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Topic: Whats is the worst mastered CD [your opinions] ? (Read 470732 times) previous topic - next topic
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Whats is the worst mastered CD [your opinions] ?

Reply #225 –
Sheryl Crow's self titled CD had poor dynamic range, to my ears.  That spoiled the enjoyment of some truly great music to me.

Whats is the worst mastered CD [your opinions] ?

Reply #226 –
how about the new mastodon record? like i said earlier, i dont really know much about mastering or recognizing bad mastering or whatever, but i think im starting to with that. so many points in the album where it distorts, and actually kinda hurts to listen to. shame since the music is great.

Whats is the worst mastered CD [your opinions] ?

Reply #227 –
My collection of CDs span from original purchases in 1984 (I have several hundred from that period) to the present day.  It's amazing how much "louder" the CDs are today from the ones from 1984-85.

I think at the time the mastering was so important so as not introduce distortion (and returns) of then still relatively rare CDs.  Most of the earliest CDs in the USA were made and imported from Japan and Germany and there were difficulties of high-rejection and "waiting in line".  CDs had to compete against half-speed mastered records and other high quality analog sources and were mastered so that there weren't problems that would cause still-skeptical audio reviewers to say: "see there! CDs are worse than records".  The point of all this is that at the time the music companies cared about ensuring the CDs were problem-free.

Even so, companies discovered how inadequate the production masters were for many CDs - thus the "rematered" term over and over.  One great fallout of all of this is that many record companies finally organinzed, properly stored, and used the original precious masters.

As 45's were usually mastered to sound "good" in portable and car radios, I suspect CDs are mastered to sound "good" (loud) when imported into low-powered portable devices.

Just my opinions.

Whats is the worst mastered CD [your opinions] ?

Reply #228 –
I hope The Breeders - Last Splash gets remastered somewhere in the near future. I recently found this CD again after not listening to it for over ten years.

I had forgotten that it sounded so bad and at first couldn't believe my ears. I actually listened to a friends copy and downloaded one to hear if it wasn't just my copy. It wasn't.
Every night with my star friends / We eat caviar and drink champagne
Sniffing in the VIP area / We talk about Frank Sinatra
Do you know Frank Sinatra? / He's dead

Whats is the worst mastered CD [your opinions] ?

Reply #229 –
Just got an amazing CD recently. Thing is, the mastering is horrible. The Music's self-titled album is simply impossible to listen to without ReplayGain.

One track, "Float", is particularly bad. ReplayGain's track gain is -13.07. The end of the track literally sounds like noise.



I also bought their second CD "Welcome to the North" but have not listened to it yet (I've only heard mp3 samples); hopefully it's better, seeing as I don't think you can get much worse.

Whats is the worst mastered CD [your opinions] ?

Reply #230 –
depeche mode playing the angel... the worst mastered cd ever...
there is actually a vinyl flac copy in demonoid dot com...
the torrent has loads of warnings, protests, and texts on loudness war...
i just got one file of it and it really does SOUND MUCH BETTER than the cd

Whats is the worst mastered CD [your opinions] ?

Reply #231 –
Depeche Mode - Playing The Angel



Quite interesting site - Playing The Angel CD vs Vinyl

Whats is the worst mastered CD [your opinions] ?

Reply #232 –
My first post on this forum.  I found this forum precisely because of this thread!

Let's get to it:

Anthrax, Greater of 2 Evils.  The wave isn't as brickwalled as that monstrosity above, but still very loud and sounds terrible. 
Rammstein--Reise Reise and I'm sure Rosenrot--just LOUD.  Herzeleid is soothing in comparison.
Napalm Death--The Code is Red
Despised Icon--Healing Process
Any death metal, grindcore, extreme metal of the last 10 years

EXCEPT: Necrophagist, Epitaph, mastered by Bob Katz, Digital Domain.  Sounds awesome!

Whats is the worst mastered CD [your opinions] ?

Reply #233 –
Beth Orton's "Comfort of Strangers" CD from 2006. Dry, dead sound that only gets worse with good gear. Her other albums are clearly not recorded on state of the art equipment, but they sound musical. This one does not.

Whats is the worst mastered CD [your opinions] ?

Reply #234 –
Quote from: JDM on
Personally, I think Rage Against the Machine is kind of badly mastered.  I noticed it is consistent in every album, so most likely it's just the way they want to sound like, but I kinda don't like how it's set up even though I love Rage Against The Machine.  I think their guitars, drums, and bass are too loud compared to the vocals.  Sometimes I have a really hard time making out what the lyrics are because everything is louder than the vocals.


That's not the mastering, that's the way the songs were mixed.

Whats is the worst mastered CD [your opinions] ?

Reply #235 –
I thought Rage Against the Machine's self-titled is considered a finely mastered CD.  Sounds awesome to me, compared to everything since then.  1992 still had a lot of good recordings.

