Let me begin by expressing how much I enjoy the music of Symphony X and consider myself to be one of many loyal fans whose numbers continue to grow. It is from this position of profound respect for the band that I felt it imperative to raise this issue, and I do hope that the band itself reads and understands this so that they might avoid allowing the same mistake to happen in future recordings.
Paradise Lost, the long awaited full-length release from Symphony X is the answer to the prayers of many. The subject of this article is not the music of the album itself, though there is much to be discussed in that area, but rather in the way in which the album itself was produced.
My first Paradise Lost listening experiences were through my iPod. Having purchased the album the day it came out, I was eager to start enjoying and studying the new material. I would listen late at night sometimes, on my way back from some evening activity, one two, three in the morning, and was happy to have the energizing music keeping me awake when little else would. Most days I would hear several tracks at a time, reach my destination, and hours later, listen to the rest on the way back.
Then one evening, I had a long trip to take, and I listened to the entire album in one shot, and felt exhausted at the end. In fact, I started to notice that the fewer tracks I listened to at a time, the more I liked them. But if I heard four or five in a row, I would end up turning off my iPod before I reached my destination. Although I found the tunes themselves catchy (I'd even sing them to myself sometimes), for some reason I just didnt feel like listening to them!
I started reaching out to other SyX fans, who mysteriously reported similar experiences--for some reason unbeknownst to themselves, the couldn't seem to digest that album in one sitting as they had with previous SyX releases. People were having negative reactions to the album even though they admitted to liking all or most of the songs on the album. This led me to investigate a theory I had learned about years ago in an audio engineering class.
The concept is called "Aural Fatigue", and this excellent article explains the concept much better than I can.
To test my theory that Paradise Lost was the latest casualty of misguided label reps, I extracted a heavy track from the album, and compared its waveform to an equally heavy track from one of their earlier albums and instantly found the proof that I needed. The waveform for "Domination" looked like a brick almost all the way through. It shows very little dynamic range. By contrast, the waveform of "Out of the Ashes" from the Divine Wings of Tragedy album showed a normal range of ups and downs, highs and lows. DWoT is an album I can listen to multiple times in a row.
The purpose of this article is to make the band and fans aware of what I feel to be a huge mistake in the production of the CD, one which the band may not even be aware of. After all, everything can sound great when listening to an album in a recording studio setting! Even listening to a track or two off of the finished album can be wonderful. But when you string all of the tracks together, it becomes unlistenable. The brain simply gets tired. What people must realize is that Symphony X's music is loud and powerful without the use of overcompression. It is not necessary to squash the waveforms to this extent to make Symphony X rock. They already DO.
The end result is a great CD that I have almost no desire to listen to. This is the real tragedy--The Paradise Lost, as it were. What I would love is for the band to make versions of the albums songs that have not been overcompressed available to us. Perhaps they could be posted online for download for those of us with a valid UPC symbol from an album we purchased. As a listener base we have to send a message to labels that we are not foolish. You can't convince us that music is better simply because it's louder. Symphony X rocks and Im simply asking for the ability to listen to their music! Thats a reasonable request, no?
Paradise Lost, the long awaited full-length release from Symphony X is the answer to the prayers of many. The subject of this article is not the music of the album itself, though there is much to be discussed in that area, but rather in the way in which the album itself was produced.
My first Paradise Lost listening experiences were through my iPod. Having purchased the album the day it came out, I was eager to start enjoying and studying the new material. I would listen late at night sometimes, on my way back from some evening activity, one two, three in the morning, and was happy to have the energizing music keeping me awake when little else would. Most days I would hear several tracks at a time, reach my destination, and hours later, listen to the rest on the way back.
Then one evening, I had a long trip to take, and I listened to the entire album in one shot, and felt exhausted at the end. In fact, I started to notice that the fewer tracks I listened to at a time, the more I liked them. But if I heard four or five in a row, I would end up turning off my iPod before I reached my destination. Although I found the tunes themselves catchy (I'd even sing them to myself sometimes), for some reason I just didnt feel like listening to them!
I started reaching out to other SyX fans, who mysteriously reported similar experiences--for some reason unbeknownst to themselves, the couldn't seem to digest that album in one sitting as they had with previous SyX releases. People were having negative reactions to the album even though they admitted to liking all or most of the songs on the album. This led me to investigate a theory I had learned about years ago in an audio engineering class.
The concept is called "Aural Fatigue", and this excellent article explains the concept much better than I can.
To test my theory that Paradise Lost was the latest casualty of misguided label reps, I extracted a heavy track from the album, and compared its waveform to an equally heavy track from one of their earlier albums and instantly found the proof that I needed. The waveform for "Domination" looked like a brick almost all the way through. It shows very little dynamic range. By contrast, the waveform of "Out of the Ashes" from the Divine Wings of Tragedy album showed a normal range of ups and downs, highs and lows. DWoT is an album I can listen to multiple times in a row.
The purpose of this article is to make the band and fans aware of what I feel to be a huge mistake in the production of the CD, one which the band may not even be aware of. After all, everything can sound great when listening to an album in a recording studio setting! Even listening to a track or two off of the finished album can be wonderful. But when you string all of the tracks together, it becomes unlistenable. The brain simply gets tired. What people must realize is that Symphony X's music is loud and powerful without the use of overcompression. It is not necessary to squash the waveforms to this extent to make Symphony X rock. They already DO.
The end result is a great CD that I have almost no desire to listen to. This is the real tragedy--The Paradise Lost, as it were. What I would love is for the band to make versions of the albums songs that have not been overcompressed available to us. Perhaps they could be posted online for download for those of us with a valid UPC symbol from an album we purchased. As a listener base we have to send a message to labels that we are not foolish. You can't convince us that music is better simply because it's louder. Symphony X rocks and Im simply asking for the ability to listen to their music! Thats a reasonable request, no?
