Metallica’s newest release “Death Magnetic” has been heralded as a return back to their aggressive rock roots. But recently the album version has caught some flack for being distorted and overcompressed.
To make matters worse a single from the album “Suicide and Redemption” has been released for Guitar Hero that doesn’t have the same problems (Music Radar and Mastering Media) Players with keen ears who own both the cd release and the downlable content for the game have noticed that the version inthe game has more dynamics and punch then its counterpart on the cd. There is even a youtube video focusing on the differences. Take a listen for yourself!
Activision and the game studio working on Guitar Hero and Rockband recieve the individual tracks from the labels in advance of the final mix. This is so they can prepare the game for release at the same time as the album and single. Two different audio engineers came up with two seperate mixes for each medium that would be released. However many people agree that, while each versions have their own drawbacks, the version in Guitar Hero is the better mix.
People in the forums are up in arms over the whole ordeal and started a petition demanding a remix of the album. Petition and Forum Link 1 2 There has even been a post by the mastering engineer Ted Jensen claiming that the tracks we smashed before he got them, he says :
“I’m certainly sympathetic to your reaction, I get to slam my head against that brick wall every day. In this case the mixes were already brick walled before they arrived at my place. Suffice it to say I would never be pushed to overdrive things as far as they are here. Believe me I’m not proud to be associated with this one, and we can only hope that some good will come from this in some form of backlash against volume above all else.”
This is all the outcome of a race to the loudest cd. Also, known as the “Loudness War” a term coined by the people over at www.turnmeup.com. Watch a video presentation describing how we percieve loudness in audio.
