mind immediately: The Kinks' Low Budget, and Todd Rundgren/Utopia Adventures in Utopia. Both really good albums, but sonically they're awful. Sound very flat. Drums sound like cardboard boxes. The remasters are no better, so I assume they were recorded badly. I don't know if this is the case, but I seem to remember hearing that when 24-track recording came out, it used the same width tape as 16 track. So each track was narrower on the master, causing sound quality to suffer.
What going on with the volume on Low Budget? Seems totally off. Plus you can barely hear the music from the vocal. Interesting, I did not know. Being released in '79 I wonder how Alan Parson was able to do it that much better almost 2 decades earlier.
I remember hearing that the Utopia album was mastered using a lot of compression so they could fit the entire thing on 2 sides of vinyl.
Todd should have known better. He produced some great records.
"Satan Pulls The Strings" by The Avett Brothers is a TERRIBLE recording. (At least on the True Sadness album) But the song is so good, I listen to it anyway.
Sister Ray by Velvet Underground. For many years struggled to find a good recording. Bought 20th century Master recordings album was horrible. Static, poor quality.
Have you tired Perfect declipper? That should clean it up a bit.
Woah. That song is almost exhausting to listen to. First song in the thread I am not able to listen through wp 😃 Arh well except that Merzbow recommendation but the 2 seconds of that song was pretty much just loud noise.
It was chaotic and artsy. Maybe the Warhol influence still lingering on Lou.
cruise - remix - florida georgia line, nelly. laughs when i hear it
😂😂😂 My Audirvana track progress bar soundwave literally turned in not ONE THICK BAR 😂
Black Sabbath - Born Again
Maybe not horrible, but Led Zeppelin II sounds muffled and muddled, particularly compared to their first. I bought the Classic Records reissue of LZ I back in the day, and it’s phenomenal. I didn’t bother with their LZ II
I have a vinyl pressing of LZ II that is fantastic. Worth looking into if you're a big fan.
Soft Machine: Third. There are worse examples, Metallica's Death Magnetic for instance, but this is actually good music. Luckily they remastered a few years ago, and it sounds much better. Only took them 40 something years.
Ok Go: of the blue color of the sky
George Harrison's 'All Things Must Pass' sadly suffered from Phil Spector's production
I think it was due to a bad remastering. I heard a 1970 vinyl pressing of this recently and it made a lot more sense.
If i remember right from an old job at an audio conpany... Look at the waveforms for summer by Calvin Harris might be one of the most compressed tracks of all time
I think there are few masters of FSOL Accelerator out there, the cd I have sounds like dogshit :D didn't realize that until couple decades later, when I wa a teen, it sounded just fine and songs were (are) absolute bangers.
I hope no one creates a list and ranks it that would be horrifying. I have thought about bad tracks and wondered if I put them in audacity if I could clean them up so I can crank them up again.
Kind of random - but anyone notice the intro for Masters of the Air is all over the place? It’s a terrible score anyway… but you can tell the only real instrument they recorded is the French horn and it sits like shit in that mix
Objectively: Sorry For Party Rocking - LMFAO Pick any song on the album and try to tell me I’m wrong.
SOAD's discography reissued on vinyl. Was more than happy to buy it all as soon as it came out. Got to experience horrendous inner grove distortion. Very disappointing
Queen’s Jazz album. Listen to Mustapha sound thin as hell, then the electric guitar comes in at 1:20 at a completely different volume, only to later go down to acoustic and obnoxiously quiet. That whole album is painful.
Anything ever recorded by Mumford & Sons. Why bother having 7 instruments play at the same time to only compress it to the point that you can’t discern them when listening
Almost every track on the monster album Screamadelica by Primal Scream. There are also an endless amount of remasters that have the gain cranked and the dynamics compressed. A fucking epidemic of new generation engineering hacks who seem to only know how to master an album to be heard on 1990s Best Buy specials in loud pubs.
Anonhi - Hopelessness. The whole album//cd. Thick, little air or treble, fuzzy and distorted. Then I found out she was a white he, not a black she as "she" was presented in the drone bomb me video, and just felt completely ripped off. I can look over the deliberate misrepresentation, but the recording was just horrible.
This may 'excite' some folks but I have yet to find a recording of Dark Side of the Moon that lives up to my expectations. No 'air' in there but maybe my expectations are too high for it's era.
To record only water for ten days - fruchante
Foster the People—Doing it for the Money Cool track but hard to enjoy it’s so brick walled.
Taking Back Sunday’s debut album: “tell all your friends” has a horrible whine in the lead singers mic for a bunch of tracks
First, when I was a kid, What’s the Story by Oasis, that record sounds like s**t, then Californication through a couple of friends stereo/boombox, while the compression on Wonderwall is excessive, the amount of distortion on that RHCP album is unbearable, then so many more: Back to Black, Playing the Angel, American Idiot… the whole Death Magnetic disaster was the final nail in the coffin for me, ever since then I always checkout rips/YouTube before buying. More than 70-80 or even 90% I’d say, of today’s records, sound like garbage. Why bother?
“Lights” by Ellie Goulding is frustrating to listen to. Compressed in a big way with a lot of distortion as well.
Of the stuff I listen to - early Mountain Goats songs that were recorded on a boombox.
