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Topic: What are some well-mastered cd's? (Read 71886 times) previous topic - next topic
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What are some well-mastered cd's?

Reply #100 –
While I expected from a Jennifer Lopez album to contain overcompressed pop,
I am positively surprised by her 1st album in Spanish language,
2007 Como ama una mujer.
rg values average around -6 or -7 db, which is clearly not the today's -9-10-11 db.
IMO a good example, that it is possible to produce well-mastered today's pop, even by major labels.
I hope, she has success with this album, I like it, maybe the best I listened so far from 2007.
At least, I have this album automatically in mind, regarding this question.
Of course, previous named albums here are great for all times, Like Queen - Innuendo etc.
Don't forget thousands of nice mastered classic albums with lots of dynamics.
Even for rock/pop/metal fans I strongly recommend to visit at least 1 classic symphony concert in their life. Then they/you will know, what dynamic can be...
I classify Bach as 1st Rock/Hard-Rock/Prog-Rock guy,
while Mozart could be called the 1st pop guy.
Beethoven, Brahms, Wagner etc. describe more schizophrenic problems in their music, "modern". But most composers writing for symphonic orchestras have clearly both parts in their piece of work: calm and nice moments, and wild or unpleasant sounds.

What are some well-mastered cd's?

Reply #101 –
Quote from: user on
While I expected from a Jennifer Lopez album to contain overcompressed pop,
I am positively surprised by her 1st album in Spanish language,
2007 Como ama una mujer.
rg values average around -6 or -7 db, which is clearly not the today's -9-10-11 db.
IMO a good example, that it is possible to produce well-mastered today's pop, even by major labels.

I haven't heard the album but I think -6...-7 is still quite bad.

Many 1970's prog/krautrock/psych albums are very good sounding.

What are some well-mastered cd's?

Reply #102 –
-6 / 7 is reasonable. Could there be a link with a non-english album ?

An album with great dynamics is the Lost Highway Soundtrack [1997]. Gain is -6.50 but there are also quieter tracks. Danzig I-II by rick rubin are also very punchy, Bloody Kisses by Type O Negative [1993], Judas Priest - Screaming for vengeance [1982], Dead Can Dance - Wake [2003] , Sarah Mclachlan Touch [1989] / Solace [1991], David Lee Roth - Eat em and smile [1986] ,most dire straits albums too.

What are some well-mastered cd's?

Reply #103 –
Try www.linnrecords.com.  The recording branch of the Linn Audio high end equipment maker.
CDs and a range of download formats.  Very well mastered indeed, at least the ones I''ve tried so far.

What are some well-mastered cd's?

Reply #104 –
-7dB is not good, it's just not quite as bad as it has been. As I said in my previous post, the new Kanye West album is -7dB. It is a step in the right direction.. let's hope they are phasing out the loudness crap.

What are some well-mastered cd's?

Reply #105 –
Quote from: user on
I classify Bach as 1st Rock/Hard-Rock/Prog-Rock guy,
while Mozart could be called the 1st pop guy.
Beethoven, Brahms, Wagner etc. describe more schizophrenic problems in their music, "modern". But most composers writing for symphonic orchestras have clearly both parts in their piece of work: calm and nice moments, and wild or unpleasant sounds.


You must be kidding -- some individual pieces of theirs may indeed be used to justify such tenuous stylistic connections, but to liken Mozart to "pop" and calling Bach a hard/prog-rocker (?!) is just bananas considering the entire scope of their output. The classical (and to a lesser extent jazz) form allows for much larger-scale development, and correspondingly, greater expressive range. (On the other hand, popular music, in all its sub-genres, can do things that classical & jazz can't.)

What are some well-mastered cd's?

Reply #106 –
Quote from: shadowking on
-6 / 7 is reasonable. Could there be a link with a non-english album ?


Do you mean you would rather have the non-spanish version of the album? Which BTW does not exist.  Or do you mean those that produced her album are better at it because it's in Spanish.  I'm confused. 

