Black Sabbath 13: mastered too loud

Riff Raff

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So if I buy this cd at,Lets say Walmart,Its gonna sound like shit?

Not shit as the album is actually quite decent musically but the mastering is a bit off putting. Loudness War is one of the most annoying things in music lately for me.
 

Riff Raff

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I may plan on still getting it myself because as much as the mastering of it was a bit off given the loudness thing it isn't as bad as its being made out to be. The main problem I have with the album is the vocals personally but not a big problem with the production like on some other albums with the same issue.
 

LG

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Say LG,I know ya spoke on the quality difference of the jap Cd's compared to-
I can't remember what they was:bonk:
The 13 album that I sampled(Full lp/cd)on Ytube I only got 1/2 way through it but I could detect some rough spots on a few tracks but the majority of it sounded pretty clean&or what Sabbath is suppose to sound like&thats with goin through my stereo with the Fishers at less than 1/2 volume.
How would we really know the actual sound it was suppose to have without having the original masters before they bumped up the loudness to compare?
Were stuck with what we got:heheh:

It's fairly easy to spot a CD that's been messed with Squidbilly. Not all of them have been tampered with. Simple test play a CD in your collection that you can turn up to a relatively loud volume level, it should open up the sound and put you right in the middle of the band, like they're in the room with you.

A CD that has been tinkered with at the studio level, you won't be able to play it nearly as loud on your home system, you'll notice the difference you can't turn it up as much on your volume control for one thing, and it doesn't sound right when you do crank it up.

There are literally hordes of collectors out there who have written about this phenomenon and the technical details far more eloquently than I ever could. One result of this "Loudness War", is the very first run CD's back in the 80's early 90's are among the most prized by collectors, they were done straight from the master tape without changing the default SPL levels.

Not all the Japanese SHM series CD's are tampered with some of them sound excellent.
 

Riff Raff

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Andy Sneap never does this when he produces albums, despite it not bugging me that much on 13 I wish he had been the producer for it when you consider the great job he did with Accept.
 

METALPRIEST

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I love the album and have spun it 4 tomes already. But if I was to point out any problem at all?? It would have to be reaching for straws in the later second half of the disc. It seems to be lacking in ideas for an album that starts off quite strong.

The doom style moving into the blues shuffle becomes very predictable.
 

Khor1255

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That is the best review I've heard so far. I'm still trying to wrap my brain around it.
 

Lynch

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I disagree, you can easily adjust a "low recording" to listenable levels but a ridiculously loud recording is almost useless you can't tweak the controls to get it listenable at varying volume levels.
I agree with this completely. I would rather have the mix too low than too loud for the exact reason LG spoke of here.

And for the record (see what I did there? :oyea:), Rick Rubin has ZERO excuse for f*cking up a mix. He's been doing this for way too long and has done far too many albums to say "oops", that is, unless his auditory senses have really dropped beyond the point of being able to tell how good or bad something sounds. *shrug*
 

Lynch

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As for the album, I have only heard God Is Dead? so far (which btw, is a lame title when ended with a question mark).

The music in that song is pretty good, but Ozzy's vocals sound more like an Ozzy album than anything most of us were probably hoping for from a Sabbath tune. I need to give the entire album a listen before I give it my blessings or I start ripping it.
 

LG

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My question wasn't whether it was wise to piggy back onto each channel so much as it was a question of whether they make a device that allows you to add speakers to a system (a sort of speaker splitter if you will)?

I can see I wasn't clear enough in my initial question. Sorry about that.

There are splitters out there Khor, mainly designed for stereo/hi-fi shops to connect various speakers to one amplifier for demonstration purposes. But if you are talking about a splitter than can take the power from a two channel amplifier and then send it to 11 speakers then I don't think that's possible.(Unless it's a professional grade PA amplifier and they're not cheap)

Everytime you add a speaker to your chain you increase the power requirement from the amplifier as the average impedance drops, and eventually you will blow it up. Your brother in-law would be better served to get a professional to do something like the upgrade he has in mind even though it will cost some money it should last a long time.
 

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