Alien Ant Farm

[samich17]

i like their music a lot. i just noticed, when i loaded one of their songs in Cool Edit 2000, it's called "Courage", that it was just a thick green rectangle, well over the clip line. isn't this a bad thing?i always master my cuts to about -.2dB.

[fenix]

i think I know what you are talking about. The pantera live cd is a very hot cd and frequently has overs on my cd player. This could be an issue of the meters being slightly off, or it could mean that they mastered to a medium that has extrememly high headroom with lots of intelligent limiting going on.

[samich17]

so are you saying, in effect, that it isn't actually clipping? it sounds fine...is a few decibals louder than other songs, but is in th red the whole time on my tape deck and Echo Mia console. what do you mean by "intelligent limiting"

[fenix]

by intelligent limiting, I mean really expensive mastering by a pricey mastering engineer. $$$$$$$$

[samich17]

someday i'll have the skills to do it with meager equipment and i'll hook people up with my knowledge for trades, rather than money.

[TexRoadkill]

Did you rip the .cda files to .wav? Thats what happens when you try to open an incompatible file.

[shackrock]

yeah with pretty much every song (mp3's from kazaa, etc.)...i change to wave, and they are usually always over the clip line in N-track...

i'm sure some of that has to do with mp3ing it and how they ripped it...but i i guess its the same for directly ripping a wav huh?

mastering - i guess its not overratted afterall...ha

[LongWaveStudio]

beware what your idea of mastering is though..
it's not all about getting the loudest signal possible....

[darnold]

It is not necessarilly clipping, just really hot and limited. If it sound good, then its not a bad thing. Programs like Steinbergs Loudness maximizer can do a pretty good job at doing this without distroying the sound. There are also pricier plugins like the ones from waves that doo a good job at doing this too, but its a little tougher to use if your a newbie.

darnold

[Drummerbones]

Today's mastering & musician's expectations are total horse crap in my opinion. Okay everybody, lets squash the piss out of this project to get 2 more dB......Ya know, musical dynamics are SOOOOO overrated anyway......

[LongWaveStudio]

absolutely, no doubt about it, suddently dynamics mean nothing and it's all about that extra decibel that you can pin your meters to. when i start mastering, i dont even like to look at meters, just sit and hear what is going on and what can be brought forward.

the only time you need to be concious about levels is if you're doing something for radio , where you want it to compete (in most cases) and be safe for the FM limiters.

..oh yeah, and all the big nu metal bands, most of those bands cd's are comrpessed to fuck. sometimes that can be good for a track, give it lots of energy, but most of the time, it causes nothing but trouble.

[BrettB]

first of all, I really hate Alien Ant Farm.

And I really don't like that overcompressed techniques also. Ok, it can be usefull, but nowadays it seems that everybody is just trying to compress as hard as possible. While I think it is often the dynamic differences in a song that can dreate a unique rock'n'roll feel.

[musicsdarkangel]

i'm seeing them tonight, i like there version of Stranded that they didn't put on the cd, it's great.

But i'm goin to the concert for Glass Jaw.

hope its good =D

[darnold]

i believe the amount of dynamic compression depends on the band and style of music. Some bands just cant play with good dynamics so the only way to make them sound good is to squash them down. Also, in a metal band like Alien Ant Farm its also wanted by the band to get a big, huge, in your face sound, which can be accomplished by tons of compression. Also, i dont think it sounds bad anyway, and i dont think the people who mastered it squashed it because it was the standard, but makes everything in your face and what they think it sound like, and to them, it sounds good. If its a country, or soft rock, or anything like that, compression should really only only be to control the dynamics so they dont not jump out and some part of the song.

Just my thoughts and opinions on the subject.

Darnold