Dark Matter sound production or mixing quality

JKestle · April 2024

I don't know, you make a good point, but I think I'm with Ed and the band on this one. Without Watt, it doesn't happen at all...and it holds its composure when cranked. I'm enjoying it.

Stove · April 2024

JKestle said:

I don't know, you make a good point, but I think I'm with Ed and the band on this one. Without Watt, it doesn't happen at all...and it holds its composure when cranked. I'm enjoying it.

I'm not denying its a rockin album. Clearly. it is....there's just no nuance to it. And I get Watt wanted the Pearl Jam he grew up with...but if he really wanted that then they should have let Dave A play drums on the album.

*Splash Cymbal *Splash Cymbal

kmcmanus · April 2024

Stove said:

If literally anyone else had produced this album other than A. Watt it would have been a masterpiece. No Code-Avocado had a beautiful natural sound. Heck even Lightening Bolt and Gigaton have their own character. Would love to have heard these songs with that in mind. Earthlings was just so compressed and so is this..you had to be told Chad Smith was the drummer on that album rather than hearing sonically that it was Chad Smith..and the same thing with drum titan Matt Cam..its so depressing..this literally sounds like any other drummer because they stripped their sounds and crushed it so much... its sounds too modern for me, to of the Spotify generation. Everything is just slammed right in your face. There's no dynamics. I have the albums I love and so much of that is the song writing AND the sound. And the sound ain't here

This wouldn’t exist without Watt. They wrote it with him, on his gear, at his invitation. Sure they would have likely made another album eventually but probably not this soon and certainly without any of these songs.

His team won’t be mixing the boots, which will be full of these great songs. So maybe you’ll like it better then.

foriginalsin · April 2024

This mix does sound terrible. The theater sounded awful.

Listened to it on hi res qobuz, and it was miles better but still so many issues. Jeffs bass is there but its still so thin. Its extremely compressed and has no dynamic range. I also agree all the instruments sound like they’re fighting each other for space.

The atmos mix at home was better than the theater but again absolutely zero bass. There isnt even a signal being sent to the subwoofer. The spatial qualities and using all 5 speakers are cool, but again very compressed.

I have really good audiophile equipment so that is not a problem.

When I heard the live mix on Howard, I couldnt believe how good it sounded. It literally got me excited again. Clean deep bass was there, good instrument separation, it was just great.

I hope they remix and release it again.

southernmanfan · April 2024

JKestle said:

I don't know, you make a good point, but I think I'm with Ed and the band on this one. Without Watt, it doesn't happen at all...and it holds its composure when cranked. I'm enjoying it.

I'm with you here...

BIGDaddyWil · April 2024

Dynamic Range......if you're into that kind of thing. Dark Matter.........ouch!!! Still waiting for the vinyl.

https://dr.loudness-war.info/album/list/1/dr/asc?artist=pearl jam

Stove · April 2024

kmcmanus said:

Stove said:

If literally anyone else had produced this album other than A. Watt it would have been a masterpiece. No Code-Avocado had a beautiful natural sound. Heck even Lightening Bolt and Gigaton have their own character. Would love to have heard these songs with that in mind. Earthlings was just so compressed and so is this..you had to be told Chad Smith was the drummer on that album rather than hearing sonically that it was Chad Smith..and the same thing with drum titan Matt Cam..its so depressing..this literally sounds like any other drummer because they stripped their sounds and crushed it so much... its sounds too modern for me, to of the Spotify generation. Everything is just slammed right in your face. There's no dynamics. I have the albums I love and so much of that is the song writing AND the sound. And the sound ain't here

This wouldn’t exist without Watt. They wrote it with him, on his gear, at his invitation. Sure they would have likely made another album eventually but probably not this soon and certainly without any of these songs.
His team won’t be mixing the boots, which will be full of these great songs. So maybe you’ll like it better then.

Credit is due for the quickness but it's seems this is Watt's spiel, record it quick and dirty. It's similar to Rubin's "what would it sound like if you were first playing together" And they are good songs are here, absolutely....they just don't sound good.

Stove · April 2024

foriginalsin said:

This mix does sound terrible. The theater sounded awful.

Listened to it on hi res qobuz, and it was miles better but still so many issues. Jeffs bass is there but its still so thin. Its extremely compressed and has no dynamic range. I also agree all the instruments sound like they’re fighting each other for space.

The atmos mix at home was better than the theater but again absolutely zero bass. There isnt even a signal being sent to the subwoofer. The spatial qualities and using all 5 speakers are cool, but again very compressed.

I have really good audiophile equipment so that is not a problem.

When I heard the live mix on Howard, I couldnt believe how good it sounded. It literally got me excited again. Clean deep bass was there, good instrument separation, it was just great.

I hope they remix and release it again.

Many of us would love that but it's doubtful...if Metallica never did anything with St. Anger...no way will they...they'll stand by it. Which is more unfortunate if this is anyone's introductory album.

dobyblue · April 2024

foriginalsin said:

This mix does sound terrible. The theater sounded awful.

