The Official Metallica - Death Magnetic Thread

Yeah, the packaging is a bit wierd - I was mostly annoyed by the missing lyrics

I have the coffin box, and overall it is a decent set - lots of stuff.

However, the shirt that comes with it is cheap - just a boring white coffin shape, with two Metallica M's on the side of them..it looks so homemade

You get a huge-ass banner, which is cool, but it has the same boring, cheap design.

Mglaffas81 wrote:

You get a huge-ass banner, which is cool, but it has the same boring, cheap design.

I first read that as "boner".

I think that happened to some people here as well! !!

kmorg wrote:

The digipak version has the logo on the cover art

Mine didn't.

E-mail



Rock News 19-Sep-08Industry Complaints Against The Distorted Sound Of Metallica's "Death Magnetic" Finally Surface
Submitted by: DSR

Mastering engineer Ian Shepherd says Metallica’s new "Death Magnetic" has been compressed just about as much as it’s possible to compress audio.

This is nothing new. In 2007, producer David Bendeth says over the past decade and a half, a revolution in recording technology has changed the way albums are produced, mixed and mastered — almost always for the worse. "They make it loud to get [listeners'] attention," Bendeth says. Like many of his peers, Bendeth believes that relying too much on this effect can obscure sonic detail, rob music of its emotional power and leave listeners with what engineers call ear fatigue. "I think most everything is mastered a little too loud," Bendeth says. "The industry decided that it’s a volume contest."

According to Shepherd, the problem goes beyond compression. He says some parts are actually distorted from digital clipping. "As you can easily see," he writes, "the CD version on the bottom has been heavily compressed, limited and/or clipped, and sounds massively distorted as a result." Later analysis showed that the CD is 10 dB louder than the Guitar Hero version, which sounds about twice as loud to the ear, according to one description. "That’s some wicked compression."

According to this analysis, audiophiles would be better off recording the songs from the videogame than buying the album because the Guitar Hero version has far more dynamic range than the hyper-compressed CD version.

Ted Jenson who mastered "Death Magnetic," whose comments can be supposedly found on the "Metallica Forum" says he is not to blame. "I get to slam my head against that brick wall every day. In this case, the mixes were already brick-walled before they arrived at my place. Suffice to say I would never be pushed to overdrive things as far as they are here. Believe me I'm not proud to be associated with this one, and we can only hope that some good will come from this in some form of backlash against volume above all else."

In this case, the engineers, Greg Fidelman and Andrew Scheps, put their hands in mastering/brick walling the mixes before it was even sent to Ted Jenson.

When will engineers and mastering engineers end this loudness war? When it comes to making records, Metallica is known to sweat every last drop of blood. Do they deserve an album with a sound comparable to a tv commercial? Absolutely not! Please remaster and remix this incredible record and give the band and the fans a record with soul.

If you want to sign the petition for "Death Magnetic" to be remixed or remastered, please visit: http://www.gopetition.com/petitions/re-mix-or-remaster-death-magnetic.html.

E-mail

interesting email, would like to see the reply if there is one

Would someone please answer my post from the previous page? If you feel you must flame me for my ignorance, I can handle it. I have thick skin, but after you do so, please answer my question. Thank you very much.

(Old man runs out gets his asbestos suit on after giving kmorg the perfect opening)

unbelievable, i've been here twice as long as some of you and I only have 251 postings.

You've been PM'd, bgast

bgast1 wrote:

Would someone please answer my post from the previous page? If you feel you must flame me for my ignorance, I can handle it. I have thick skin, but after you do so, please answer my question. Thank you very much.

(Old man runs out gets his asbestos suit on after giving kmorg the perfect opening)

unbelievable, i've been here twice as long as some of you and I only have 251 postings.

What was your question?

EDIT - never mind, looked it up, would like an answer to that question myself!

Again listening to this.....and I like it quite a bit. There's certainly something wrong with my ears, I don't hear the problem everyone's complaining about.

