Special edition thought

[26]

After hearing the The Mars Volta`s "The Bedlam in Goliath" for the last two days - an album which has for my taste some very cool music on it, but is squashed close to death in the mastering, I had the idea of "Special Audio People" editions. Next to the nowadays ultra squashed releases there should be an extra not so hard squashed edition for the people who are used to listen to details.
Leaving out the financial aspect, stupid idea?
I`m aware of that this will never happen, but found it to be an interesting thought.

btw. I didn`t mean to start the boring loudness discussion for the Xth time with this post.

 

[Nebulous]

Infact, it has happened!
A local band here LORD (have a UM forum too) released a speacial order version of their last album.

 

[ahjteam]

They are called "vinyl versions"

 

[lolzgreg]

All of Sneap's recent stuff has been far from squashed. I think you just need to work with a band that doesn't care about the loudness war and a label that doesn't. There's a lot of garbage politics in the pro recording world (or at least I hear, I'm not a pro, but hopefully I will be one day )

 

[26]

back then, i think i meant something like "enjoyment editions" for people with trained ears.
like,... the commercial release with the "necessary" loudness, and the luxus version for detail listeners.

even if some releases are not squashed too hard, still some of them can be annoying to listen through.

 

[The Unavoidable]

I thought about doing that, like if you buy the album you get a free download of the less squashed version.

 

[Jind]

They are called "vinyl versions"

I agree with ahjteam on this one - if you really enjoy music, there is nothing quite like vinyl. Make the investment, get a decent turntable (which in turn forces you to move away from primarily listening on your PC or mobile devices), and go vinyl for releases you really want to enjoy in all there analog bliss.

Regardless whether bands would release "special editions" that are geared towards audiophiles one has to accept the fact that this is primarily a problem in pop music (pop being defined as not only the traditional popular music, but also almost all music being targeted towards younger generations thus including metal and hard rock releases). The loudness wars seem to be less an issue in say classical, world, folk, and jazz releases where the traditional audiophiles exist.

Special editions already exist for some artists and labels willing to invest the money as they know they will get a return on it. As an example the new Tom Petty Live Anthology collection is being released not only in a standard CD version, but also in a 7 disc vinyl version, and yet another version that contains 62 songs on a special Blu-ray Hi quality 96k 24bit audio disc that has "256 times more audio fidelity of it's audio CD version." for both the 5.1 and 2ch stereo mixes. But also note that this "special edition" costs $196.00 compared to the regular CD release of $20.00, and the 7 disc vinyl version witch is $142.00 - as you can see you pay a premium for quality.

For an artist with the world wide popularity of Tom Petty it probably makes sense financially - I doubt the same can be said for many metal bands around today where unfortunately the majority of the music is designed to be played on portable digital devices these days and the audio fidelity just would not come through.

If you want a special edition or high quality audio - go the vinyl route. I've done it for several releases lately and it certainly does bring back some of that wonderful analog warmth that I remember from days long ago when music was recorded to capture and recreate the wonderful dynamics that should be a natural part of it.

 

[Chris_P_Critter]

I am not a huge fan of TMV but the bass tone on that album is insanely cool.

 

[slashvanyoung]

I'd love to see this idea becoming reality.

Going vinyl doesn't always yield the desired results (sometimes even to the contrary), especially with smaller acts/labels as they can't afford a dedicated vinyl mastering. More than often, the vinyl will be cut from the very same CD-masters, ignoring the proper bass and sub-bass treatment for example. So you might even get a product that sounds worse than the CD counterpart ITE.

Let's take Metallica's Death Magnetic as an example, the vinyl version received a dedicated mastering, resulting in a slightly less squashed (about 3db more dynamic range) and IMO better sounding product.

But you know what sounds even better? The Guitar Hero mixes. I've bought both the CD and the LP of DM, yet I only listen to my burned disc with the GH mixes.

I don't like the idea of just giving up CDs and to go the vinyl route. CDs are just too convenient. Consequently I'd love to see labels putting out theses special eds., as Andy described them.

Spinning vinyl at home is awesome, but I spend so much time in my car, I'd love to be able to enjoy some "enhanced fidelity" there too.

 

[smy1]

I did it like this on my last full-length album:

1) the CD is very uncompressed (between -15db RMS and -11db RMS)
2) the download versions are a lot more compressed (between -11db RMS and -9db RMS) to factor in the iPod generation

No one has yet complained about the CD being too soft. So I think this is the most economically feasible way of doing it.

 

[GarethSE]

They are called "vinyl versions"

Anssi you fucker you stole my reply!

 

[16S]

I'd love to see this idea becoming reality.

Going vinyl doesn't always yield the desired results (sometimes even to the contrary), especially with smaller acts/labels as they can't afford a dedicated vinyl mastering. More than often, the vinyl will be cut from the very same CD-masters, ignoring the proper bass and sub-bass treatment for example. So you might even get a product that sounds worse than the CD counterpart ITE.

Let's take Metallica's Death Magnetic as an example, the vinyl version received a dedicated mastering, resulting in a slightly less squashed (about 3db more dynamic range) and IMO better sounding product.

But you know what sounds even better? The Guitar Hero mixes. I've bought both the CD and the LP of DM, yet I only listen to my burned disc with the GH mixes.

I don't like the idea of just giving up CDs and to go the vinyl route. CDs are just too convenient. Consequently I'd love to see labels putting out theses special eds., as Andy described them.

Spinning vinyl at home is awesome, but I spend so much time in my car, I'd love to be able to enjoy some "enhanced fidelity" there too.

Dude you need a turntable in your car...

 

[ahjteam]

Anssi you fucker you stole my reply!

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