LIT Bad quality on CD!

[othersongs]

i feel like LIT is bad quality even on the CD..

the instruments sound like MP3 quality. the entire CD and vinyl... is mediocre in quality..

sounds very mp3ized..

[freddyr]

I kinda agree with you on that. Not like MOST people will notice. But I noticed that as well. Good ear :-)

Compression? Processing? ahh who cares it still sounds good...

[othersongs]

yeah its still great...

but it's going to bug me for life

it's especially that new instrument

[othersongs]

yeah its still great...

but it's going to bug me for life

it's especially that new instrument

[Dark K]

Get the iTunes version, :=).

[twerth5000]

Sounds like mp3? What does that even mean? Mp3s can be very high quality. Maybe you should try ripping it in higher quality. At least 192 kbps, 320 if you want very high quality.

[Irregular Joe]

It's very possible that it was mastered poorly. Unfortunately, this is the case of many, many albums these days (just ask any audiophile out there).

[Malcolm-Edge]

I ripped at 320 kbps AAC from the CD and it sounds very very good. LIT is really good quality. The whole albums sounds amazing through my 700 Watt system.

[wayne]

It's very possible that it was mastered poorly. Unfortunately, this is the case of many, many albums these days (just ask any audiophile out there).

Yep, mastered too loud. It's a real shame coz it would sound so much better with greater dynamic range. For those that are interested, google "Loudness Wars".

[TPIMaster]

There's a bit of loudness war in VLV but not too much. It has been mastered loud, but not too loud. Some things got levelled so that they're at a constant volume (thus causing some dynamics to be lost, yes), but at least they're not increasing the volume so much that the cd would be made unlistenable. That stuff happens on Red Hot Chili Peppers cd's. I've compared LIT with a Red Hot Chili Peppers song, that's where the loudness is terrible. Observe the following screen shots:

First we've got Life in Technicolor and then Californication (RHCP):
http://img378.imageshack.us/img378/1958/loudnessyk5.png

Once your waves (the blue stuff) start to go out of the box, then you get clipping. Clipping results in your song having actual pops and cracks in them, because you're basically distorting the sound by mixing it too loud. Then lots of frequencies (and thus dynamics) get permanently lost in the mix. Note that this does not happen with LIT, thus way less dynamics were lost and it could even be fixed (with a little EQ), maybe a project I should work on during my vacation! It however definitely does with Californication, that stuff cannot be fixed.

It could have been worse, in conclusion.

[iPsy]

dunno...I got the leak! (shhh!)

[talkingonsquareone89]

on the CD....would it be that each of the parts were recorded/mastered too loud and thus the whole song mixing would be too loud? or, without having to fix the individual parts, the whole song could still be adjusted to fix the problem?

sorry, i'm not too knowledgable in sound tech/mixing, so if anybody has answers....:)

[PianoRocker]

I don't know what album you all have.. But mine does have very good quality..:shocked2:

[RICK8]

Shit i think we are getting a bit picky here,sounds just fine to me!

[Silas Mars]

There's a bit of loudness war in VLV but not too much. It has been mastered loud, but not too loud. Some things got levelled so that they're at a constant volume (thus causing some dynamics to be lost, yes), but at least they're not increasing the volume so much that the cd would be made unlistenable. That stuff happens on Red Hot Chili Peppers cd's. I've compared LIT with a Red Hot Chili Peppers song, that's where the loudness is terrible. Observe the following screen shots:

First we've got Life in Technicolor and then Californication (RHCP):
http://img378.imageshack.us/img378/1958/loudnessyk5.png

Once your waves (the blue stuff) start to go out of the box, then you get clipping. Clipping results in your song having actual pops and cracks in them, because you're basically distorting the sound by mixing it too loud. Then lots of frequencies (and thus dynamics) get permanently lost in the mix. Note that this does not happen with LIT, thus way less dynamics were lost and it could even be fixed (with a little EQ), maybe a project I should work on during my vacation! It however definitely does with Californication, that stuff cannot be fixed.

It could have been worse, in conclusion.


Wow, RHCP really messed that up. Is that just the album version or all versions of Californication?

[RICK8]

Far out..:stunned:

[yamfox]

i feel like LIT is bad quality even on the CD..

the instruments sound like MP3 quality. the entire CD and vinyl... is mediocre in quality..

sounds very mp3ized..
It's called distortion. Brian Eno's done it before.

[chchaisson]

It sounds like the distortion you get when you do major amounts compression. Seems like it happened a lot on Viva la Vida...? The midrange frequencies start to go in and out when the lower frequencies come in.

However, I've only noticed the distortion when listening on built-in computer speakers, with no bass. All of the tracks sound great on a good pair of monitors, or in the car.

[GazeboflossUK]

^^^ If that's Chris Clark in your sig then that's great! He's good.

Back to LIT......

The reason people have mentioned the "Mp3ised" sound is because of the tones in the instrument (the Shamisen). It has those wishy-washy over tones but it's not low quality audio.

[twerth5000]

^^^ If that's Chris Clark in your sig then that's great! He's good.

Back to LIT......

The reason people have mentioned the "Mp3ised" sound is because of the tones in the instrument (the Shamisen). It has those wishy-washy over tones but it's not low quality audio.
Ah, I understand. I like the tones, at least they aren't as cheesy as those in X&Y. (and that's Radiohead in that signature, they're song "Bulletproof... I Wish I Was")

[open6l]

One thing I noticed (and maybe that is the issue with some of the copies that a few people might have).. There are a few copies floating around usenet that seem to be very subpar quality (especially in LiT). If you think that LiT is sounding low quality (and you didn't purchase an original CD or itunes download) then do yourself a favor and buy it. I checked out a few releases (even FLAC releases) and was surprised to find how bad LiT was compared to the original CD.

[Cobalt]

Viva La Vida actually sounds more screwed than LiT to me...

[TPIMaster]

Wow, RHCP really messed that up. Is that just the album version or all versions of Californication?

I think it's all versions. They don't usually do multiple mixes of songs for seperate pressings like singles etc. The entire cd that's messed up like that, btw. There is an unmastered version floating around of it though that doesn't have this problem. Sounds tons better, but suffers from a bit of mp3 compression quality loss.

[Maria Way]

Shit i think we are getting a bit picky here,sounds just fine to me!

agreed, it's the first album song and i don't think it is that bad, but it's just my opinion :cool:

[CPRani]

It sounds great on my CD!

[Da Escapist]

@ the guy with all those volume thing. I don't know what the hell you are saying! Lol.

[tom295]

The recording could be a tad bit better