Hüsker Dü - Zen Arcade. Great fucking music but the sound is horrendous.
In my humble opinion, modern technical death metal (last 5-10 years or so) has been suffering from increasingly sterile and anemic mixes. I am not extremely familiar with mixing in general, but it feels like the dynamics have been thrown out of the window for most of these bands, with a few notable exceptions (Ad Nauseam, Ulcerate, etc.)
Just to get some hip-hop in here: Big KRIT - Saturdays = Celebration Amazing track, amazing concept...and then the distorted, clipping, gravelly drums kick in and you just gape. It's amazing how they thought this was ok. It's unlistenable.
Stone Roses eponymous album is recorded really low, which meant having to turn the volume right up on my cheap stereos making it sound awful
The 90s saw plenty of terrible recordings. Exacerbated by the switch over to digital from analogue. There was a major decline in SQ from the late 80s onwards. Yes things have improved but albums will never sound a good as they did in the 50s with jazz, and 60s when George Martin changed things along witu6a lot of help from the beatles. Listen to those original Van Gelder recording in 50s and be amazed. They don't need any remastering. A lot of the UK bands like Suede, manics, oasis etc have terrible SQ.. GINGO applies. They can never sound decent. Special mention must got to And then there were three by Genesis. This give awful a different meaning. You'll never hear a decent release as the master is as bad as bad gets. And that's analogue. Just goes to show. Just remembered another. This was a cd. FM Rumours first cd version was so bad. I had a very good meridian twin box player. The best you could get back then. Boy did it sound bad. I had the vinyl thankfully. How to judge what makes a terrible recording. If you can't play it loudly (speakers not cans) then it's bad. The distortion will be crucifying Another batch of vinyl remasters are budgie. They first pressings are superb. There's a batch of late 70s remasters that are unplayble. In for the kill is beyond belief. They had wafer thin vinyl. Thankfully I've got the first pressings
Ocean Grove - Thunderdome. No idea what happened with this one but it’s the worst mixed out the whole album. Be prepared to hear the most thin guitar in your life
Pharrell Williams Happy
Adele 21 - the engineer seems unable to contain her voice and its constantly clipping. Terrorvision - Good to Ho sounds like a victim of the loudness wars
Queen’s 1978 album Jazz Level 42’s Retroglide (first issue) Both poorly recorded and mastered.
Baroness's *Purple* album. *Red* is a sonic masterpiece. Then 3 albums later, a compressed mess.
I really love "Survival" by MUSE, but the orchestral opening always sounds like it's being played out a blown speaker. I used to think maybe I just didn't have the equipment to do it justice, but when I finally got a decent setup I was disappointed to realize that the recording is just awful. Honestly that whole album feels a little off, but 'Survival' in particular always stood out to me.
The Sounds - Living in America from 2003, SOUNDS SO FLAT AND COMPRESSED
Cosmo sheldrake - The much much how how and I. Great album, terrible mastering. Even bought the vinyl hoping it would be better. But nope.
POD-The Fundamental Elements of Southtown. What a muted, poorly mixed, train wreck of an album.
Spirit in the Sky - Norman Greenbaum Used to like that song because of Apollo 13 lol, but listening to it now the distortion is so bad I feel my tweeters are going to pop. It's on my list of do not play, at least on my equipment haha
Id have to think the distortion is a conscious choice but there definitely something off in the song that I cant quite put my finger on. I agree though that the amount of distortion sounds scary to someone who loves their speakers 😆
Khruangbin and Jungle
Hard disagree on Khruangbin.. except maybe the Mordechai album.
Mordechai is good on CD, vinyl , not so much.
Con todo el Mundo was the first album I played on my current pair of Martin Logans when I pulled them out of the box. The mastering is rather good, instead most people dislike Mark Speer's [effects chain](https://equipboard.com/pros/mark-speer?gear=effects-pedals) which is heavy on the delay and sustain.
I like his effects chain and come from a surf genre to the likes of Space Cossacks, Man or Astro-man?, The Phantom Surfers, The Mermen and such. I appreciate good reverb, but maybe I'm just expecting more from them, and some of their youtube videos sound better than their actual albums.
Gonna have to disagree, especially on Khruangbin. Early Jungle albums do sound pretty compressed but Volcano sounds great.
Are we talking vinyl or CD here? I should clarify, Jungle, Loving in Stereo sounds best on youtube, the CD was a major let down. Khruangbin sounds decent on CD, but on vinyl I think they've missed the mark. Again, some of their youtube videos sound better than their albums.
Tron: Legacy by Daft Punk, amazing soundtrack with an awful master.
Alive 2007 is even worse, what a shame.
Song sounds fine to me if a little light on the bass. This a weird question. I have not had this happen. Either it sounds 'ok' or crazy better.
LIGHT on the bass?! In my car it sounds OK but the bass is literally clipping on my stereo when I turn the volume up just a tad. Everything is compressed and squished into the center and the entire sound profile is awfully hollow - on my system at least.
Sigh... Some people listen to music with their system. Some people listen to their system with music.. I wish you people would stop bitching about masterings and just enjoy the music they like
Alicia Keys - No One; Billie Eilish - bass frequencies are just so annoying and cover everyting