LoG Ashes of the Wake...

[MetalJonesy]

hey guys, apart from this being a killer album, i just slammed on the instrumental self titled tune again, and noticed a shit load of natural clipping in the high frequencies on both channels. is this the same for anyone else or have a fooked my tweeters? The only reason i ask is the last time i listened to the tune i couldnt remember the clipping.

 

[STINNETT]

I hear tons of clipping on that record. Nasty nasty!

 

[MetalJonesy]

glad its not me monitors, cant afford to shell out for a cpl of new tweeters at the moment, cheers dude

 

[MegaMustaine]

I don't hear too much clipping, who knows.

I love the production of that album though. I love refined and compact sounding albums, but I love the dryness and raw but technical sound of Ashes of the Wake. I like the production and album a lot more than Sacrament.

 

[alan1990]

I hear some as well.. but for sure this is one of the best sounding metal albums

 

[migreeni]

I think Mr. D.Townsend knew what he was doing Nice work, like the sounds.

 

[alan1990]

shit man... i didn't realize until this year that devy has to do with so many of my favorite sounding albums

 

[Sinister Mephisto]

Devin did As the Palaces Burn. I don't think he was involved with Ashes. Correct me if I'm wrong.

 

[alan1990]

Devin did As the Palaces Burn. I don't think he was involved with Ashes. Correct me if I'm wrong.

I just looked it up. he produced ashes

 

[migreeni]

Devin did As the Palaces Burn. I don't think he was involved with Ashes. Correct me if I'm wrong.

You stand corrected

 

[Sinister Mephisto]

Dude, where did you find that? Everything I find says he produced As the Palaces Burn and Machine produced Ashes.

 

[alan1990]

Dude, where did you find that? Everything I find says he produced As the Palaces Burn and Machine produced Ashes.

no no your right my bad devin did as the palaces burn

 

[aramism]

devin had nothing to do with ashes of the wake.

ashes of the wake was fully produced, engineered, mixed by machine. same as sacrament

 

[MetalJonesy]

id take sacrament any day over ashes fr the production and mix, it sounds alot fuller to my ears, started to notice quite a few places on sacrament too where its clipping. it really bugs me when i hear clipping on the cd.

 

[Exocaster]

AoTW clips all over the place. It's not your system.

It's from being slammed to piss in mastering, same as everything else.

Am I the only one who thinks the overcompression thing has gotten so bad it actually makes albums sound less heavy? I was listening to Opeth's Ghost Reveries yesterday, and I was focusing on the snare drum, thinking "now, snare drums don't really sound like that. They have more attack to them. This sounds soft." Now, I like to bitch about the drums on that album, and how Andy and Steven Wilson did a much better job on Deliverance and Damnation getting a more natural- and agressive- drum sound. And it occurs to me that this thing is so compressed the transient on the snare hit is just fucking gone- all the balls have been surgically removed from the drums. This is a genre of aggressive, guitar- and drum-centric music; the snare should not sound like a 909 hit. [/rant]

 

[Metaltastic]

I dunno, Ghost Reveries may not have the best snare in terms of attack, but I don't think the sound quality (the "timbre" I suppose you might say) of it is bad - and more importantly, I absolutely LOVE the guitar tone on that album, one of my favorites of all time (and I really can't stand the tone on Deliverance, it's way too scooped for me and doesn't fit the band at all IMO)

 

[Exocaster]

I dunno, Ghost Reveries may not have the best snare in terms of attack, but I don't think the sound quality (the "timbre" I suppose you might say) of it is bad - and more importantly, I absolutely LOVE the guitar tone on that album, one of my favorites of all time (and I really can't stand the tone on Deliverance, it's way too scooped for me and doesn't fit the band at all IMO)

Oh, the actual tones on Ghost Reveries are beautiful. It's just the drums that bug me a bit- I'd like to hear them less compressed and forward in the mix a bit. The mastering thing just reminded me of the compression is all. The snare sounds fine in the unaccompanied drum intro to Beneath The Mire. I don't know if it's specifically a mastering issue (though I've heard horror stories of L2 and such eating snare drums) or what.

The high mid bit on the guitars is great; very old-school Marshally. And the clean tone on Hours Of Wealth is the best clean sound I've ever heard on a metal record, without question. There's subtleties to it you just don't hear in the usual super-sterile metal clean tone. Of course, a big part of that is Mikael's playing, but still...

Back to AoTW- that's a pristine sounding mix. Now if only the mastering engineer hadn't sharted all over it...

 

[6in6flames6]

Yeah, definately clipping like a mofo. Never noticed that before. I haven't listened to this album since I knew anything about true audio quality reallly though.

 

[JeffTD]

Oh, the actual tones on Ghost Reveries are beautiful. It's just the drums that bug me a bit- I'd like to hear them less compressed and forward in the mix a bit. The mastering thing just reminded me of the compression is all. The snare sounds fine in the unaccompanied drum intro to Beneath The Mire. I don't know if it's specifically a mastering issue (though I've heard horror stories of L2 and such eating snare drums) or what.

This album actually has some of my favorite drumsounds - they're very clear and defined but incredibly natural and organic sounding, IMO, and the entire drum mix is absolutely HUGE. The OH's are my favorite part, I think - that's one thing Jens Bogren does consistently well.

 

[AudioGeekZine]

Lamb of God albums aren't clipped, see for yourself.