backspacer sound?

Stu42

So what do you guys think are the chances that backspacer is going to be properly produced and mastered? I love self-titled, but it is possibly the worst sounding record in my entire collection, and has gotten to be borderline unplayable. Have Brendan O'Brien is a good step, but he's shown to be as vulnerable to loudness wars as anyone else. Its a shame cause pearl jam is so much better then that.
Personally, I say we got a 1:2 chance mostly because I wanna stay optimisitic and got some sounds like it'll kill on headphones. What does everyone else think?

lostdogs77

I agree. Unfortunately it seems like very few people that have control over the issue are overly concerned. It is probably hard to convince music executives the importance of high fidelity sound when mp3 is the most popular format right now. I know that Neil Young is on this issue pretty hard.

Quarterman98

I'm not sure I understand. What's wrong with the sound on self-titled?? I think riot act is their worst album, so I guess that means I think it has the worst sound...but something tells me that's not what you mean...

lostdogs77

BTW I was just talking about sound quality in general. not pointing the finger at avocado

wnh1977

I never understood the argument that "Avacado" sounds poor. Ok, it might be a little loud, but I thought the production sounded much cleaner and clearer than "Riot Act". Yes, the loudness of CD's is a big topic these days, but I don't think "Avacodo" is in the same league as "Death Magnetic" by Metallica, for example.

I guess I feel like "Avacodo", "Yield", and "Vs." are clean, well-produced, good sounding albums... while "Riot Act" sounds a little muddy ("Ghost", "Save You") at times.

Stephen Flow

Quarterman98 wrote:

I'm not sure I understand. What's wrong with the sound on self-titled?? I think riot act is their worst album, so I guess that means I think it has the worst sound...but something tells me that's not what you mean...

it's compressed to shit and there's no headroom in the audio.

lostdogs77

Maybe it is cool to pick on the avocado in general. I thought it was a pretty strong effort.

lostdogs77

Stephen Flow wrote:

Quarterman98 wrote:

I'm not sure I understand. What's wrong with the sound on self-titled?? I think riot act is their worst album, so I guess that means I think it has the worst sound...but something tells me that's not what you mean...

it's compressed to shit and there's no headroom in the audio.

Has anyone heard any recent releases that do sound really good? No sarcasm intended

DiRtyFranK38

i definitely can agree that avocado is extremely compressed and there really isn't much headroom in the audio as one said. however, i feel that it basically works with the kind of songs on that album though! life wasted through marker in the sand for example, are such punchy, crunchy tunes that really work well with that sharp edge production. however, an album like yield, that would never work with. i think backspacer will have a good blend of both.

Stephen Flow

DiRtyFranK38 wrote:

i definitely can agree that avocado is extremely compressed and there really isn't much headroom in the audio as one said. however, i feel that it basically works with the kind of songs on that album though! life wasted through marker in the sand for example, are such punchy, crunchy tunes that really work well with that sharp edge production. however, an album like yield, that would never work with. i think backspacer will have a good blend of both.

I agree with most of what you said but I really think Comatose sounds the worst on the record... Clipping out the headroom takes away a lot of the dynamic of songs, I just kind of feel like we're missing out on some of the subtleties that would normally be there.

Stephen Flow

lostdogs77 wrote:

Stephen Flow wrote:

Quarterman98 wrote:

I'm not sure I understand. What's wrong with the sound on self-titled?? I think riot act is their worst album, so I guess that means I think it has the worst sound...but something tells me that's not what you mean...

it's compressed to shit and there's no headroom in the audio.

Has anyone heard any recent releases that do sound really good? No sarcasm intended

Pretty much anything by Wilco.

lostdogs77

Wilco is one of those bands that I regret not getting into.

Stu42

Stephen Flow wrote:

it's compressed to shit and there's no headroom in the audio.

+1 By about song 5 my ears are killing me on a stereo, and on headphones the drums sound like theyre in another room. There is just no depth to the sound whatsoever. Personally, Yield is one of my favorite headphone albums and it's because of how warm the sound is, hopefully we can get back to that, even if this album turns out to be totally different.

DewieCox

The record is mastered properly. It sounds pretty awesome. The S/T cd is every bit as bad as Death Magnetic as far as distortion goes.

Dark Star

I've heard the term compression before, but headroom? Anyone care to elaborate?

Dark Star

DewieCox wrote:

The record is mastered properly. It sounds pretty awesome. The S/T cd is every bit as bad as Death Magnetic as far as distortion goes.

You audiophiles need to explain yourselves better! And what sounds pretty awesome, Backspacer? You're the man, how bout a tracklisting,,, kidding.

Stu42

Dark Star wrote:

I've heard the term compression before, but headroom? Anyone care to elaborate?

I think what he was referring to is the "space" in music. Opposite of compression basically, it's called compression because it makes the sound seem as if it is all piled on top of and squeezed into eachother. When a record isn't compressed, and especially on headphones, it sounds as if the music is all around you and given space, ie. headroom.

soulsinging

Stu42 wrote:

Stephen Flow wrote:

it's compressed to shit and there's no headroom in the audio.

+1 By about song 5 my ears are killing me on a stereo, and on headphones the drums sound like theyre in another room. There is just no depth to the sound whatsoever. Personally, Yield is one of my favorite headphone albums and it's because of how warm the sound is, hopefully we can get back to that, even if this album turns out to be totally different.

I'm not a huge audiophile, but even I noticed this. The album literally physically hurts to listen to.

Evacuation Rules

The 2008 bootlegs are the worst of all. Bloated bass, crispy highs and distortion galore. Every PJ release/series gets progressively worse sounding. It shocks me how many musicians simply don't care about this kind of shit.

Stephen Flow

Evacuation Rules wrote:

The 2008 bootlegs are the worst of all. Bloated bass, crispy highs and distortion galore. Every PJ release/series gets progressively worse sounding. It shocks me how many musicians simply don't care about this kind of shit.

Yeah I brought this up when the 08 boots were released, they sounded awful, but a lot of people here told me to stop bitching... I'm fortunate to have the recordings, I just wish they had been produced better...

Unfortunately, a lot of musicians don't realize what is going on in terms of mixing... myself, I had to take audio production classes in college for my major so I learned a bit about the whole process... after doing that I really started to take notice of the quality of recorded music in general and I've become somewhat of an audiophile over the last 4-5 years.

For those curious about headroom, this wikipedia article explains it better than I can... someone said space and that's a good description but there's a bit more to it... it's almost like a threshold of sorts... if you go past that threshold, clipping occurs. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Headroom

knik

As I understand, records are made louder/compressed these days so that they come through louder on the radio, and also because most people have a general perception that a louder is better. CDs are usually compressed for this reason, while most of the vinyl are not subjected to this, because in general the people who buy vinyls are more conscious of the audio quality Vs loudness. I'm sure that the big record company/label executives want the CDs to be loud, so the producer and mastering techs have to make compromises to appease the recording executives.
So now that Pearl Jam are not constrained by any record company's loudness requirements, will BOB and the mastering techs give us a dynamic sounding CD? Lets hope so!