Metallica: Death Magnetic Discussion on BBC Radio 4 (Part 1)

Discussion of the new Metallica album "Death Magnetic" on the BBC Radio 4 program "You and Yours", broadcast on the 10th of October, 2008.

Includes interviews with two longtime Metallica fans and their views on the mastering issues with the new album, as well as a discussion with mastering engineer Ian Sheperd.

I highly recommend visiting Ian Shepherd's blog at http://mastering-media.blogspot.com/ where he talks at length about the "Loudness Wars", of which Death Magnetic is sadly a serious casulty.

I also recommend viewing the following video ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DRyIACDCc1I ) for a more illuminating comparison between the retail CD and the Guitar Hero 3 version, since the processing applied to radio broadcasts makes the difference much less obvious here.

The original broadcast can be streamed for a short time from the official website at http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/youandyours/

PLEASE NOTE: It is not my intention to infringe on anyones copyright by sharing this, I just feel that the view expressed here deserve to be heard by a wider audience.

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• Metallica
• Death
• Magnetic
• Loudness
• Wars
• BBC
• Radio
• James
• Hetfield
• Lars
• Ulrich
• Kirk
• Hammett
• Robert
• Trujillo
• commentary
• analysis

[daveniner]

A lot of bands these days master their albums too loud, that causes the distortion...when will people learn louder isn't always better.

[fredjebelgium]

If you react , be sure to understand the message correct. With 'too loud' the music lovers (and metallica lovers!!!) don't mean the music of Metallica is too loud. They mean that the mastering and recording of the CD is too loud, with as consequence that have a complete distorded and bad sound. Not the sound Metallica produces normally. In other words: CD producers sell crap to you. DO you think it's normal that a LP or CD from 20 years ago is better quality than cd now? . Google 'loudness war'

[etihw21]

@HASHEAVEN

They're ignorant altogether and blinded by their fanboyism. It's pathetic because I'm not even an audiophile (and neither are the people being interviewed it sounds) and I can't even enjoy this. They're fucking retards. The more I find out about this so called 'loudness war' the more I am pissed because as long as there are retards out there, the more freedom people have to fuck up albums. The majority doesn't care, so let's just make it sound awful!

[etihw21]

@mokbass

If a bunch of fans don't like a new album, that's a fucking problem. They're not going to keep quiet and go "Well the band I loved for over a decade has released an album that sounds awful, nothing I can do".

If sales go down then that's a problem whether they actually care about their fans or are a selfish autistic piece of shit like yourself.

[mokbass]

Its too loud?Oh no whatever shall we do,bunch of clowns,if they don't like it,then just sell the album on ebay or to a second hand shop.How can they expect the band to remaster the album just because a few of them don't like it.

[SUPERCHARGER2001]

the sound is loud but really i don't give a fuck its still a metallica album so i don't give a shit if the sound is different or if the production is loud or low i don't care i like there songs and there music and i like love the band altogether

[brpadington]

@towlie7685 The vinyl release suffers from the same issues.

[Mordain607]

@towlie7685

They're still clumsy, outdated and stupid. Plus I'd have to buy some kind of vinyl-player thing. Plus I couldn't play them in the car. Or anywhere that doesn't have a vinyl player. Plus they sometimes break for no reason, and always break after a while if they're not stored in a dust-free environment as if their microchips or something.

Also, perhaps the biggest point: in this case, the vinyl will sound WORSE than the CD since vinyls have smaller dynamic ranges than cd's.

[towlie7685]

@Mordain607 buy the vinyl! they are in some cases the same price as cds. I bought in rainbows - radiohead for $15 US. now i just preorder vinyls with the free digital download best of both worlds. Vinyls are coming back.

[Mordain607]

@towlie7685

NO BECAUSE VINYLS ARE OUTDATED AND STUPID AND CLUMSY AND EXPENSIVE.

[towlie7685]

BUY THE DAMN VINYL AND DONT MAKE A RADIO PROGRAM ABOUT IT

[TheFatCampCrew]

NOT TOO LOUND U DUMB ASSES... they jumped on the loudness war n did it wrong.. someone didn't know how to use compressors and limiters...