KVR Audio

dewgong · Post by **dewgong** » Fri Feb 13, 2015 4:14 pm

Ive heard tracks by artists like Boards Of Canada Arca and even Flylo that have an amateurish sound. Perhaps this is just relative to the brilliance of their work as a whole. I thought it might be useful (if this hasnt been done already) to post examples of flawed tracks and to note our criticisms.

Note: Flylo's 1983 is very flawed in my opinion but nonetheless is a delight all the way through. I do wish the soundworld wasn't so gritty and muddy though

infectedpimple · Post by **infectedpimple** » Fri Feb 13, 2015 10:04 pm

I'm not deeply versed in the metal genre, so I don't know how it compares to other productions common to that genre/time, but I found a copy of Metallica's And Justice for All by the side of the road one day a few summers back. Still in playable shape, so took it home and listened. Couldn't believe how bland, sterile and weak it sounded. It's been awhile since I've listened to it so I guess I can't really level any specific critique at the moment, other than just how dry and flat it was.

GeorgeZ · Post by **GeorgeZ** » Fri Feb 13, 2015 11:13 pm

Pink's album "Missundaztood". I thought the album was good (yes, I have VERY diverse musical taste), but the mixing was WWWAAAYYYY off. They couldn't decide if they wanted a rock or a hip hop album, so they mixed the two styles, and imo it just didn't work. It's basically big rock guitars with a lazy fat hip hop beat, and the two parts were mixed, mutually exclusive, to how it would be mixed in the two genres. I've always felt that was a weird choice, yet, the album sales wise and reception wise did well, so what do I know eh?

Zombie Queen · Post by **Zombie Queen** » Fri Feb 13, 2015 11:42 pm

Just turn on random fm radio.

Aloysius · Post by **Aloysius** » Fri Feb 13, 2015 11:49 pm

Anything by Rebecca Black.

bmrzycki · Post by **bmrzycki** » Sat Feb 14, 2015 12:14 am

There was quite a stink around the internet a few years ago surrounding Metallica's "Death Magnetic" album. It's compressed an ungodly amount and there are even examples of digital clipping. It sounds...bad.

Here's an article about it:
http://mastering-media.blogspot.com/200 ... pping.html
http://mastering-media.blogspot.com/200 ... etter.html

d-s-m · Post by **d-s-m** » Sat Feb 14, 2015 12:46 am

Wu-Tang Clans '36 Chambers'......great album but always loathed the mixing and mastering, sounds so amateurish.

Supposedly RZA "intended for it to sound that way", not sure if I buy that excuse though.

dewgong · Post by **dewgong** » Sat Feb 14, 2015 1:03 am

Oneohtrix Point Never's R Plus 7 is equal parts brilliant and awful. Some of the tracks contain sounds which just seem to jostle against each other. The vast majority is astounding though as most of his work happens to be

lfm · Post by **lfm** » Sat Feb 14, 2015 4:56 am

GeorgeZ wrote:Pink's album "Missundaztood". I thought the album was good (yes, I have VERY diverse musical taste), but the mixing was WWWAAAYYYY off. They couldn't decide if they wanted a rock or a hip hop album, so they mixed the two styles, and imo it just didn't work. It's basically big rock guitars with a lazy fat hip hop beat, and the two parts were mixed, mutually exclusive, to how it would be mixed in the two genres. I've always felt that was a weird choice, yet, the album sales wise and reception wise did well, so what do I know eh?

I just discovered Pink with the True Love album - and it has some oddities in my taste too.

The song True Love they put vinyl effect on verses - for some reasons, I don't know but there is this popping and a little noise behind vocals in verses. Really weird, I thought I had something wrong with my equipment until I listened on Spotify too.

Then some mixes there are really terrible simple VST amp sims on a row of tracks. Sound horrible. One song song, the duet with a mail, don't remember - played a lot - you got this guitar amp sim sounding more like 8bit resolution or something sounding.

But really excellent album - I think 3-4 songs that are not top out of 20.

Hermetech Mastering · Post by **Hermetech Mastering** » Wed Feb 18, 2015 8:55 pm

Ulrich Schnauss's album, Goodbye, from 2007, is a fantastic example of how bad over-limiting can sound. The album is ruined for me due to all the limiting distortion, despite the fact that the tracks are amazing. I asked the mastering engineer Simon Davey from the Exchange in London about this, and he said the album came to him already crushed. I hear it was the same story with Death Magnetic.

DJ Warmonger · Post by **DJ Warmonger** » Thu Feb 19, 2015 8:16 am

Oh boy, trance scene if full of clipping tracks. I even bought one, it sounded great at Beatport quality though

https://pro.beatport.com/track/acidic-t ... ix/5126318

There are of course many worse cases, but I don't have time to take note of bad music.

dewgong · Post by **dewgong** » Thu Feb 19, 2015 3:23 pm

Actress is on another plane/dimension but there is a track on splaszh which is pretty bad.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YnIc9LOZjWk

Nightpolymath · Post by **Nightpolymath** » Tue Feb 24, 2015 1:36 pm

RHCP Californication.

Hermetech Mastering · Post by **Hermetech Mastering** » Tue Feb 24, 2015 3:35 pm

Going against the grain, Donald Fagen - The Nightfly, heralded as bastion of top digital sound quality, and it is, I guess, but digital has come a long way since 1981 and despite being crystal clear I find the high end very irritating. This is with the 24/48 remaster, Crookwood conversion, direct to ATC monitors. Very fatiguing.

Deep Purple · Post by **Deep Purple** » Tue Feb 24, 2015 4:02 pm

It seems a weird concept to think of any production as 'flawed'. There are billions of recordings that when put up against a standard of perfection that could be considered 'flawed', but I don't know that perfection would improve them. If you tried that the piece of music would no longer be the same piece of music.

I like my music to be as intended, 'flaws' and all.

Examples of flawed commercial releases