Feel the burn: worst recordings

Construct · « **on:** 5 Jul 2010, 02:04 am »

We all have them. Recordings from long ago or even recent. Recent recordings that are anything like fidelity seem difficult to come by due to hyper production, pro tools and every other analog-ruining alteration. Funny how I can have a monophonic recording from 1957 that has rich, beautiful tonality and clear presence using the limited equipment of the day. Yet, I can pick up a new disc, from a major studio that can't even hold up to a bus recording by Jackson Browne.
So, instead of asking "what's your favorite" I'd like to know about poor recordings to avoid. That, or maybe recordings not worthy of quality sound reproduction, that should just be an mp3 due to lack of quality-but good music.
What burned you? Please, bring it on!

funkmonkey · « **Reply #1 on:** 5 Jul 2010, 03:12 am »

this is by far the worst I have come across:

good blues, horrible recording

James Romeyn · « **Reply #2 on:** 5 Jul 2010, 04:16 am »

Fine Young Cannibals...don't blame me, the wife bought it. A piece of dung if one ever existed.

Construct · « **Reply #3 on:** 5 Jul 2010, 05:10 am »

I had Krokus: alive and screaming on a Japanese cd pressing. It was a mash up of stridency, hiss and smeared sound.

Scott F. · « **Reply #4 on:** 5 Jul 2010, 12:23 pm »

Oingo Boingo - Dead Mans Party

...the poster child for tone controls....

...GREAT music

crappy mix

charles28722 · « **Reply #5 on:** 5 Jul 2010, 12:57 pm »

funkmonkey:

10-4 on the Buddy Guy / Junior Wells CD. When I purchased that one, I was unwrapping it in the car while driving so nothing would slow me down when I got home. Incredibly dissappointing sound quality. Doubt that I'll listen to it again.

Charles

decal · « **Reply #6 on:** 5 Jul 2010, 01:21 pm »

Aerosmith has to have some of the worst recordings ever captured.Even the original LP's are bad so you know the CD's are.I love their music but,jeez louise!!

jimdgoulding · « **Reply #7 on:** 5 Jul 2010, 02:01 pm »

The RVG super edition CD of Andrew Hill's Point of Departure. Dry as Melba toast. This was one of if not the first RVG se remasters from Blue Note and one that begs to be redone. Come on Cuscana!

Napalm · « **Reply #8 on:** 5 Jul 2010, 03:00 pm »

http://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=80113.0

Nap.

Construct · « **Reply #9 on:** 5 Jul 2010, 03:15 pm »

Quote from: Napalm on 5 Jul 2010, 03:00 pm

http://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=80113.0

Nap.

My bad for not searching for the word "Atrocity"
But thanks for taking your ever so valuable time to read, just to make a comment like that---it really makes the forum what it is!
Yawn <scratch>merge threads<scratch> Zzzzz.

drab · « **Reply #10 on:** 5 Jul 2010, 03:20 pm »

I believe that is his signature, not a comment.

Breakfast.

FredT300B · « **Reply #11 on:** 5 Jul 2010, 03:20 pm »

For popular artists who has been recording for a decade or more the quality seems to decline over time as the compression and loudness are increased. This is especially true for many recordings and remixes done in the 2000's.

For example, here's a partial list of Eric Clapton recordings with the name, release date, and average dynamic range for each recording:
Slowhand, 1977, DR=14dB
Timepieces, 1982, DR=12dB
Reptile, 2001, DR=7dB
Road to Escondidio, 2006, DR=7dB

A recording with a dynamic range of ten or more sounds good to me, a range of seven to nine sounds ok but it has that "commercial FM radio" sound, and a range of less than seven sounds terrible.

The absolute worst recordings are those with a DR of four dB. A couple of examples are Metallica's Death Magnetic (DR=3dB, worst recording ever) and Red Hot Chili Peppers Californication (DR=4dB).

Construct · « **Reply #12 on:** 5 Jul 2010, 03:41 pm »

Quote from: drab on 5 Jul 2010, 03:20 pm

I believe that is his signature, not a comment.

Breakfast.

Good idea. I have some thick cut peppered bacon to go on the grill...

