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Metallica 'Hardwired...To Self-Destruct'


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I know I'm preaching to the choir here, but this is the irony of this entire website. While we are all throwing money around chasing tiny, incremental improvements in our audio systems, the record companies continue to issue poorer and poorer masterings of the music we want to reproduce in our homes. It's ludicrous.

 

I'm with you. I've often thought, we chase what we can control. We can purchase new components, control the settings on this or that, and make adjustments to our listening room's. Chasing better masters seems like a fool's errand. It's frustrating and we have zero control over what's delivered.

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I'm with you. I've often thought, we chase what we can control. We can purchase new components, control the settings on this or that, and make adjustments to our listening room's. Chasing better masters seems like a fool's errand. It's frustrating and we have zero control over what's delivered.

"Raising Sand", by Alison Krauss & Robert Plant, is an album I love. It won two Grammy awards, including Best Album Of The Year. I bought the CD. I was not too happy with the SQ, so I then bought the 24/96 download from HDTracks for $18, only to discover that it's the same mastering, probably just upsampled. Here are two of the tracks from the hi-res download, DR 7 and DR 9, respectively:

 

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I felt ripped-off. So, I did a little searching around the internet. There was an "audiophile" remastering done in 2015 on two, 45rpm vinyl discs. I don't have a turntable, or I would have bought the LP's. Each of us has to set our own moral standards. I consider myself, basically, an honest person. I go out of my way to be kind to other people, I give freely to charities. I've never been arrested. I certainly would never upload music illegally to the internet; We have discussed this issue at length. Others do, however, and it's just floating around up there. Someone put a needledrop of that album on a bitorrent site, and I downloaded it. He didn't even do it that well, but it was better than the digital mastering. I ran it through Click Repair and Audacity to knock the bass down -6dB, and this is what I ended up with, DR 9 and DR 11, respectively:

 

Screen Shot 2016-11-22 at 9.43.14 AM.png

 

Did I do something unlawful? I suppose so. However, having bought and paid for two unlistenable copies of the album already, I can live with myself.

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Did I do something unlawful? I suppose so. However, having bought and paid for two unlistenable copies of the album already, I can live with myself.

 

It won't be long before the same kind of illegal opportunity presents itself with a vinyl rip of this new Metallica album.

 

Ironic, because Metallica could be making MORE money by selling the audiophiles what they really want instead of forcing them to use these other "free" means to get a superior product.

 

Seriously, what kind of absolute minimal effort would it take for a recording engineer to take the master used for the vinyl and make the slight tweaks needed for a true hi-rez digital download? A day's worth of effort? Two hours? So frustrating..

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Just got this from Metallica:

 

Thank you for purchasing a high-resolution download of Hardwired…To Self-Destruct!

It has come to our attention that many audiophiles are not pleased with the dynamic range of the 24-bit/96KHz digital download. Rather than continue selling a download that is not up to audiophile standards, we have decided to offer up an alternative.

We have created new 24-bit/44.1KHz digital downloads from the Mastered for iTunes digital master which features a greater dynamic range than was previously available with the 24-bit/96KHz download.

To download the 24-bit/44.1KHz version of Hardwired…To Self-Destruct, simply go back to the web receipt where you initially downloaded your files and download again. You can access that web receipt either in the download email that you received or by visiting your order history at metallica.com/me.

 

 

I'm positively shocked by this, considering the band's lack of willingness to do anything about mastering complaints on previous albums. Downloading now....

 

Did this email come to you automatically or did you tell them via some other means that you thought the original download was garbage?

 

I wonder if we ganged up on them by sending a few more emails that mention the "new" version is just as bad as the original but it was discovered that the real "Audiophile" version appears to be the Vinyl one with its much more appealing DR values and in doing so, by some miracle, they would consider making the Vinyl copy a Digital Download instead? This is not likely to happen but the truth is, their real fans are us old farts more-so then the teens of today so why not give us what we want :(

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Did this email come to you automatically or did you tell them via some other means that you thought the original download was garbage?

 

I wonder if we ganged up on them by sending a few more emails that mention the "new" version is just as bad as the original but it was discovered that the real "Audiophile" version appears to be the Vinyl one with its much more appealing DR values and in doing so, by some miracle, they would consider making the Vinyl copy a Digital Download instead? This is not likely to happen but the truth is, their real fans are us old farts more-so then the teens of today so why not give us what we want :(

 

The email came to me automatically. I'm wondering how they figured out that feedback was so negative. Nice they did, and the little bit of effort was appreciated, but they should've gotten it right the first time. It pisses me off even more that the compressed iTunes files were originally released with better sound quality than the high-res lossless files. I believe the most recent Queens of the Stone Age was like this too (iTunes files were better than the CD).

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I wish they'd sell the vinyl rip. I'd buy it in a heartbeat.
All they had to do IMO to make it sound good was to contact Bob Rock, put a suitcase of cash on a table and tell him: Bob we want our next album to sound exactly like the 'Black' Album just no dynamic compression and maybe just a bit rolled off top end! ;)

 

But after all maybe they'll issue 'Guitar Hero' much less compressed version (remember 'Death Magnetic.?). The gamers deserve it! ;)

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The email came to me automatically. I'm wondering how they figured out that feedback was so negative. Nice they did, and the little bit of effort was appreciated, but they should've gotten it right the first time. It pisses me off even more that the compressed iTunes files were originally released with better sound quality than the high-res lossless files. I believe the most recent Queens of the Stone Age was like this too (iTunes files were better than the CD).

