What are some well-mastered cd's?, Compact discs that you can actually listen to... |
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What are some well-mastered cd's?, Compact discs that you can actually listen to... |
 Apr 20 2006, 18:37
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#1
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 Group: Members Posts: 112 Joined: 9-February 06 From: Edmonton, Alberta Member No.: 27644  |
I thought it would be good to start a new topic about cd's which are mastered well. What I mean is discs that aren't heavily clipped, among other things. Sort of the corollary to the other discussions. Maybe this can be the beginnings of a replaygain database.
 I've been getting cd's from pawn shops lately. It's good because you can get them really cheap and usually they are a few years old and some have reasonable replaygain values. I'll start by listing a few: Dio - Holy Diver REPLAYGAIN_ALBUM_PEAK=0.92724609 REPLAYGAIN_ALBUM_GAIN=-2.95 dB Dio - The Last In Line REPLAYGAIN_ALBUM_PEAK=0.78213501 REPLAYGAIN_ALBUM_GAIN=-1.20 dB John Fogerty - Centerfield EPLAYGAIN_ALBUM_PEAK=0.87054443 REPLAYGAIN_ALBUM_GAIN=-0.92 dB More later... |
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Apr 20 2006, 18:54
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#2
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 Group: Members (Donating) Posts: 1336 Joined: 18-November 01 From: Celaya, Guanajuato Member No.: 478 |
Any old CD is a likely candidate.
What I mean is that I also like new music. And with RG, it is not that big a deal, to me. -------------------- I'm the one in the picture, sitting on a giant cabbage in Mexico, circa 1978.
Reseņas de Rock en Espaņol: www.estadogeneral.com |
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Apr 20 2006, 18:57
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#3
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Group: Members (Donating) Posts: 302 Joined: 18-April 02 From: Russia Member No.: 1812 |
QUOTE (Cartman_Sr @ Apr 20 2006, 07:37 PM)  I thought it would be good to start a new topic about cd's which are mastered well. What I mean is discs that aren't heavily clipped, among other things. There are so many CDs which are mastered well. Almost all of them, actually. Of course, I mean only CDs with classical music. 
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Apr 20 2006, 19:14
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#4
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 Group: Members Posts: 96 Joined: 15-June 04 From: Buxton, UK Member No.: 14694 |
Peter Gabriel's albums always sound pretty damn good.
-------------------- Music washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life.
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Apr 20 2006, 19:36
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#5
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Group: Members Posts: 374 Joined: 29-September 01 From: Toronto Member No.: 30 |
loreena mckennitt - the mask and mirror (1994, mastered by bob ludwig) "parallel dreams" (1989) is also mastered very well but no credit.
-------------------- Be healthy, be kind, grow rich and prosper
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Apr 20 2006, 19:59
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#6
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 Group: Members (Donating) Posts: 819 Joined: 8-November 02 From: Astoria, OR Member No.: 3727 |
Anything re-mastered by Mobile Fidelity is a good bet.
-------------------- Nov schmoz kapop.
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Apr 20 2006, 20:11
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#7
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 Group: Members Posts: 294 Joined: 28-July 04 Member No.: 15838 |
Tool's Lateralus sounds quite nice.
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Apr 20 2006, 22:45
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#8
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Group: Members Posts: 112 Joined: 9-February 06 From: Edmonton, Alberta Member No.: 27644 |
QUOTE (AtaqueEG @ Apr 20 2006, 11:54 AM) Any old CD is a likely candidate. What I mean is that I also like new music. And with RG, it is not that big a deal, to me. Well, yeah, me too I suppose. But the more fundamental problem is that once the music is digitally clipped, some information is lost forever. RG brings the level back down to what it should be, but that data is still gone. The clipped parts have sample values of 1111111111111111... right?  Or am I totally wrong here? That has been known to happen
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Apr 21 2006, 22:20
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#9
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 Group: Members Posts: 580 Joined: 4-January 03 From: Scotland Member No.: 4415 |
Vladislav Delay - The Four Quarters is amazingly well produced / mastered.
