songs which clip all the time but dont sound like ass?

S

shadowfax

New member
I was listening to the mars volta recently, and i was struck by how loud the mastering was. i looked at the waveform and almost entire songs were clipping, yet it doesnt sound terrible. im sure if i were to try something similar, it would turn out horribly. i'm not saying that louder is better like record companies seem to believe. i've seen godspeed you black emperor have entire 5 minute sections (motherfucker=redeemer) be clipping, and yet it sounds great. they mixed it themselves and it has plenty of dynamics; they didnt let whoever mastered it squash it, it seems. anyway.. how is this done without making things sound horrible?
 
well I wouldn't be so positive about the mars volta master, the music is utterly cool, but I can definitely hear the clipping artifacts here and there.
and It's true it's damn loud!

maybe super high quality analog compressing devices like super wide magnetic tape machines?
 
If you really like that "modern" super compressed sound make a final mix with some left over headroom and send it out to a decent mastering facility. I'm a newbie but I keep reading over and over that you can't really skip the mastering by a true mastering expert if you want to like what you hear on commercial releases. There's a reason these guys get big $$$. And they hate it when you try to get that super hot clipped signal on your own then hand it over to them because they have almost nothing to work with.
 
actually, i hate the way it's used in most of today's music. It's almost stressful to listen to it when it's constantly up there like that. I was thinking more along the lines of a climactic finale ala the end of godspeed you! black emperor's 'motherfucker=redeemer'. I was just using the mars volta as an example because I happened to be listening to it at the time, and more people are likely to know their stuff than one song by godspeed.
 
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