Okay, I'm a musician, but the recording/mixing/mastering phase has mostly been a mystery to me. With that said, I've read a lot about the loudness war and have some general knowledge of it. There's one thing I don't understand, though. If it's so bad, if it decreases the sound quality, if some people even suffer from headaches because of it, then why do mixers keep doing it? I get it that louder songs used to be more successful 40 or 50 years ago, but what's the point of doing it today?
A few tracks on Living Things had the worst mixing. In My Remains for example. I never knew that the high pitched Synth (that comes in with the guitars) existed, until I heard the live version. Had I not heard the live version, I'd have never detected it. A Thousand Suns was mixed well, I think. I'm not quite sure, but I think it's purposely done to make the song stand out, and grab the attention of the listener. Without the engineers turning the volume up, the track would probably sound weak, which wasn't the case a few decades ago.
The way it was explained to me in my class is that a "loud" song tends to be less skipped on an Ipod running on shuffle. Whoever discovered this initially gained an edge, and their music started selling more because more people were listening to it. Eventually everyone had to go on the loud train or else be left behind commercially. Hence the loudness wars started. Compression itself doesn't matter too much because mp3's already digitally compress music, the problem is that now mids are turned up to very loud while high pitches and low pitches are kept low. The classic example of this happening is In My Remains, where if you don't have a good pair of headphones you probably would not notice there is a high pitched synth in the background (which btw makes the entire song for me, it sounds awesome). EDIT: Arachnid, I didn't see your post about In My Remains, sorry
Often times a band does not have control over the final mix of their album because of pressures put by the label. Loud songs sell better, that's the bottom line. That is of course before we consider if the band cares enough about artistic integrity over commercial success.
This is EXACTLY the reason Living Things needs a re-mix, I have a great set of headphones, and I had NO idea that part in In My Remains even existed! Imagine all the other things we might not be hearing at all in other songs off of the album..... Even when trying to listen for the synth part, I can just BARELY make it out.
The Living Things mix is bloated with so much loud and full mids & lows that the highs are virtually non-existent. It's fucking ridiculous.
Linkin Park NEEDS to re-mix Living Things, and release it for the LPU or as an iTunes enhanced mix. How goes the mixing on Guilty All The Same for those in the know?
[video=youtube;vJF5ASiL8lo]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJF5ASiL8lo[/video] This! The quality isn't top notch since they basically combined it with the live version, but I can send you a version I recorded. I have a very very similar sounding patch (probably the same), which I layered on top of the original song. You wouldn't even know it was re-recorded. The song became so much better to me when I discovered this part. And it was already one of my favorites anyway.
For those confused about what the "Loudness War" really is, this site is dedicated to reversing it and may be of use: http://turnmeup.org
Indeed, it is. Now if only LP would play I'll Be Gone live, maybe we could hear Owen Pallett's strings.... And the acoustic guitar on Castle of Glass, and other stuff.
Funny, one of the very first things I said about IMR was how much I liked the high-pitched synth. And now I read here that people didn't even recognize it at first
I thought the re-mix was done and enhanced in the Studio Collection that was released last year for iTunes? I think a redux LIVING THINGS would be great but is it possible in the midst of the recording session for The Hunting Party?
You know, I'm gonna sound like an idiot right now, but what exactly is mastering? Please explain as simple as you can.
There are a lot of definitions from a lot of perspectives but, to me, mastering is a process of effecting a final mix of a track or album so that they can consistently sound good on as many different speakers and headphones as possible.
I don't think that will happen honestly, LP tends to be be perfectionists with things and I don't think the band would have put out LT if they were unhappy with the mix. I think the band liked the way the mix sounds, they aren't always thinking of what fans like in that sort of thing when they are making stuff. LT really isn't mixed THAT badly, granted, it could have been a little better. It just sounds overly polished, which is why I like it.