Glitch in I am

It sounds like a voice saying "Wa" really quick. Could be a scratch track or sliver of audio left on an open track during mixdown that should have been deleted. With all the vocals Matt has going on in all these songs it's probably very difficult to keep track of it all. What surprises me is the mastering dude missed it, especially since he's a big name and that's his job.

That's not mastering dude's job. Mastering dude's job is to equalize the tracks. That's pretty much it.

Production (choosing which tracks to use), engineering (assembling the tracks into songs) and mixing (choosing where the tracks go, volume/prominence speaking) were all done by Matt - when one person takes on all that responsiblity, it has the upside of coming out like he wants it to, but the downside of lacking someone else's perspective.

By the time mastering dude gets it, the tracks are likely all set in stone, more or less.
 
That's not mastering dude's job. Mastering dude's job is to equalize the tracks. That's pretty much it.

Production (choosing which tracks to use), engineering (assembling the tracks into songs) and mixing (choosing where the tracks go, volume/prominence speaking) were all done by Matt - when one person takes on all that responsiblity, it has the upside of coming out like he wants it to, but the downside of lacking someone else's perspective.

By the time mastering dude gets it, the tracks are likely all set in stone, more or less.

A good mastering engineer notices glitches like that and notify's the recording studio so they can re-mix the song. I know what mastering is, I have been recording for 30 years.

I am not trying to start a peeing match here or call anyone out on anything, it's unfortunate it wasn't caught is all. Either way it doesn't matter, the song kicks ass. I seem to remember Accept having a glitch like that in an early album, it happens.
 
Yeah, but being good at your job and being a morally good person are independant of each other ;)

Also, I still don't hear it. I agree with atreides, I think it's just the effect from having two tracks.
 
I just listened on my studio monitors several times and didn't hear anything at all. That was straight from the mastered file. I've also listened to a CD copy, and didn't hear anything then either. Bizzare.

Maybe there's a glitch on certain versions, as someone suggested?
 
Ahhhhhh! Now I hear it! You ruined this for me now. I'll always be focused on it, like when a car is coming towards you on a dark road and you keep staring at it's headlights.

On a side note, there is a song on Symphony X's "Paradise Lost", I think it is "Set the World On Fire", that I think I can hear the drummer hit a mic, that annoys me every time I hear it.
 
I don't even hear it there..... :err:
Ah well, not a bad thing, I suppose.

But I have the CD version and the iTunes (USA) version, and I don't hear it on either of those.

It would seem weird to me that only some versions would have it...I still think it's just the combination of sounds at that point - if you can't pay attention to more than one at once, all together they probably sound strange.
 
Yeah, I spotted it, I think it's close to 6:31.3 on my iTunes version. It does sound like a very quick "Wa", just like RichS said. I guess it must be an artefact of the many layers in the recording, which I imagine must be difficult to keep a handle on. Not going to let it affect my enjoyment of the song. It's too awesome for that.

Edit:

It would seem weird to me that only some versions would have it...I still think it's just the combination of sounds at that point - if you can't pay attention to more than one at once, all together they probably sound strange.
Maybe, but this is just one line being sung.

For me, it's the word "watch" in "I am the Father of Lights: watch me put on a show!". It doesn't sound like 'watch', more like an out of place 'wa'. It's being said so fast I might just be losing it, but it's definitely there.
 
Okay...I think what y'all are hearing is where Matt overlaps the two words "Lights" and "Watch"; i.e., "I am the Father of Lights: watch me put on a show!" No glitch. Mama's always right. :)
 
Of course it doesn't sound natural....nobody can naturally sing 2 words at once.
That's a fair point, LOL. This is one of those songs that could never be performed live properly without 3 Matts.

Okay...I think what y'all are hearing is where Matt overlaps the two words "Lights" and "Watch"; i.e., "I am the Father of Lights: watch me put on a show!" No glitch. Mama's always right. :)
Ahh, that's a really good point, I'm not going to argue with you on that one. It's just a bit of an unfortunate overlap, it would seem. However, now that I know what it's supposed to be, it doesn't sound as bad.
 
BM, thanks for posting that link - what we are talking about is in there @ 1:26. I don't know, none of these explanations sound right to me. Although it does sound kinda like a human "Wa", it's so much louder than the other vocals. It totally sounds like a leftover artifact of something else. Doesn't sound at all like a cymbal, either. I know "Matt's Mom said so" should always be more than enough explanation, but it still sounds so unnatural to me ;)
 
Hmm...I always noticed those tracks overlapped a bit, but it never bothered me. In fact, almost every line in that entire song overlaps a tiny bit with the next one.
 
Ahhhhhh! Now I hear it! You ruined this for me now. I'll always be focused on it, like when a car is coming towards you on a dark road and you keep staring at it's headlights.

On a side note, there is a song on Symphony X's "Paradise Lost", I think it is "Set the World On Fire", that I think I can hear the drummer hit a mic, that annoys me every time I hear it.

I hear that too in the Symphony X CD. I downloaded, so I chalked it up to a glitch from downloading. When I rip my CDs to my computer, the same noise or a ripping sound occurs for a split second happens to random CDs. I don't hear anything unusual in "I AM"
 
Perhaps one of the lower harmony lines of "watch" kicks in a bit sooner than the others? I've listened to it several times and I still don't think it is a glitch, it still sounds like a part of the overlap to me, and if Matt doesn't hear it, it must have been intentional. Perhaps since we haven't heard the "Watch me put on a show!" tracks apart from the "I am the Father of Lights" tracks, we can't quite discern both of them clearly.
 
N'way, my objective was to know if it was only my copy or it was a 'normal' error. Since I bought it on iTunes, I was expecting a glitchless product but now I know I'm not the only one. I'll live with that glitch, it's not big deal... :p

and intentional or not, it sounds awful, sorry... :p When I first heard it the first time I listened to it I had a 'sour face' and said 'Oawch' :p