This is an amazing development. Turns out the just released Guitar Hero version of Metallica's new album, Death Magnetic, isn't crushed like the CD version is. And the fans noticed.

The Guitar Hero (GH) version is 10 dB softer! (10 dB is huge.) And it sounds better, due to less limiting and less digital distortion.

Maybe when the fans start noticing and saying something about it, we'll see a change. This story even suggests that someone may record their perfect GH performance and then post that so that Metallica fans can enjoy the record more.

As someone who has fought the hypercompression trend for nearly 10 years now, I find this very encouraging. People can hear the difference and like their music without horrible distortion.

Here's the story from Wired.


http://blog.wired.com/music/2008/09/does-metallicas.html

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Ted Jensen of Sterling did the mastering. No slouch.

I don't know why his name was left out of the credits, although if I had to guess....
But did he master both the album and the Guitar Hero version???? I remember when digital first got hot it wasn't uncommon for there to be two or three mastering engineers: one for vinyl, one for cassette and the all important, Mastered for CD.

Was Guitar Hero even mastered????? Ah Hahhhhh!!!!!!
My understanding is that the damage was done to the stereo master, whether across the stereo bus as a part of mixing or at the mastering stage. Hence the lack of damage to the GH tracks, which were supposedly made from a complilation of stems.
Usually on video games, they send them stems that are pre-master.
Ted Jensen had this to say about Death Magnetic. "I’m certainly sympathetic to your reaction, I get to slam my head against that brick wall every day. In this case the mixes were already brick walled before they arrived at my place. Suffice it to say I would never be pushed to overdrive things as far as they are here. Believe me I’m not proud to be associated with this one, and we can only hope that some good will come from this in some form of backlash against volume above all else."

That said, I LOVE the CD but wouldn't want my name in the credits either!!

-Gym
Gym where did you read this??? I love the CD also, great songs, AND JUSTICE on high... (though since reviewing it after this blog, I too hear the overcompression and distortion), and I too have been around when the GOOD TASTE fairy didn't show up for the mix.. ala BD...... I tell Hank I'm sorry on a monthly basis...........

But.... I'd stick my name on it, and I want a POINT......
As soon as I got into my car tonight and the CD player started playing, I realized, "hell yeah, I would want to be in the credits!" lol A point would be much nicer, though!!

I pulled the quote from a Metallica message board because I couldn't remember where I had originally read it. I found it again on Gearslutz, and realized that the post had linked to this same message board.

So, I see now that it might not be credible, but hey supposedly this guy e-mailed Ted and he replied back. If someone with all the right questions wants to try the same trick, I would love to find out if this is true.

BTW, I clearly remember Bob telling the higher ups that the Dolby S thing wasn't going to work!!

-Gym
Oh yeah, here's the link to the message board discussion.
http://www.metallicabb.com/index.php?showtopic=85317
Must have been an oversite by Mark-his name is in the CD credits. I noticed it while I was burning it.

;)
I concur-Bob Rock is amazing and a hell of a guy. If you watch both of those videos (or should I say watch A Year and a Half In The Life and suffer through Some Kind of Monster) you see a band that fell apart. St. Anger was terrible and it's their fault, not Bob's-he was just trying to slow down a sinking ship but it wasn't his place or ability to stop it. Death Magnetic proves this-Rick certainly helped them get back to their roots a little bit but the album still sounds like garbage. In addition to the distortion there's some obvious drum edit screw ups and a bad tuning job on the vocals. According to Ted Jensen: (who mastered it) "In this case the mixes were already brick-walled before they arrived at my place. Suffice to say I would never be pushed to overdrive things as far as they are here." Blame the band-not Bob Rock, not Rick Rubin.
You have to put some of the blame on Rick Rubin, he is the producer, and he should have to sign off on the mixes...

BTW, You may have a different run of the cd, because mine does NOT list ANY mastering engineer, and ALLMUSIC.COM doesn't list a mastering engineer either.......
That's weird, the inside face of the booklet has all the credits in mine. I got it at Best Buy-just the regular version-not the Guitar Hero one.

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