I do think the songs can be too long at times....but that's just a personal preference.

scottmitchell74 wrote:

Again listening to this.....and I like it quite a bit. There's certainly something wrong with my ears, I don't hear the problem everyone's complaining about.

I do think the songs can be too long at times....but that's just a personal preference.

Listen to My Apocalypse in headphones, the entire song distorts. The heavy part of The Day That Never Comes is the same way. There are many digital clicks throughout the album. The type of stereo equipment you have will also seriously change what you hear.

Well, now I know why it was mixed the way it was. They had to compress the files other wise they wouldn't fit on a regular CD. The Guitar Hero III mix will not fit on one CD. Seems to me then maybe Metallica should have written more material and put out a double CD instead of the mix that they put out. The difference is noticeable too. I have Bose on ear phones. I've had the over the ear tri-ports in the past as well. These are not noise canceling but have a lot more power to them than the over the ear phones. I also have the ear buds for my iPod and they pretty good, but not as good either the over the ear or the ones I have on now. I will never again buy anything with less quality than Bose, but then I really don't want to spend $1000.00 either for sound that I might not be able to tell the difference with.

They could have left off The Day That never Comes, that way it would have fit onto a CD comfortably. That song is definitely the worst on the CD, IMO.

joker, PM sent.

spectrefate wrote:

They could have left off The Day That never Comes, that way it would have fit onto a CD comfortably. That song is definitely the worst on the CD, IMO.

Maybe, but there still is a pretty noticeable difference with my headphones. Lars drums sound a whole lot better. The whole CD is so much cleaner from what I've heard so far. Still in my opinion, it is a great CD, but the mix thing really ticks me off now. Why? Metallica Why? do you guys write such a great album and then subject your loyal fans to substandard quality?

I don't think this has anything to do with the band. Record label maybe? I'm sure the band didn't scrutinize every track before approving them. Is Rick Rubin privy to this blame? I'm not sure.

let me get this guitar hero link please. My curiosity has been aroused, I must hear this quality recordings

Has Metallica made any official statement regarding the mix. I thing I am going to take a gander at their website.

I am not bothered by the distortion or the digital clicks all that much as I have listened to it everyday for a week straight and I only seem to moderately notice it on my car stereo. Btw, does anyone else think the instrumental, Suicide and Redemption, sounds very Sabbath- esque? Especially the sound of the drums towards the end. Reminded me a lot of the wizard. Peace.

detuned wrote:

scottmitchell74 wrote:

Again listening to this.....and I like it quite a bit. There's certainly something wrong with my ears, I don't hear the problem everyone's complaining about.

I do think the songs can be too long at times....but that's just a personal preference.

Listen to My Apocalypse in headphones, the entire song distorts. The heavy part of The Day That Never Comes is the same way. There are many digital clicks throughout the album. The type of stereo equipment you have will also seriously change what you hear.

Wow! Got my old recording headphones on—Sony MDR7506—and you're right. My God! This sounds absolutely horrendous this way. It's not even funny.

It seems that I might have read something about this, but don't really understand much about it. If I rip the CD to my hard drive in FLAC, is that supposed to help?

Somebody PM me with the Guitar Hero link please?

bgast1 wrote:

It seems that I might have read something about this, but don't really understand much about it. If I rip the CD to my hard drive in FLAC, is that supposed to help?

The album sounds better on my ipod than on CD - I ripped it down to 128 and it's loud, still distorts, but the bottom end isn't muddy, other than the high end distortion where the clipping occurs - the guy that mixed must have been think ipod 128.

I did read that the previous worst offender for clipping was californication by RHCP, produced by RUbin and engineered and mix by the same guy that did Death Magnetic

Wow, the GH3 version sounds completely different! Not nearly as loud... It actually sounds good. I think maybe now I can really get into this album.

An oh my God, I can actually hear the bass!