Metallica's "Death Magnetic"- Loudest Record Ever? Hear from Mastering Engineer Ian Shepherd

[@humbly-soalejandro6898]

Sounds like someone throwing cold tacs at the back of my neck and clapping in my ears

[@barstow_]

Look man the nonbass and bad snare complaints are extremely valid but I get what you're saying🤣

[@jorge242]

Apparently it's been fixed on Apple Music. Sounds much better!

[@immortallix]

Yup. Dynamic range is much better and much more listenable

[@MrEp5]

Apple Music? Why there?

[@laysman12345]

@MrEp5 They use Apple Digital Mastering for all (or at least most) songs on Apple Music. I don't know the magic behind that, but it certainly gave the album a less clipping sound

[@andrewrice9383]

I think if they were to do it again with today’s technology, it would be easier to get that super loud feel while retaining dynamics.

[@mvyper]

And still, people nowadays on mastering tutorials will say "Let's see how loud we can make this track".

[@petermuller6923]

You can make a record that loud without letting it sound like crap, as Death Magnetic does.

[@_MasterLink_]

And not once in this video did they ever show the waveform of the albums release, to visually show just how much the dynamic range compression axed the details and life out of the music. Engineers can be wrong, never forget that. Look, the album was released as is, and some will defend it. But we know the loudness war exists, and engineers defend it. If you want it louder, release it as 24-bits. Otherwise, respect the dynamic range of published 16-bit music.

[@mvyper]

The problem is that people would take advantage of the 24 bits format to keep brickwalling their music and make it sound even louder. The problem is that people have been convinced that their stuff need to be loud to sound hot.

[@PitcockFTW]

listening all from utube n flac , After 2 minutes early my ears already fatigue from my eris 3.5 n this on low volume not even 85db, and that cymbals crash n hats sounded like batman anime fighting scene Kapoow, kablam. kaching, !😂

[@Aka_daka]

This album could have sound so much better the loudness of the record gives me ear fatigue it doesn't sound good.

[@petermuller6923]

This is not about "picky" Metallica fans. I bought the album on CD, put it into my CD player and had to stop it after a minute, because it is the worst sounding and most ear fatiguing record (even on low volumes) i ever heard. Unfortunately, when this CD came out, there were no tiny 8$ bluetooth speakers, that sounded shitty enough, to make me abled to listen to this album without the urge to check my ears for blood running out of them. I really liked the album after illegally downloading the Guitar Hero version, because i could not listen to the original CD, that i payed the full price for beforehands. I did not return the CD so Metallica might be OK with me. I bought all of your original albums until Death Magnetic 😄 BTW: Indeed the bass guitar on "... And justice for all" could be much more audible but it is still one of my most favorite albums in metal history and the production sounds absolutely fine for an album from 1988.

[@rachelwindsor850]

I'm sure the guy who mixed this was a nice guy, nobody's contesting that; he still did a really bad job on this album.

[@immortallix]

Is this dude really tryna say ajfa bass, st anger snare, and brickwalling a fucking album to the point that the entire thing sounds distorted isn't fair for fans to complain about

[@bakerboat4572]

He's speaking from a neutral point of view, genius.

[@theCarouselPainter]

@@bakerboat4572 neutral or not, these are all objective truths, you can't hear the bass on afja, the snare on st Anger is way too ringy, and Death Magnetic has been clipped to the max just for the sake of it being louder than everyone else, does'nt mean these were "bad albums".

[@petermuller6923]

@@theCarouselPainter Yes. In some places of ajfa i can hear the bass clearly IF listening on my expensive studio headphones, but i really prefered the version with an overdubbed bass guitar, someone uploaded on KZbin some years ago. I do not like the sound of St Anger but one might say, that is personal preference. BUT the mastering of Death Magnetic sounds absolutely unreasonably for everyone with only a tiny bit of feeling for the sound of music. That has nothing to do with personal taste. You could sell cars, that explode after starting the motor and call it "it depends on personal taste what you expect from a car". Absolutely not!

[@Wez666]

It's a horrible sounding album

[@dsrocks6905]

They remastered it back in 2015 and it's way WAY better. Like I'd put it up in the ranks with the black album and kill em all (Not quite top tier but really strong albums)

[@petermuller6923]

@@dsrocks6905 They did not send me a free update for the original Death Magnetic CD i bough after the first release that i am not abled to listen to without experiencing severe physical pain :(