Name some badly mastered tracks....

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Posted by stevieboy32808 on Dec-21-2005 00:21:

Name some badly mastered tracks....

Here are some songs that I like which are badly mastered. So far I can name 3:

Rank1 - Top Gear
Deep Dish - Say Hello
Thomas Bronzwaer - Close Horizon

These songs sound too muffled. It's like these tracks are wearing a gas mask. I often have to increase the WOW effect as well as the treble (or 'highs' as some people call it) to get a decent sound. What are some of your favorite tracks that should have spent more time in the mastering studio?

Posted by RapidFire on Dec-21-2005 00:25:

depeche mode - songs of faith and devotion. all of it is badly mastered. i think it was to add to the grungy sound of the time but damn is it annoying

rob dougan - furious angels. again im sure it was done to add rawness to the sound because I know rob d can make some well mastered tunes (hard times) but it tends to hurt the listening experience

Posted by tylerc on Dec-21-2005 00:35:

santiago nino - sudden death

i played it out before listening to it - bad idea. i had to mix out of it almost immediately. the kick sounds like buttshit.

Posted by DJ Sid on Dec-21-2005 00:39:

Randy Katana - Pleasure Island

just sounds horrible, enough said.

Posted by isoterra on Dec-21-2005 00:45:

jan johnston - silent words (lyric & natali remix)

might just be the vinly pressing, i don't know. was gutted when i first played it cos it's one of my all time favourite tunes, but sounds HORRIBLE on my decks. i found an mp3 rip on audiogalaxy which was much better in comparison though, so not sure what the deal was there.

oh and fred baker vs nyram - confirmation, whilst having a nice melody, sounds like something i knocked up when first getting to grips with an early version of fruityloops

Posted by Az on Dec-21-2005 00:45:

anything by the digital blonde

Posted by Scoops on Dec-21-2005 01:02:

Junior Jack - E~Samba

Posted by PlasticSoul on Dec-21-2005 02:09:

maybe the early ozgur can's?

Posted by Numidia on Dec-21-2005 07:27:

I think you have to charge the bulk of how a production sounds to the producer who made the tune, not the masterer. If a tune is produced poorly than no matter how good a professional masterer is, it still is likely to sound bad, only maybe a little improved from before. Whereas, if a tune is produced to a pro quality, than the masterer's job becomes much easier and they can improve upon an already great sounding tune. But in the end, a production's overall quality rests with the producer.

Posted by [mart] on Dec-21-2005 10:57:

Posted by aloep on Dec-21-2005 12:39:

quote:
Originally posted by Az
anything by the digital blonde

Was just thinking that. Only his post 2001 stuff though.

Posted by RebeL9 on Dec-21-2005 12:46:

the reason to why Digital Blondes tracks are badly mastered can be the fact that he produced them with an Atari with 4 mb memory. The same he had been using for over 10 years.

Posted by Rick D on Dec-21-2005 13:45:

filo & Peri - Dance with a devil

No bass

Posted by SYSTEM-J on Dec-21-2005 14:12:

quote:
Originally posted by RapidFire
rob dougan - furious angels. again im sure it was done to add rawness to the sound because I know rob d can make some well mastered tunes (hard times) but it tends to hurt the listening experience

Eh? Do you mean the album? It seemed fine to me. Kicks like a ****** on my stereo, and the strings are crystal clear.

I'd say Juno Reactor - Bible of Dreams. It's got that dark, driving goa thing going on, but the beats have no kick to them. Why anyone would deliberately master the beats to be so puny is beyond me, because it really takes away from what the album is trying to do.

Posted by Xtatica on Dec-21-2005 14:42:

'Call on me' type over compressed tracks get my goat - it might sound good in a club as you can compensate for the sound drop but on home equipment sounds a little well you know....

Posted by RapidFire on Dec-21-2005 14:46:

odd. maybe I have a bad copy but when I put it in my dads system the quality was definetly sub-par and it sounds kinda convoluted. still one of my favourite albums though.

Posted by Spirit5 on Dec-21-2005 16:20:

Even though it's one of my favorites from this year, I would say Ahmet Ertenu's "Why (Original Mix)" has some distortion issues with the breakdown. I first thought it was my record, and then when I got it on MP3 it still had this really high pitched distortion during the breakdown. I can only think it had something to do with the mastering of the track.

Posted by Reactic on Dec-21-2005 16:27:

tiesto - just be (album)

Posted by ieko on Dec-21-2005 16:34:

quote:
Originally posted by Spirit5
Even though it's one of my favorites from this year, I would say Ahmet Ertenu's "Why (Original Mix)" has some distortion issues with the breakdown. I first thought it was my record, and then when I got it on MP3 it still had this really high pitched distortion during the breakdown. I can only think it had something to do with the mastering of the track.

Yeah totally agree with you there. I purchased a wave version from beatport though and there isn't any distortion (i had 2 copies of the vinyl which both had the distortion).

Posted by Spirit5 on Dec-21-2005 16:37:

quote:
Originally posted by ieko
Yeah totally agree with you there. I purchased a wave version from beatport though and there isn't any distortion (i had 2 copies of the vinyl which both had the distortion).

Thats cool, i'll probably get the WAV version too, since i'm only buying WAV files of my absolute favorites because they take up a lot more space on my HD than MP3 (and more $$). Thats interesting that there isn't any distortion on the WAV....they must have touched it up to eliminate it.

Posted by david.michael on Dec-21-2005 16:43:

quote:
Originally posted by Reactic
tiesto - just be (album)

What's wrong with that...?

Posted by Spirit5 on Dec-21-2005 16:44:

I dunno if it's the encoding of the MP3 I got of it or the actual mastering of the track, but Jonas Steur's brilliant track "Silent Waves" which is among my favorites of 05 as well, has some distortion too during the breakdown. I guess i'll just have to download a WAV of it sometime and find out if it was removed on the WAV version of that too...it may just be that these tunes were really high pitched when produced???

Posted by iammesol on Dec-21-2005 16:53:

anything by Junkie XL

just kidding!!!

Posted by Numidia on Dec-21-2005 17:47:

quote:
Originally posted by SYSTEM-J
Why anyone would deliberately master the beats to be so puny is beyond me, because it really takes away from what the album is trying to do.

Again... this puniness of the drums lies with the producing, not the mastering.

Posted by Jeremy H on Dec-21-2005 17:59:

Like som of you said.. anything by digital blonde.
Just listen to "Mandrake - Universal Soul (The Digital Blonde remix)"

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