Whats is the worst mastered CD [your opinions] ?

Reply #236 –
The loudest albums on my computer:

-12.53 - Oasis - Whats The Story (Morning Glory)
-12.19 - The Who - Ultimate Collection (CD2)
-11.96 - System Of A Down - Hypnotize
-11.94 - Oasis - Be Here Now
-11.71 - The Who - Ultimate Collection (CD1)
-11.68 - System Of A Down - Mezmerize
-11.62 - System Of A Down - Steal This Album
-11.50 - Oasis - The Masterplan
-11.41 - Stereophonics - Language Sex Violence Other?
-11.40 - Goo Goo Dolls - Gutterflower

Other stuff up high there is Out Of Exile by Audioslave, More Oasis, Slayer's Reign In Blood, Bon Jovi's Slippery When Wet (The fact it is a remaster comes to mind), The Black Crowes, Flaming Lips' At War With The Mystics, Godsmack, The Killers, Buckethead's Enter The Chicken, etc.

(Stuff from Nirvana - With The Lights Out ranks up there too, but it seems I have that on track gain instead of album gain)

Not sure if anyone posted this, but put this into the album list panel part of preferences to see your loudest or quietest albums.

%__replaygain_album_gain% | %album%

Really close to 0 change on replaygain is 'Layla and other assorted love songs', along with some Grateful Dead and Phish stuff.
And if you believe theres not a chance to die...

Whats is the worst mastered CD [your opinions] ?

Reply #237 –
I will share my list
10 Most Compressed Albums I Own
1.   RHCP – Californication  *-12.86db*  (very obvious clipping, hard to listen)
2.   System of a Down – Mezmerize  -11.66db less of their ballads more loud metal
3.   White Stripes – White Blood Cells  -11.40db going for very grungy sound?
4.   Third Eye Blind – Blue  -11.23db very compressed pop music from late 90s
5.   Audioslave – Out of Exile  -11.18db worse than debut album
6.   Jay-Z – The Black Album  -11.11db
7.   Snow Patrol – Eyes Open  -11.10db  anyone else surprised by this?
8.   Killers – Sam’s Town  -11.04db
9.   50 Cent – Get Rich or Die Tryin’  -10.92db "i compress like its my birthday"
10.   (tie) System of a Down – System of a Down -10.87db
(tie) Killers – Hot Fuss  -10.87db

I wanted to add that you must have the remastered version of Oasis - {What's the Story} Morning Glory? because my version is 9.02db above default replaygain volume.

I don't listen to much classical music or have many cds from audiophile labels, but
3 Most Dynamic albums I own
1. Paul Simon - Graceland -0.17db
2. Tracy Chapman - Tracy Chapman  -0.42db
3. Jimmy Buffet - Songs You Know by Heart  -0.58db

9 'Loudest' Tracks I Own
1. Red Hot Chili Peppers – Californication – Parallel Universe  -14.17db WOW
2. Jay-Z – Black Album – PSA -13.37db
3. RHCP – Californication – Get On Top  -13.29db 
4. Dr Dre – 2001 – Let’s Get High  -13.18db
5. RHCP – Californication – Otherside  -13.07db
6. " - Purple Stain  -13.05db
7. " - Easily  -12.91db
8. " - I Like Dirt  -12.88db
9. " - This Velvet Glove  -12.75db

enjoying Regina Spektor - Begin to Hope now

Whats is the worst mastered CD [your opinions] ?

Reply #238 –
Hi from Italy and sorry for my bad english.

One of the worst listening albums i have is Aerosmith - Nine Lives (original 1997 version) : It's non so loud as Californication, but it's sounds just like mud out of the loudspeakers ! High frequencies are the worst i ever listen !

Whats is the worst mastered CD [your opinions] ?

Reply #239 –
Quote from: Sound of Perseverance on
I thought Rage Against the Machine's self-titled is considered a finely mastered CD.  Sounds awesome to me, compared to everything since then.  1992 still had a lot of good recordings.

I agree with you, I think it is a brilliantly mastered CD, by I beleive Bob Ludwig. I even think Evil Empire (1996) (also mastered by B.L.) is very good, even though it is considerably louder than the self titled album. It is around about as loud as I think a hard rock album needs to be.

Sadly Battle of Los Angeles suffers from bad mastering, including audible clipping, and the cover album Renegades is unlistenable because of hack work by Vlado Meller.

Whats is the worst mastered CD [your opinions] ?

Reply #240 –
I listen to a lot of electronic music on vinyl, only 12" singles where there`s only one tune on each side and mostly thick vinyl. That, and the fact that this music isn`t mastered by any of the big names makes it incredible when it comes to dynamics. Cd`s of pop music really can`t compare; play them on low volume and they sound VERY boring, play them loud and they sound VERY annoying. Modern pop music is made to sound good on standard car speakers and portable radios. I kinda like the californication tune, it`s catchy, but i never listen to it because i don`t like the sound, i`m glad to see there`s more people who agree on this.

