Hopefully this is the beginning of a new trend...

[Rain]

I just put on the freshly remastered version of Metallica's Load. Regardless of one's opinion about the band and the material, I was shocked when I A-B'd it and found out that it was significantly quieter than the regular version (I dare not say original because I'm sure that the original 1996 master has been tempered with multiple times since). I didn't actually measure, but the difference is quite obvious and this quick screenshot of the meter is clear. 
 

Regular version:

  

2025 Remaster:

My experience with remasters has been mostly negative - usually it means they've cranked up the lows and the highs and made everything as loud as possible. This is one of the very rare cases where I think the remaster does sound better. I heard stuff I'd never heard before - one of Jason's bass fill during the last break before the finale for exemple, it really popped out of the speakers, and completely surprised me. 

I really wish this is the beginning of a new trend. 

[57Gregy]

They're colluding with the power companies to get the stereo users to crank it up and use more electricity and raise their electric bills.

[fjz]

16 minutes ago, Rain said:

I really wish this is the beginning of a new trend. 

Me too. If only they would give that same treatment to Metallica's "Death Magnetic", I'd be able to actually listen to the whole album in one sitting. There's a lot of great stuff on there that I'd love to listen to.

fj

[Rain]

1 hour ago, fjz said:

Me too. If only they would give that same treatment to Metallica's "Death Magnetic", I'd be able to actually listen to the whole album in one sitting. There's a lot of great stuff on there that I'd love to listen to.

fj

Agreed. It's very frustrating because I like the songs, but I just can't handle the earache. But that riff from That Was Just Your Life - it's my go-to when I want to punish my right forearm. It's super hard to play that run clean, especially the last 3 notes. Even the almighty Hetfield himself struggles with it in the making of, so I don't feel too bad about it. 

I heard about a version floating around that wasn't as over-compressed - from Guitar Hero or something. I should look for it some time.

[Shane_B.]

1 hour ago, 57Gregy said:

They're colluding with the power companies to get the stereo users to crank it up and use more electricity and raise their electric bills.

They just raised it 19% here in NJ. Kicks in at the end of the month.

As for masters, I hope it's the start of a new trend too. These days I listen to music I don't even particularly like just for the quality of the recording. 

[fjz]

2 minutes ago, Rain said:

I heard about a version floating around that wasn't as over-compressed - from Guitar Hero or something. I should look for it some time.

I do recall seeing a YouTube video a while back where some guy was doing a loudness comparison of the CD and Guitar Hero versions of "The Day That Never Comes" (IIRC). I never tried to look for it, but to my recollection, the Guitar Hero version sounded way better on that video.

fj

[Rain]

Googled and quickly found a link to the full album on Bandcamp. I won't post the link because I would hate for Lars Ulrich to knock on my door for encouraging illegal downloads. 🤣

I'll have a listen later in the studio. I assume that DM has some flaws sonically even in its unmastered form, but this should at least be a little less of a pain to listen to.

 

 

Edited Sunday at 01:43 AM by Rain

[craigb]

Would be nice!

[504 lover lover]

quiet is the new loud

[Starship Krupa]

On 6/14/2025 at 6:42 PM, Rain said:

Googled and quickly found a link to the full album on Bandcamp. I won't post the link because I would hate for Lars Ulrich to knock on my door for encouraging illegal downloads. 🤣

???

Bandcamp has pirate downloads of major label artists? How is that even possible? I'd think that algorithms would sniff that out in a heartbeat.

I'd think that Bandcamp would be ferocious about policing that sort of thing, this isn't 2000 and Bandcamp isn't Napster.

[Shane_B.]

Thanks to my Columbia House membership way back in the day, I inadvertently ended up with dozens of 1st release CD's before the loudness wars. I'm probably sitting on a small fortune of CD's to the right buyer. I have the original CD release of Brothers In Arms among many others.

I haven't touched my DAW (for music) in several years. Seems I remember that whole lufs -14 (or whatever it was) is a nice sweet spot to shoot for.

What we consider proper was actually mastered for vinyl for various reasons. From the RIAA curve, to the turntable, to the pre-amp, and then the main stereo amp, it all seemed to be calibrated for a very particular level. Now there are no limitations of a mechanical form, so I can see how this ball started rolling. Plus, how much dynamic range is there really when you have two tiny speakers rammed an 1/8 inch from your eardrum like most do nowadays.