In any event many of the studio musicians and engineers that do mainstream albums cross over and play on Latin Artists albums quite often and visa versa.  For record companies its $$ and record sales just the same.

What are some well-mastered cd's?

Reply #107 –
I understand shadowkings 'link to non-English album' the way, that he guesses, wether non-English albums don't have that pressure to be produced at highest loudness levels, so, that the producer of that Spanish language album by J.-Lo could have that more reasonable loudness level and maybe those producers/record label in charge want to watch, how this record sells compared to... whatever.

Nah, if I write, that Bach and Mozart 'could be called 1st rock or pop composers', this is valid in certain senses. I wrote that with the aim, to cause a little bit interest to those parts of the (HA-)public, who limit themselves so far only to modern music, to try also the 'classics'.
I agree with you probably, that music classifications in genres is very difficult and limiting, as music is music, and either it is good music or mediocre... , which depends also on taste, which we don't want to discuss.

What are some well-mastered cd's?

Reply #108 –
Quote from: outscape on
loreena mckennitt - the mask and mirror (1994, mastered by bob ludwig) "parallel dreams" (1989) is also mastered very well but no credit.

Mask and Mirror is fantastic!

What a pity about the recent album though, An Ancient Muse - have you heard it?
 

What are some well-mastered cd's?

Reply #109 –
New Iced Earth album 'Framing Armageddon' has a RG of -6.95dB which is pretty decent for a 2007 heavy metal release!

[a href="http://www.zshare.net/image/36347502cd5ce9/" target="_blank"]

What are some well-mastered cd's?

Reply #110 –
Ok.. new CD to AVOID. Foo Fighters - Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace. Album Gain -11dB. It's like Californication all over again... clipping every second.

What are some well-mastered cd's?

Reply #111 –
Tori Amos - Little Earthquakes
Tracey Chapman - S/T
Kate Bush - Sensual World


Quote from: Borbus on
Ok.. new CD to AVOID. Foo Fighters - Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace. Album Gain -11dB. It's like Californication all over again... clipping every second.


Thanks. Maybe we should setup www.clippingwatch.com ?

What are some well-mastered cd's?

Reply #112 –
Quote from: Borbus on
Ok.. new CD to AVOID. Foo Fighters - Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace. Album Gain -11dB. It's like Californication all over again... clipping every second.


Still sounds better then Foo Fighters "One By One". Not only was there horrible clipping, it sounds eery similar to the infamous Metallica "St. Anger" in terms of audio quality.
iTunes 10 - Mac OS X 10.6
256kbps AAC VBR
iPhone 4 32GB

What are some well-mastered cd's?

Reply #113 –
I'm not an expert on mastering, but I've always heard that Kid A by Radiohead is very well mixed.  It sounds good too

What are some well-mastered cd's?

Reply #115 –
Not for long now that someone's shown interest in it. The domain squatters' bots have probably already picked up on it. </pessimism>

What are some well-mastered cd's?

Reply #116 –
Anything Mark Knopfler has been involved with (Dire Straits, solo work) seems very well mastered.

What are some well-mastered cd's?

Reply #117 –
Cowboy Junkies - The Trinity Sessions - ******
ReplayGain_Album Gain=+0.92 dB
ReplayGain_Album Peak=0.959290
(This single mike album must be heard
to be believed! My reference for mastering.)

Mary Black - Looking Back - *****
ReplayGain_Album Gain=-0.99 dB
ReplayGain_Album Peak=0.975403

Roberta Flack - Softly with These Songs - *****
ReplayGain_Album Gain=+0.17 dB
ReplayGain_Album Peak=0.992065

Sinéad O'Connor - Am I Not Your Girl? - *****
ReplayGain_Album Gain=-1.29 dB
ReplayGain_Album Peak=0.999969

St. Germain - Tourist - *****
ReplayGain_Album Gain=-5.55
ReplayGain_Album Peak=0.993164

Tracy Chapman - Tracy Chapman - *****
ReplayGain_Album Gain=-0.48 dB
ReplayGain_Album Peak=0.977234
(DDD)

As well as: Leonard Cohen - Ten New Songs (Wow!)

