Chinese Democracy: Not Over-compressed!

[loretian]

While listening to Chinese Democracy last night at The Fine Line listening party, it was quite clear to me that the album is not over-compressed, which is fantastic.  I have not listened to the new Metallica, but I hear it's much worse due to the compression.  While it's clear that compression and gain was used (as is the case for almost all recorded music), it was used sparingly and in a very appropriate manner.

I think it's great that Axl didn't go that route.  Definitely a plus for those of us who care about audio quality!

Check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loudness_wars if you don't know what I'm referring to.

[JuicySwoos]

Yes I agree......thank god!!

There is too much going on in the music to be mastered "loud".  Now we get to hear all of the bells and whistles!!

[demo23nz]

I bet if you put it next to an original UYI CD you'll find it's still be bumped-up as with everything the last few years, but nobody with a professional recording budget should EVER wind up with anything clipping like 'Death Magnetic' did. That was ridiculous.

[Limulus]

yesssssssssssssss, unlike Metallica's "Death Magnetic" being totally overcompressed with hardly any dynamics and even clipping(!!) - the new Axl CD is more old school style: cd has kick-ass frequencies, and good dynamics for audiophiles, very good work, kicking!!

[makane]

FLAC -> Benchmark DAC1 -> Darkvoice 332 -> Sennheiser HD 650 -> haven't really got any clipping or distortion so far.

Its really sad how someone like Metallica(and a million others) can put out such a bag of shit. Really, do they think we are deaf? I guess it sound better with a lo-fi system, but it really creeps in when you're listening with some better equipment--

[Evolution]

Much has been said about the poor aural experience Death Magnetic is so I'll save it.

Axl and Caram Costanzo have really done an excellent job on the three finished tracks I've heard. The tracks have an incredible amount of input on them so to have them sound nice and clear is impressive. Not an ounce of digital distortion either, so you can crank it as loud as you want!

The multi-tracked vocals on "Chinese Democracy" and "Shackler's Revenge" in particular have turned out really well.

[Axlative]

The quality of the sound was one of the first things that stood out to me. Especially evident in the drumming which is amazing!

[Layne Staley's Sunglasses]

Yeah, I was thinking halfway through the album that my head doesn't hurt and I don't need to put down my headphones.

[TWT]

Yeah, it's impressive how many instruments you can hear simultaneously, even if I do think it's quite overwhelming at times 

[big guns]

I really think this might be the finest produced album i've ever heard. Phenomenal work.

[michaelvincent]

Death Magnetic is the ultimate culmination of a stupid practice. Nothing about that album sounds good, it's a distorted mess that they should be embarrassed for ever releasing.

Chinese Democracy, from the few listenings I've had most definitely suffers to some degree from the loudness wars. It's mastered pretty hot, but I've been amazed that it's so clean sounding for all the volume it puts out. It's loud but you can hear everything pretty clearly and there is a sense of dyamics (for example, the intro to prostitute vs. when the drums kick in, there is a big jump in volume). The sheer density of the music is another thing, and while I think it can be a bit much at times at least it's pretty clean.

I'm willing to bet that Axl fought hard to maintain as much of the audio integrity as possible.