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RUSH Clockwork Angels

#642
Richbass101 said:
one of there best albums in a long time. I honestly think it sounds better on vinyl. I listened to the whole thing on headphones last night & I can tell a difference on the vinyl release. Overall though its a great album
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Vapor Trails was good too, IMO - and I have some MP3s made from the vinyl that sound somewhat better than the CD. A big problem with both of the recordings is the density of the mix, and likely the recording of the drums.
 
#643
WJGreer said:
Vapor Trails was good too, IMO - and I have some MP3s made from the vinyl that sound somewhat better than the CD. A big problem with both of the recordings is the density of the mix, and likely the recording of the drums.
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The issue with Vapor Trails was the massive overuse of compression and 'maximizing'. That particular record is pretty much THE example for what happens when you take all the dynamics out of a recording: it becomes utterly unlistenable.

And it's a shame, because the few times I listened to my copy I really liked the songs and the performances, I just could not get past the fact it made my ears hurt.
 
#644
Marial said:
The issue with Vapor Trails was the massive overuse of compression and 'maximizing'. That particular record is pretty much THE example for what happens when you take all the dynamics out of a recording: it becomes utterly unlistenable.

And it's a shame, because the few times I listened to my copy I really liked the songs and the performances, I just could not get past the fact it made my ears hurt.
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I agree, and I've read that case study. I can't find it anymore, the site that used to host it is gone, but it had a very objective analysis of Vapor Trails' compression properties versus older Rush albums.

I also think that the music is really dense, and the way they are recording it is not doing them any favors in making the recent end product sonically transparent. Snakes & Arrows is the best of the last 3 in that regard, but far from perfect.
 
#645
Marial said:
The issue with Vapor Trails was the massive overuse of compression and 'maximizing'. That particular record is pretty much THE example for what happens when you take all the dynamics out of a recording: it becomes utterly unlistenable.

And it's a shame, because the few times I listened to my copy I really liked the songs and the performances, I just could not get past the fact it made my ears hurt.
Click to expand...

The mastering was only one issue. The mix is also really bad and contributed to the horrid sound. That's why for that 3rd hits package (the Atlantic one - Retrospective 3 I believe) they remixed two songs - it was the only way to go back and fix things. A simple remaster won't fix all of the issues with VT.
 
#647
I remember thinking shortly after VT was released that I really liked the material, but all it did was cause ear fatigue. All I was listening to was a song or two at a me. It confused me.

When I read that case study (with the amplitude over time graphs, right?), it was the perfect explanation of what I thought was wrong.

When I was a kid, every time I got a new Rush album, I always saw that the same couple guys were producing and mastering (I remember thinking wow, that Bob Ludwig guy must really know his stuff!). I understand giving some guys the heave-ho with the intent to move forward and do new stuff (Brown, Henderson, Hine), but why would a band with such meticulous control move away from the mixing and mastering that gave them so much great sounding final product over the years? If all that digital sequencing (PW, HYF) can be made to sound nice, and if Siamese Dream can be made with a bazillion overdubs and still sound dynamic, what gives?

No, really. Why? I don't know... I'm asking. There has to be reasons. (Hopefully they're not corporate level reasons..) I know nothing about engineering, mixing, and mastering. Can anyone chime in?
 
#648
FenderP said:
The mastering was only one issue. The mix is also really bad and contributed to the horrid sound. That's why for that 3rd hits package (the Atlantic one - Retrospective 3 I believe) they remixed two songs - it was the only way to go back and fix things. A simple remaster won't fix all of the issues with VT.
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"'Geddy went away to do the mastering. I went away on a golfing trip as soon as we finished (last February),' Lifeson says. 'It had been 14 months (making the record), and in the past, we spent four to six months making a record ... I just had to go. I felt badly, because everything was dumped on Geddy, to do the mastering and make all those decisions.' Even as he was hitting the links, Lifeson was on the phone four or five times a day with Lee, who was forced to deal with unexpected glitches that didn't emerge until late in the recording process. 'We found problems that we didn't hear in mixing that were apparent in mastering. To get the kind of levels (we wanted), we had digital distortion. We remixed a couple of songs half-way through the mastering, through the remix, back to mastering,' says Lifeson. 'The poor guy (Lee) was doing this on his own. It really shook him up...He said: 'I don't know what to think. I think it's awful.'" - Jam Showbiz, Lifeson on the making of Rush's 'Vapor Trails', May 7, 2002
 
#650
I just listened to the remixed version of "One Little Victory" from Retrospective III. Hot damn. If the whole album sounded that good, we'd be talking about Vapor Trails as a top 3 Rush album.

Who knows why they fell into the trap again on Clockwork Angels.
 

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