Article: The Best Version Of ... War

[Josh Mound]

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[The Computer Audiophile]

Hi @JoshM, thanks so much for this killer TBVO! This is another one that has exposed me to music I'd previously ignored. 

 

The big thing I kept thinking to myself as I read this was, they don't make them like they used to. This is my favorite quote from the entire thing.

 

"It’s all live, and you can actually hear the drums in the room. You don’t put reverb on ‘em, because actually I can hear them in the room through the other mics. And that’s part of the secret of being able to mix live, because they’re playing in the room, and the room is part of the sound."

 

This made me want to listen immediately. Real musicians with real engineers in real time. Absolutely lovely. It's real art to me. Wow.

 

[The Computer Audiophile]

P.S. I loved the mention of Rocky Mountain Audiofest! 

[ted_b]

I'd love to hear Josh's take on the Atmos mix of The World Is A Ghetto (Apple Music or Tidal).  I say that having not heard it in Atmos (will tonight) but worried cuz it's a Warner label, and they've been delivering fake immersive almost 100%.

[bbosler]

question on the graphs.. does the Y axis indicate absolute dB levels i.e is each division on the vertical scale = 1 dB so far the most part we're looking at fractions of dB differences?

 

[Josh Mound]

3 hours ago, ted_b said:

I'd love to hear Josh's take on the Atmos mix of The World Is A Ghetto (Apple Music or Tidal).  I say that having not heard it in Atmos (will tonight) but worried cuz it's a Warner label, and they've been delivering fake immersive almost 100%.

For apples-to-apples reasons, I only look at stereo mixes in TBVO, but I’ve enjoyed listening to Atmos mixes of some favorite albums (such as Pearl Jam’s No Code, as recommended to me by @The Computer Audiophile). It honestly never occurred to me that either album could be in Atmos, since it’s clearly not like War is getting tons of reissue attention! But I’m really excited that it exists. I’ll check it out!

[Josh Mound]

A quick correction: At one point (now fixed), I referred to the great engineer Chris Huston as Tom Huston. I suppose this is an occupational hazard of writing a dissertation that involves the Nixon administration. Needless to say, Tom Huston was considerably less great than Chris Huston.

[Josh Mound]

30 minutes ago, bbosler said:

question on the graphs.. does the Y axis indicate absolute dB levels i.e is each division on the vertical scale = 1 dB so far the most part we're looking at fractions of dB differences?

 

Yes, the scale is on the left for each graph. But note the “x 10 dB” clarification by “Magnitude.” So a 1 dB difference on the scale is really a 10 dB difference. 
 

That said, a cool part of Har-Bal is that it also has an EQ-matching feature, which (when in doubt) I’ve used to bring the EQ of one mastering into line with the EQ of another, leaving at most fractions of a dB differences in a few spots. When I placed those into ABX software, I could still reliably hear the difference, which I think was primarily about transfer quality, rather than EQ.

[KDinsmore]

Thanks again for these articles Josh. I'll read the whole in depth later but skipped to the bottom and found and bought a copy of each before everyone else buys them out!

[KDinsmore]

1995 Avenue Gastwirt's

[firedog]

Saw some of the prices out there for the Gastwirts: pretty insane.

Anyway, listening on Qobuz to the NOT TBVO versions - and it sounds good to me.

Article inspired me to have a WAR listening marathon.

[ted_b]

An update on my comment about The World Is A Ghetto on Apple Music (or Tidal) in Dolby Atmos:  the Atmos mix is underwhelming.  A bit of reverb and little use of heights or even surrounds.  Doesn't sound Warner-fake, but isn't anywhere near what they could have done.  As far as fidelity, I'll let Josh (or others who are more familiar) comment on that.

[Josh Mound]

9 hours ago, firedog said:

Saw some of the prices out there for the Gastwirts: pretty insane.

Anyway, listening on Qobuz to the NOT TBVO versions - and it sounds good to me.

Article inspired me to have a WAR listening marathon.

 

I certainly don't think any of these are bad masterings. We're really, at most, talking about a B- to A+ mastering range with these. It's not like any of them is a D or F.

[Rt66indierock]

Josh, thanks for the memories, my college years had War as a part of the soundtrack, and I still hear it on the radio today. So, I don’t think they are underrated or overrated, just a very good band.

 

Part of those memories included tormenting my political science professors and teaching assistants. I got involved in politics because I went to too many funerals by the time I was seventeen. The old real world experience vs academic thing. Even in my profession (accounting) dealing with academics has been an up and down experience. I’m glad I only teach CPAs and lawyers tax occasionally today, much easier.

[KDinsmore]

I just got thesee today. Fantastic! I'm "Slipping into darkness"................

[garrardguy60]

Great, in depth article. I was a teenager in the early 1970s, when War had their string of biggest hits, so I remember well that they were ubiquitous on the radio. I would venture to say that, to the extent that people younger than 40 are familiar with War at all, it's because of the use of Low Rider as the theme song to the George Lopez show, which ran from 2002 - 2007 and in syndication thereafter (and on Hulu today).
 

I hope this is not out of line since it's not an audiophile version, but the War CD I have in my collection is:

 

The Best Of War… And More

Released 1987, catalogue number of Rhino Records R2 70072

 

On dr.loudness-war.info it shows this CD as having an album DR of 13 (range of 12 - 15), which is pretty good. I guess that's because it's from 1987, so it was released before the loudness wars.

 

I wonder if you've come across this one and what you think of it, sonically and mastering-wise?

 

Thanks.

[Mr Wensleydale]

Josh, Rhino has recently released its Quadio of The World Is A Ghetto and the blu-ray contains a new hi-res stereo mastering alongside the quad. Will you be updating your TBVO to include the new stereo option?

[Josh Mound]

55 minutes ago, Mr Wensleydale said:

Josh, Rhino has recently released its Quadio of The World Is A Ghetto and the blu-ray contains a new hi-res stereo mastering alongside the quad. Will you be updating your TBVO to include the new stereo option?

Yes! It’s already in the works. I hope they release the currently vinyl-only expanded 50th anniversary version in digital soon, too. 

[Mr Wensleydale]

1 minute ago, Josh Mound said:

Yes! It’s already in the works. I hope they release the currently vinyl-only expanded 50th anniversary version in digital soon, too. 

Great!  I look forward to it.