-------------------- http://www.animarecordings.com/
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Apr 22 2006, 22:43
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#10
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 Group: Members Posts: 322 Joined: 25-March 06 From: Slovakia Member No.: 28819 |
QUOTE (unfortunateson @ Apr 20 2006, 08:11 PM) Tool's Lateralus sounds quite nice. As i see, people here tend to measure the mastering quality by ReplayGain values. (Not really know why, just the thing that it's load doesn't mean it's bad - but i'm not a specialist on this) Now Lateralus has an album gain of -7.20 dB... quite a lot. But i don't think it sounds bad at all (Just a little comment: i am much more aware of bad quality, so i often do not realise if something is 'well-mastered'. Mostly due to the thing that i don't have the adequate equipment to enjoy some high resolution sound) This post has been edited by molnart: Apr 22 2006, 22:45 -------------------- www.last.fm/user/molnart
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Apr 22 2006, 22:55
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#11
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 Group: Members Posts: 260 Joined: 3-December 03 Member No.: 10152 |
Prodigy's Fat of the Land sounds really good.
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Apr 23 2006, 00:05
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#12
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 Group: Members Posts: 329 Joined: 7-February 05 From: Local Cluster Member No.: 19647 |
blue note (RVG) jazz albums are generally quite nice too, apart from the classical music (stay away from crappy labels though)
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Apr 23 2006, 01:17
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#13
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 Group: Members (Donating) Posts: 3474 Joined: 7-November 01 From: Strasbourg (France) Member No.: 420 |
As stated by molnart, there's a confusion between mastering quality and the average volume of a disc. A high RG negative correction value indicates that heavy compression process was applied during the mastering size. It's only a problem if the listener expect from CD to reproduce with fidelity the recorded sound. Otherwise, compression could appear as really pleasant (and it's probably perceived as a good thing by a lot of consumers).
On the other side, low RG value are not implying good mastering quality. I'm listening to classical music, and a wide majority (more than 90%, excepted for mono albums - maybe a RG problem) of albums have a RG value inside the +3/-1 dB range. But a lot of them are not totally pleasant, because of recording conditions (acoustic issues mostly, but not only). In short, RG can't definitely be used as a quality benchmark. Only extreme negative gain could indicate serious musical issue (total lack of dynamic range). |
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Apr 23 2006, 01:24
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#14
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 Group: Super Moderator Posts: 3268 Joined: 26-July 02 From: princegeorge.ca Member No.: 2796 |
On the extremely high end of things, BT's Emotional Technology displays good pop mastering at it's limit: Circles has an RG of -10.97dB. The album has an RG of -9.56dB. Despite that, there are places where it is very dynamic, like in the intro to Animals.
This post has been edited by Canar: Apr 23 2006, 01:24 -------------------- (atrix|(fb2k->e-mu 0404 usb|audio 8 dj))->hd280|jvc ha-fx35-b
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Apr 24 2006, 02:05
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#15
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Group: Members Posts: 42 Joined: 23-March 05 Member No.: 20856 |
I've only heard a couple of ECM label albums, but damn, they sounded nice! Am I just fooling myself?
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Apr 24 2006, 02:32
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#16
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 Group: Members (Donating) Posts: 429 Joined: 5-September 04 From: Los Angeles Member No.: 16796 |
-------------------- Clowns love haircuts; so should Lee Marvin's valet.
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May 11 2006, 19:03
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#17
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 Group: Members Posts: 3 Joined: 11-May 06 Member No.: 30676 |
Hey guys, long time lurker, first time poster.
For a truly well mastered CD, anything done by Steve Hoffman will knock your socks off. You can find a discography here. |
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May 11 2006, 19:12
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#18
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 Group: Members Posts: 1311 Joined: 4-June 02 From: Cologne, Germany Member No.: 2213 |
I like Mark Knopfler's and Emmylou Harris' new duet CD ... it's called "All The Roadrunning" and it was recorded over a span of 7 years ...
