Compression Ruins New Metallica Album, Some Fans Say
Some Metallica fans are complaining that the band's ninth studio record, 'Death Magnetic,' is -- to borrow from Huey Lewis's 'Back to the Future' character -- just too darn loud, the Wall Street Journal reports.
Since some folks might figure that the pioneering metal band's recordings are supposed to be loud, this grievance warrants clarification. Metallica fans would never lament riffs' being too brutal or vocals' being too gravelly, but they are mourning the fact that the loud-soft dynamics and sonic richness found on the band's seminal records are nowhere to be found on 'Death Magnetic.' The culprit? The increasingly common practice of extreme compression.
Compression, to oversimplify, is a studio process in which softly and loudly recorded sounds are brought to a more equitable level; sound waves that may resemble a stretched-out cotton ball are compressed to look more like a solid block. Intense compression jobs would result, for instance, in a song's delicate bridge sounding just as loud as its bombastic chorus.
While engineers have long used compression to an extent (the reason that the yowls of Led Zeppelin's Robert Plant don't come out distorted), the digital age of music has ushered in this more intense implementation.
Since many music listeners now use low-fidelity components (small computer speakers or headphones, for instance) to access low-fidelity files like MP3s, producers and mastering engineers have taken it upon themselves to ratchet up compression, making those measly sounds seem louder.
If you've noticed the distinction, for instance, between the warm nuances of George Jones's voice on '60s recordings and Toby Keith's nearly robotic tone on more recent ones, you've found one of the problems with increased compression.
In any event, keep in mind that none of these grievances concern Metallica's new songs, themselves. We're just glad that -- overly compressed or not -- Metallica has learned its lesson from 2003's 'St. Anger' and brought back the metal. [From: Wall Street Journal]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
HARRY said 7:59AM on 10-07-2008
CD;S ARE SMALL AND CONVENIENT, CAN'T COME CLOSE TO THE FULL SOUND OF VINYL. PROGRESS IS NOT ALWAYS BETTER.. THE MUSIC ON ALL CD'S IS COMPRESSED LOSING THE HIGHS AND LOWS.
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