The quality of opeth recordings

A

Audiophile

New Metal Member
Jan 30, 2007
7
0
1
Amsterdam
As an audiophile(and offcourse as a metal fan) I wonderd why allmost all opeth recordings sound so good. In the pop music industrie all recordings are over compressed, totally ruined with the mastering and sound there for like crap. What I'm talking about is the so called the loudness war in de music industrie.

In short the loudness war is that record labels want to sound there albums as loud as possible so they stand out from other albums. With negative effects for the sound quality of the recordings.

( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loudness_war )

It's not only the pop music were the loudness war is going on. Several metal bands have the same problem.

My question is there for; who is responsible for the quality off the opeth recordings. Why is opeth not a victim off the loudness war and can produce high quality recordings that are masterd superb?

Especialy Damnation is perfectly produced for example.
 
Dat is waar!

Only is the radio argument not realy falid because other metal bands are victims too, and it's also depending on the skills of the audio engineers who work with opeth. I think.
 
Steven Wilson knows his shit and I don't think Opeth themselves are quite as 'profit-driven.' I think they would rather not release an album at all if it meant releasing complete and utter crap.
 
Similar thread came up on another forum I frequent, where Opeth was also used as a point of reference for good modern metal recordings.

I think it's interesting, as Opeth have always had their material mastered to a competitive standard. The only times when the flaws of the mastering really came out were on BWP, where you can almost hear the compressors pumping at times, and everything seems to be in your face all at once. It's a bit unrelenting and fatiguing under prolonged listening.

As said, I think it's just a matter of the band not needing to worry about their material being played side-by-side with other, potentially louder or more 'excited' recordings on radio. Since there's no need to satisfy any real mainstream criteria on their part or compete with other recordings, they have the leway to just do their thing and let their recordings get mastered to a reasonable degree.

I've seen the loudness wars rear their ugly head on a few select metal releases... but it's not as pervasive as most musicians, engineers and audio hobbyists claim.

It's a trend just like any other. You had the gated verb snares in the 80s.. the cheesy synth pads, the moogs in the 70s, the perfect vocal tuning in the late 90's (or was it early 00... sheesh can't even recall) etc. People get sick of everything if exposed to it for too long. The loudness wars will subside and albums will settle on a comfortable mastering standard.
 
Over compression doesn't = crap. It's less nuanced, to be sure, but it alone will not result in a bad sound.

Part of the issue is the belief that you have to hit digital as hard as possible, maximizing all the bits. This was true for 16 bit recordings, where there were some noise floor issues, but it simply isn't true at 24 bit.

An album where I really notice the over compression on mastering is Decapited's "Organic Hallucinosis". Way in your face. But, given the style of music, maybe that's not a bad thing?

Some of this is mixing for the lowest common denominator. Wanting your mix to sound good on even the shittiest systems. Part of it is just what people have grown accustomed to.

Part of why Opeth doesn't have the shit compressed out of them must have to do with the fact that they are very dynamic. It's pat of their sound. You don't want their soft stuff to sound loud. That would ruin the effect.

A little compression can be a good thing. Compression is a great tool, but like anything else it can be overused.
 
With 16 bit systems it was more the artifacting at low sound levels rather than just the noise floor. The lower the amplitude of the digitally-rendered waveform, the less bits are used to render it... as such back in the day they used to start squaring off and producing audible distortion and whatever else.

Agreed about Organic Hallucinosis. I was actually wondering when this album would get mentioned. It was also the one in my mind when I mentioned seeing the loudness wars rear their head.

Having everything in your face is an element that's necessary for Decapitated... however I think all their albums have taken it too far. It's not just a matter of destroying dynamics, you introduce distortion as limiters cut off the top of waveforms. The material starts sounding more and more tiring to the ear. Everything is always in your face, 100% of the time... it gets overbearing. I really think they ought to back off a bit. Organic Hallucinosis is virtually all high-end as a result of the over-mastering.
 
Moonlapse said:
With 16 bit systems it was more the artifacting at low sound levels rather than just the noise floor. The lower the amplitude of the digitally-rendered waveform, the less bits are used to render it... as such back in the day they used to start squaring off and producing audible distortion and whatever else.

Agreed about Organic Hallucinosis. I was actually wondering when this album would get mentioned. It was also the one in my mind when I mentioned seeing the loudness wars rear their head.

Having everything in your face is an element that's necessary for Decapitated... however I think all their albums have taken it too far. It's not just a matter of destroying dynamics, you introduce distortion as limiters cut off the top of waveforms. The material starts sounding more and more tiring to the ear. Everything is always in your face, 100% of the time... it gets overbearing. I really think they ought to back off a bit. Organic Hallucinosis is virtually all high-end as a result of the over-mastering.
Click to expand...

Agree 100% Moonie.
 
i really hate how loud Arcturus' Sham Mirrors album is. I just can't really stand listening to more then a few songs, especially with earplugs.
 
It used to be dependant on the levels of tape saturation during the analogue years + the monitoring loudspeakers and Grannies for radio airplay...

Nowadays digital era I can't really comment as I haven't much of an idea as to the process.

"Hard Drive" recording is the modern way but i still stand by the fact that older analogue recordings, metal or otherwise are better, more dynamic, less tireing to listen to and contain much more space and ambience.

I would hope that given the freedom now earned by Opeth's sucess, they might explore this as Matt Johnson did when his band "The The" became free of the financial constraints, recording and producing...

Here's dreaming. :loco:
 
I'm glad you all agree with me about the loudness war.

I realy hope that some day more people realize that over compressing/mastering is doing more bad than good to the music. I even think that people are getting aware of it at the moment. Take for example the re-recorded version of Dimmu borgir's störmblast. Dimmu wrote in the booklet that they re-recorded because they thought the old version didn't sound as they wanted to. Another example are the Red hot chilli peppers with californication. Fans complaint about the worse masterd album ever and started a petition with positive feedback of RHCP.
 
agreed with moonlapse & soundave.

while overcompression sucks the dynamic "life" out of a recording, it is also a useful tool when used properly and often a necessary one. what really breaks down in those "bad" productions you're hearing is a combination of one of the following denominators going bad: (the band sucks to begin with.), (the producer sucks or doesn't know how to deal with the kind of music the band plays.), (the recordings sucked, leaving the mixer with little to start with.), (the loudness war at mastering. call this overproduction for simplicity's sake, as i could also list other overpolishing problems here.)
 
one of the best threads going around. i dont really know much about production and all but its not hard to hear how good most of opeths recording is. and i agree with the OP... damnation is close to perfect for my tastes.
 
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