It plays loud like any modern album (with dynamics at the right places) but it sounds fantastic to me (assuming you like a mixture of Knopfler-Soft-Rock and Country) ... -------------------- The name was Plex The Ripper, not Jack The Ripper
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May 12 2006, 17:13
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#19
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 Group: Members Posts: 1075 Joined: 15-October 03 From: Memphis, TN Member No.: 9323 |
QUOTE (molnart @ Apr 22 2006, 16:43) QUOTE (unfortunateson @ Apr 20 2006, 08:11 PM) Tool's Lateralus sounds quite nice. As i see, people here tend to measure the mastering quality by ReplayGain values. (Not really know why, just the thing that it's load doesn't mean it's bad - but i'm not a specialist on this) Now Lateralus has an album gain of -7.20 dB... quite a lot. But i don't think it sounds bad at all Tool is a special case. Their songs tend to have the very loud bits and the occassional quiet vocals, so they're pretty good about maintaining a lot of dynamic range, because without it, you wouldn't even be able to hear the vocals. So despite the medium-high RG value, there's still a very wide range of sound there. Not usually any clipping to speak of on their works either, they just push the upper end a lot. -------------------- http://ottodestruct.com
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May 12 2006, 17:38
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#20
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 Group: Members Posts: 730 Joined: 5-January 04 Member No.: 10970 |
Nine Inch Nails - Fragile (1999)
Massive Attack - Mezzanine (1998) Faith No More - Angel Dust (1992) All impeccably mastered. And really good too 
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May 12 2006, 19:03
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#21
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Group: Members Posts: 112 Joined: 9-February 06 From: Edmonton, Alberta Member No.: 27644 |
I have the Faith No More cd, and it is a good disc. There is some clipping (reported by replaygain), but I agree that is is well done. The clipping does not ruin the sound (because I can't hear it). Another good one is the original release of Judas Priest's British Steel. I got that one used several years ago then was sort of disappointed at the time because I saw it was re-released and remastered. At the time I thought I should have gotten the new one, but now I am so glad I didn't. There's no clipping on it, and it sounds great. I have a few of the songs on it also on other discs (greatest hits) which aren't so well mastered, and the difference is very noticeable, which is unfortunate.
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May 13 2006, 03:14
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#22
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 Group: Members Posts: 38 Joined: 9-May 06 Member No.: 30573 |
Buena Vista Club (1997) sounds amazing, if you ask me. I wish every CD sounded like this one. :)
[Also a long-time lurker/first-time poster. Hi everyone!] |
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May 13 2006, 03:48
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#23
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 Group: Members Posts: 15 Joined: 2-March 06 Member No.: 28212 |
QUOTE (nelamvr6 @ May 11 2006, 14:03) Hey guys, long time lurker, first time poster. For a truly well mastered CD, anything done by Steve Hoffman will knock your socks off. You can find a discography here. They do sound very good. He also takes great care to use master tapes that best reflect the final product presented to the artists in the studio. As for other good-sounding CDs -- XTC's "Drums And Wires", as remastered in 2000 by a guy named Ian Cooper for Caroline Records, sounds sensational. Shnaggletooth |
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May 15 2006, 17:25
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#24
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 Group: Members Posts: 123 Joined: 16-July 02 From: Spain Member No.: 2610 |
Ghost in the Shell & Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence soundtracks, both by Kenji Kawai, have incredible sound.
Replaygain values (album) for the first one is -1,50dB, and -3,90dB for the second. If you like anime soundtracks check these ones out. Fans of japanese percussion will appreciate tracks #1 and #5 on the first one and #2, #7 and #10 on the second. I always drool in awe when listening to these... 
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May 15 2006, 18:06
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#25
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 Group: Members Posts: 3353 Joined: 6-July 03 From: Sachsen (DE) Member No.: 7609 |
Any album by Vir Unis (Ambient). Actually, almost any non-mainstream Ambient album sounds nice(because lots of headroom for playing with dynamics plus depthness and clarity is what this genre is about). The albums by Vir Unis however are a special case because they are able to create an unusually deep and vast sound.
However, the style is probably not everyone's taste - for beginners, i'd propose the albums "Pulse'n Atmo"(synthetic and fast) and "The Drift Inside"(melodic, floating) |
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Lo-Fi Version | Time is now: 25th May 2013 - 14:57 |