 

I hear that! With DR numbers like the "fixed" version has I think its safe to say all hope is lost. I find it hard to imagine these guys, with their money, don't have some High End listening gear at home to be able to hear the difference a good mastering brings to the table.

 

Whoever these bands are taking advise from on what mastering version should be released to the public needs to have a good beat down handed out to them.

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All they had to do IMO to make it sound good was to contact Bob Rock, put a suitcase of cash on a table and tell him: Bob we want our next album to sound exactly like the 'Black' Album

 

+1000

 

The Black Album was definitely their finest sounding offering in their catalog and one all the others should be measured against. At this rate, the Black album will remain my last purchase of their work.

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I find it hard to imagine these guys, with their money, don't have some High End listening gear at home to be able to hear the difference a good mastering brings to the table.
I used to sell audio gear in the past. I sold some top hi-end gear to top musicians from my country. You wouldn't believe the stories I could tell about them and their attitude towards sound quality. They hear in a different way. I used to read the column about musician's systems in 'Stereophile' for years - I remember John Lee Hooker (whom I respect a lot as a musician) telling that he simply went to the nearby audio shop and got (2 if I remember correctly cause he needed 2) middle price Technics systems. He was very satisfied with the SQ. End of story.

 

But there are musicians-audiophiles too. Just one story. Once I met a musician from a top band (kind of local Rolling Stones) to whom I sold a really good system (Utopias, DCS etc..) a couple of years earlier which sounded really great after we set it up in his 40+ sq.m. basement of the house specially designed listening room. Good room. He said - 'you gotta hear it, I have seriously taken care of room acoustics'. I couldn't refuse. I was really curious. I paid him a visit and we went downstairs. The serious care meant the guy covered practically every inch of the room walls and ceiling with thick damping acoustic panels. The room acoustics were so weird (overdumped, dead) that I couldn't recognize my own voice when I spoke. And I mean it. The music sounded horrible. Dead dull. Just one thing was fantastic but weird at the same time - the stereo imaging was pin-point sharp. But so extremely sharp that you could practically visualise a vocalist or an instrument accurately to 1mm. And it had a size of 1mm too.. All in all - the weirdest sound I've ever heard. And not cheap..

 

Musicians hear in a different way. I don't understand it. Most of them have quite cheap (and quite bad) systems and don't need better ones. The leader of the abovementioned band (they probably rank as No.1 money making band in my country) uses $300 Quadral speakers. I'm pretty sure there are real audiophiles among them. I don't know anything about Metallica musicians systems but I wouldn't be suprised if it proved that the best of them consists of Bose speakers and (let's say) Sony home cinema gear. And even if it isn't so - you know - they hear in a way we will probably never understand :) I think it's quite possible they hear notes not sounds if you know what I mean.

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I'm a life long Metallica fan, owning all there material on vinyl and CD from the 80's-90's. Since the the Reload albums I've been like nah', about making a purchase but I have still continued to buy there CD's. I bought the CD last Friday when it came out but I have yet to to take it out of the wrapper. It's currently a coaster for my remote. I was hoping Tidal would stream it but they don't service Metallica's catalog. I'm sure I'll get to ripping it soon but unfortunately I'm not inspired like I used to be when they released a new album.

 

Another grip, they released like 4 videos and 5 songs before the album came out. Whatever happened to the anticipation of a new album coming out and hoping it's going to blow you away. Then telling your friends this rocks.

 

This album from what I've heard so far is a throwback to there earlier days but I don't think it's necessarily for the better. The only other thing I haven't cared for is how there sound (guitar/amps) has changed since the Black album. It, for me no longer has that metal punch they once had. There are some YouTube videos showing what the album would sound like if they were recorded as the ...And Justice album or Kill Em' All, they actually sound really good. But I'm getting old and ornery, so what do I know.

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I used to sell audio gear in the past. I sold some top hi-end gear to top musicians from my country. You wouldn't believe the stories I could tell about them and their attitude towards sound quality. They hear in a different way.

Translation: they are (at least partially) deaf. Look at Pete Townshend.

 

I was at a Johnny Winter concert at the BB King Club in NYC a few years ago. I was sitting right behind the soundboard. When Winter and his band hit the stage, it was just a barrage of noise, like standing next to a 747 jet engine. So loud that the vocal mike was howling continuously with feedback. I swear to God. It was unbelievable.

 

First, the band's sound mix guy comes running over to the house soundman, gesticulating wildly for him to turn it down. No effect. Then the band's road manager ran over, yelling and waving his arms. The house guy was in his own little world. I've been to some loud shows, but, after two songs, my wife and I had to get up and leave, because we did not have earplugs, and I thought my eardrums were going to explode.

 

Once we got outside, I asked my wife how this could happen, since she is a corporate/industrial meeting producer who stages live events for a living. She said simply, "A lot of these guys are deaf."

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