Construct · « **Reply #13 on:** 5 Jul 2010, 03:43 pm »

Quote from: FredT300B on 5 Jul 2010, 03:20 pm

For popular artists who has been recording for a decade or more the quality seems to decline over time as the compression and loudness are increased. This is especially true for many recordings and remixes done in the 2000's.

For example, here's a partial list of Eric Clapton recordings with the name, release date, and average dynamic range for each recording:
Slowhand, 1977, DR=14dB
Timepieces, 1982, DR=12dB
Reptile, 2001, DR=7dB
Road to Escondidio, 2006, DR=7dB

A recording with a dynamic range of ten or more sounds good to me, a range of seven to nine sounds ok but it has that "commercial FM radio" sound, and a range of less than seven sounds terrible.

The absolute worst recordings are those with a DR of four dB. A couple of examples are Metallica's Death Magnetic (DR=3dB, worst recording ever) and Red Hot Chili Peppers Californication (DR=4dB).

That's no joke! I have not seen that chart, but it confirms what I have been hearing. 4db of dynamic range???? That's completely pathetic!

James Romeyn · « **Reply #14 on:** 5 Jul 2010, 07:05 pm »

Imagine taking piano lessons. Every lesson the teacher yells at you to just bang every note as hard as you can and make sure there is no hint of dynamic shading.

FredT300B · « **Reply #15 on:** 5 Jul 2010, 07:30 pm »

Quote from: Construct on 5 Jul 2010, 03:43 pm

That's no joke! I have not seen that chart, but it confirms what I have been hearing. 4db of dynamic range???? That's completely pathetic!

The dynamic range measurement was done by a software application that's available to member of the Pleasurize Music Organization.
http://www.dynamicrange.de/node/1

Last year my musician sons were recording some tracks in an Austin, TX studio, and I asked them to burn me a CD with the raw files before their mastering engineer "Californicated up" the music to conform to popular compression norms. You can't imagine how good a Fender Stratocaster played through a Mesa Boogie tube amp sounds with a 16dB dynamic range!

Some of their songs are at this link. The copies on the link has quite a bit more compression than the pre-mastered files, but still less compressed than most rock music today. Listen to my son Matt's composition "The Heights" for an example. He's playing guitar on this one.
http://www.myspace.com/lowrentatx

Napalm · « **Reply #16 on:** 5 Jul 2010, 07:52 pm »

Quote from: FredT300B on 5 Jul 2010, 03:20 pm

Slowhand, 1977, DR=14dB

You don't want to listen to the SACD version.

Nap.

James Romeyn · « **Reply #17 on:** 5 Jul 2010, 09:06 pm »

A Roy Buchanan album I worked on sounded OK in the studio. By the time it was mastered, to say the dynamics were squashed and the spatial qualities flattened is a gross understatement. The early 70s was the beginning of the era in which studio owners, studio makers, and the makers of studio gear sold engineers (and to a lesser extent the public) on the philosophy that the more processing the better the studio and the better the product.

jsaliga · « **Reply #18 on:** 6 Jul 2010, 01:06 am »

Quote from: jimdgoulding on 5 Jul 2010, 02:01 pm

The RVG super edition CD of Andrew Hill's Point of Departure. Dry as Melba toast. This was one of if not the first RVG se remasters from Blue Note and one that begs to be redone. Come on Cuscana!

Many of the RVG remasters are compressed and hot. Most of what I buy is on vinyl: some are audiophile reissue pressings cut at 45RPM and others are vintage original pressings. Of course, many original jazz pressings (especially Clef, Riverside, and Blue Note) can fetch some pretty steep prices for minty copies when you can even find them. One jazz reissue label that has done fairly well with their CDs and shown some respect for the music is Original Jazz Classics.

--Jerome

FredT300B · « **Reply #19 on:** 6 Jul 2010, 01:19 am »

"Even some of the most enthusiastic combatants in the Loudness War agree that a loud sound achieved through compression involves a Faustian deal with the pshchoacoustic devil... the further you're willing to go with compression, the more you risk the listener just tuning out". That quote is from "Perfecting Sound Forever", a history of recorded sound by Greg Milner.

http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/books/non-fiction/article6674875.ece