Fans petition for Guitar Hero mastering of Metallica album

[Rspaight]

So the tracks from the new Metallica album are a lot less compressed in Guitar Hero than on the actual CD.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DRyIACDCc1I

There's an online movement afoot to re-release the CD with the less compressed mastering. I've only listened to the YouTube clip (high-quality version), but the drums sound a hell of a lot better on the Guitar Hero version.

[lukpac]

Wow. I have no use for Metallica, but wow.

[Rspaight]

I've noticed (in Rock Band, at least) that they mix/master for a lot of instrument separation, for obvious reasons. I'd suppose that a lot of hard limiting would be at cross purposes to that, so I'm not surprised they give it more room to breathe.

Wouldn't it be funny if the music-buying masses discover the joys of dynamic range through video games?

[lukpac]

Rolling Stone coverage. Bolding mine.

Fans Complain Metallica Disc Is Too Loud

BRIAN HIATT Posted Oct 16, 2008 10:00 AM

For the first time ever, Metallica fans are asking the band to turn the volume down. In online forums and at least one petition, some buyers of Metallica's new album are arguing that the group cranked the sound levels on its new album, Death Magnetic, to a point where the music is distorted and compromised. Even the album's mastering engineer, Ted Jensen, criticized the album's sonics in an e-mail to a fan. "In this case the mixes were already [pushed to the max] before they arrived at my place," he wrote. "Believe me, I'm not proud to be associated with this one, and we can only hope that some good will come from this in some form of backlash against volume above all else."

But Cliff Burnstein, one of the group's managers, argued that only a small minority of fans had a problem with the album's sound. "There's something exciting about the sound of this record that people are responding to," he told The Wall Street Journal.

The Metallica dispute is the latest battle in the so-called loudness war, in which bands use dynamic compression — a studio effect that minimizes the difference between loud and soft parts of a song — to make their music louder and louder as they compete for listeners' attention. "The distortion factor comes up pretty quickly, especially when the thing's been recorded digitally," says veteran mastering engineer Brian Gardner, who has worked with hard-rock and metal bands including Lamb of God and Linkin Park. "You try and keep things in control, and it's not always possible."

Around the mid-Nineties, studio engineers began using new digital tools to test the limits of CDs' sonics, edging close to the point of distortion — and even beyond. "Engineers have been pushed by producers and record companies to make a loud disc," says another mastering veteran, Bernie Grundman. "They feel that if you put this CD next to somebody else's, it jumps out and gets your attention — and that's gonna help make it a success." Many experts feel the trend has gone out of control. Adds Grundman, "It's too much, it's too intense, it's edgy, it's smeary, it's grainy — these are all the byproducts of heavy compression limiting with digital processing."

Thanks to the Internet, fans are more aware of this issue than ever. In the case of Metallica, some fans are taking action: 11,000 people have signed a petition asking for a remix and remaster of Death Magnetic, while others are trading a version of the album made from the less-loud mixes intended for use in Guitar Hero III. Rick Rubin, the record's producer, declined to comment on the album's sound.

[From Issue 1063 — October 16, 2008]

Original RS online mention here.

[Beatlesfan03]

Did Rubin's usual partner in crime Vlado Meller master this one?

[lukpac]

Per above, Ted Jensen.

[Beatlesfan03]

Oops, I missed that.