Whats is the worst mastered CD [your opinions] ?

Reply #241 –
Does anyone have any idea if asian cd's or asian versions are mastered any differently?

Aparently Asians typicly like there music to sound clear and un distorted( in general as a people) where as us brits and americans much perfer loud brash distorted loud loud loud crap.

Watching the gadget show here in the uk on Five they testted a UK tuned denon amp and compaired it with a internation version the british version sounded like ( and you guessed it) like modern cd' masters basicly crap! The international version sounded an aweful lot better.

It seems that it's at least posable that western cd's may be remastered and unbuggered for the asian market.

Whats is the worst mastered CD [your opinions] ?

Reply #242 –
I always thought those rumors were totally full of crap.

Whats is the worst mastered CD [your opinions] ?

Reply #243 –
Japanese mastering engineers often like to turn up the high treble a whole lot.

Whats is the worst mastered CD [your opinions] ?

Reply #244 –
Quote from: detuned on
how about the new mastodon record? like i said earlier, i dont really know much about mastering or recognizing bad mastering or whatever, but i think im starting to with that. so many points in the album where it distorts, and actually kinda hurts to listen to. shame since the music is great.

Am afraid that Mastodon's latest album Blood Mountain album is a poorly mastered album. A good example on how it is badly mastered is Crystal Skull (Track 2) that got ruined by annoying clicks.
"I never thought I'd see this much candy in one mission!"

Whats is the worst mastered CD [your opinions] ?

Reply #245 –
Badly mastered CD's i own:

System Of Down - Hypnotize
Drowning Pool - Sinner
System Of Down - System Of Down (Mastered by The kombucha mushroom people  )
Mastodon - Blood Mountain
Slipknot - Vol. 3: The Subliminal Verses
Fear Factory - Transgression (Alot of clicks and the bonus live tracks were from a lossy audio codec source like mp3 @ 32 kbps)
Queens Of The Stone Age - Songs For The Deaf (Well the album title says all , but dam it is too loud)
Ozzy Osbourne - Blizzard Of Ozz [2002 Remaster] (Has to be the worst and well-known remasters ever)
Nine Inch Nails - Further Down The Spiral (Has some wired screeching noises mustly when there is vocals and some tracks are in mono)
Megadeth - Rust In Peace [2004 Remaster] (Had new recordings like the Blizzard Of Ozz remaster, but the sound is good)

Best mastered CD's i own:

Rage Against The Machine - Rage Against The Machine
Metallica - Metallica (It is a shame that Metallica went over-the-top with this album)
Metallica - ...And Justice For All (Sounds great with a good pair of headphones, it is a shame that you can not hear Jason Newsted playing)
Nine Inch Nails - Pretty Hate Machine (Sounds great with a pair good of headphones)
Nine Inch Nails - The Fragile
"I never thought I'd see this much candy in one mission!"

Whats is the worst mastered CD [your opinions] ?

Reply #246 –
What annoys me most is the supposed remastering of classics and compressing the hell out of the dynamics. A while back when converting my cd's to flac i noticed a couple of track were damaged on my 1991 released "the very best of the eagles" which i was annoyed with but the cd was mistreated back in the days when the popular belief was cd's were almost indestructable and so it was left lying around most of the time ready for quick play, anyway i digress hehe

So I decided to buy the 2003 "the complete greatest hits" eagles cd thinking it might even sound better, how wrong i was. To show exactly why i have included the wave forms loaded into audicity (nothing altered, exact same scales etc) shows the problem with modern mastering.

Top image 1991 release, bottom 2003 release


Whats is the worst mastered CD [your opinions] ?

Reply #247 –
Quote from: /mnt on
Ozzy Osbourne - Blizzard Of Ozz [2002 Remaster] (Has to be the worst and well-known remasters ever)

I've heard at this but accidentally I bought the album "No More Tears" with Bonus Tracks and It sound very bad too. The Ozzy Osbourne "Remasters" are the worse RE-masterings that I've seen. 
Bad Masterings That I Own:
U2 - How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb (2004) (4º)
Angra - Temple Of Shadows (2004) (3º)
Deep Purple - Purpendicular (1996) (5º)
AC-DC - Stiff Uper Lip (2000) (2º)
Ozzy Osbourne - No More Tears (1991) (1º: The Worse)
Sorry for my bad english.

Whats is the worst mastered CD [your opinions] ?

Reply #248 –
Less Than Jake - Borders and Boundaries

SKA is already loud thanks to piercing trumpets, but with an AG of -7.3 dB I think it's the most ruined in my collection. Too bad the songs are so good.

I think recalls should be issued for things like this.
Now with more kitten!

Whats is the worst mastered CD [your opinions] ?

Reply #249 –
I'm going for The White Stripes - Elephant
Almost all In Flames