Listened to it on hi res qobuz, and it was miles better but still so many issues. Jeffs bass is there but its still so thin. Its extremely compressed and has no dynamic range. I also agree all the instruments sound like they’re fighting each other for space.

The atmos mix at home was better than the theater but again absolutely zero bass. There isnt even a signal being sent to the subwoofer. The spatial qualities and using all 5 speakers are cool, but again very compressed.

I have really good audiophile equipment so that is not a problem.

When I heard the live mix on Howard, I couldnt believe how good it sounded. It literally got me excited again. Clean deep bass was there, good instrument separation, it was just great.

I hope they remix and release it again.

There must be a set-up issue, I just listened to the title track in Atmos as my Blu-ray arrived today and one of the first things that I noted was how nice and deep and tight the low end is. Reading your comment made me wonder if it's just my fronts providing that bass but with two Paradigm Servo 15v2 subs it's hard to imitate what they can do. So I ripped the audio to 24/48 FLAC 7.1 and the LFE channel is providing what you'd hope to see...the very deep end of the bass and kick drum etc.

https://i.postimg.cc/G29z41nK/Dark-Matter.png

That's the title track, subwoofer channel 4th one down.

IamNotMichael · April 2024

If vinyl, a good pair of stereo headphones really make the album shine.

dobyblue · April 2024

Keep in mind the vinyl is the same mastering as the lossless downloads, copious amounts of dynamic range compression.

Go Beavers · April 2024

Stove said:

If literally anyone else had produced this album other than A. Watt it would have been a masterpiece. No Code-Avocado had a beautiful natural sound. Heck even Lightening Bolt and Gigaton have their own character. Would love to have heard these songs with that in mind. Earthlings was just so compressed and so is this..you had to be told Chad Smith was the drummer on that album rather than hearing sonically that it was Chad Smith..and the same thing with drum titan Matt Cam..its so depressing..this literally sounds like any other drummer because they stripped their sounds and crushed it so much... its sounds too modern for me, to of the Spotify generation. Everything is just slammed right in your face. There's no dynamics. I have the albums I love and so much of that is the song writing AND the sound. And the sound ain't here

Avocado is really ramped up and there’s little space in there.

Stove · April 2024

Go Beavers said:

Stove said:

If literally anyone else had produced this album other than A. Watt it would have been a masterpiece. No Code-Avocado had a beautiful natural sound. Heck even Lightening Bolt and Gigaton have their own character. Would love to have heard these songs with that in mind. Earthlings was just so compressed and so is this..you had to be told Chad Smith was the drummer on that album rather than hearing sonically that it was Chad Smith..and the same thing with drum titan Matt Cam..its so depressing..this literally sounds like any other drummer because they stripped their sounds and crushed it so much... its sounds too modern for me, to of the Spotify generation. Everything is just slammed right in your face. There's no dynamics. I have the albums I love and so much of that is the song writing AND the sound. And the sound ain't here

Avocado is really ramped up and there’s little space in there.

Yeahhh but it's a great album!

foriginalsin · April 2024

dobyblue said:

foriginalsin said:

This mix does sound terrible. The theater sounded awful.

Listened to it on hi res qobuz, and it was miles better but still so many issues. Jeffs bass is there but its still so thin. Its extremely compressed and has no dynamic range. I also agree all the instruments sound like they’re fighting each other for space.

The atmos mix at home was better than the theater but again absolutely zero bass. There isnt even a signal being sent to the subwoofer. The spatial qualities and using all 5 speakers are cool, but again very compressed.

I have really good audiophile equipment so that is not a problem.

When I heard the live mix on Howard, I couldnt believe how good it sounded. It literally got me excited again. Clean deep bass was there, good instrument separation, it was just great.

I hope they remix and release it again.

There must be a set-up issue, I just listened to the title track in Atmos as my Blu-ray arrived today and one of the first things that I noted was how nice and deep and tight the low end is. Reading your comment made me wonder if it's just my fronts providing that bass but with two Paradigm Servo 15v2 subs it's hard to imitate what they can do. So I ripped the audio to 24/48 FLAC 7.1 and the LFE channel is providing what you'd hope to see...the very deep end of the bass and kick drum etc.

https://i.postimg.cc/G29z41nK/Dark-Matter.png

That's the title track, subwoofer channel 4th one down.

Thank you for posting this. Ive been trying to figure this out since I hear the bass on the sub with the stereo mix.

LastExitBJP · April 2024

delete

josevolution · April 2024

I’m so glad my ears are not so acutely in tune as others here to nitpick music! I’ve been listening to DM on my way to and from work and it sounds awesome in my simple car stereo speakers!

beano.79 · April 2024

Sounds decent in my car, decent through ear buds when I'm running, sounds rubbish on vinyl

tbergs · April 2024

The wall of sound is very present at times and others less so. Definitely shines better on good headphones where you can hear the instruments behind Ed's vocals better. I'm still just streaming the album and haven't gotten the CD, but hearing some of the complaints about the CD not sounding as good has me hesitant. No interest in the vinyl. I'm out of that game now thankfully. Still have tons of records I accumulated the last 10 years and that's enough.