These are some of the best mastered albums of all time, imho.

There's also a brand new Cowboy Junkies - Trinity Sessions II out;
I wonder if this is just as well mastered?

(ps - so sorry, but exactly what does the replaygain info illustrate?)
Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?  ;~)

What are some well-mastered cd's?

Reply #118 –
Replaygain is a measure of perceived loudness (normalised to 89dB). +ve RG values indicate quieter audio, -ve values indicate louder audio.

Interestingly, 4 of your 6 albums (nearly 5) are within 1dB of the 89dB target.

ps. I really like the eponymous Tracy Chapman album.
lossyWAV -q X -a 4 -s h -A --feedback 2 --limit 15848 --scale 0.5 | FLAC -5 -e -p -b 512 -P=4096 -S- (having set foobar to output 24-bit PCM; scaling by 0.5 gives the ANS headroom to work)

What are some well-mastered cd's?

Reply #119 –
Quote from: Nick.C on
Interestingly, 4 of your 6 albums (nearly 5) are within 1dB of the 89dB target.

If that's so, could replaygain information be used to determine if an album is well mastered, or perhaps, poorly mastered?

(is sorting by album gain possible?)
Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?  ;~)

What are some well-mastered cd's?

Reply #120 –
I've posted this on the Murmurs.com forums in response to a discussion about the mastering of the latest R.E.M. album:

Quote
I just bought the new Elbow album ("The Seldom Seen Kid", very good record by the way). There's an interesting text in the liner notes:

Turn Me Up!
To preserve the excitement, emotion and dynamics of the original performance this record is intentionally quieter than some. For full enjoyment simply Turn Me Up! (TurnMeUp.org)

Ok, these guys get it!


[edit]Album gain is -9.75 dB by the way, so that's still quite loud, but I can't deny that it's very dynamic[/edit]

What are some well-mastered cd's?

Reply #121 –
Quote from: 2tec on
Quote from: Nick.C on

Interestingly, 4 of your 6 albums (nearly 5) are within 1dB of the 89dB target.

If that's so, could replaygain information be used to determine if an album is well mastered, or perhaps, poorly mastered?

(is sorting by album gain possible?)

No. Replaygain is affected by the style of music. An extremely high RG-Value (above -6db) quite reliably tells that a record was dynamically compressed for loudness. However, an album may easily reach -5dB replaygain, without making use of "compression for the sake of loudness". Simply take a track or album, which has reduced dynamics by definition - i.e. albums with lots of reverb and effects, or albums with constant strings in the background. Even ambient albums - the music style which by definition is "anti-loudness"... often reaches -5dB, simply because loudness is very constant and the album gets of course normalized. And all this happens before it even gets into mastering stage.

So in short - RG values up to -6dB can, but do not necessarily, indicate dynamic overcompression - since in that range, the style of music can have a strong effect on RG, even if the track was just peaknormalized. If however we get above -6dB, it is very probable that the music was intentionally dynamically overcompressed for loudness.

P.S.: Also take into account that RG is not perfect. It can easily miscalculate actual perceived loudness by +/- 2dB - in rare cases even up to +/- 4dB.
I am arrogant and I can afford it because I deliver.

What are some well-mastered cd's?

Reply #122 –
Quote from: slks on
Not for long now that someone's shown interest in it. The domain squatters' bots have probably already picked up on it. </pessimism>


It would appear so.......

What are some well-mastered cd's?

Reply #124 –
I've been listening to the Jean-Michel Jarre album 'Equinoxe' quite a lot lately. The album was originally released on vinyl in 1978 and, although I can't find a date of manufacture on the CD itself, I know for a fact that it's a mid-80's release as I bought it at the same time as my first standalone CD player, a Philips CD-150 (still going strong), back in 1986(?).

It has to be one of the cleanest and most dynamic sounding albums in my collection and makes almost all modern pop music recordings sound badly broken by comparison.

Cheers, Slipstreem.