1 - The recording must be an awful, full DDD recording… showing that either the tech or the engineering was incompetent.
2 - Must be an established artist… something where the folks involved should have “known better”
3 - If the above are true, then it should qualify as a real shame
My Pick: Stevie Wonder, In a Square Circle, Part Time Lover, 1985
What a stinking shame… a masterpiece packaged in barbed wire… if you want to play something to demonstrate the badness of digital for folks, play this one tune. No great DAC will polish this jagged turd.
Paul: TONE CONTROLS please!!! These things are for more than just the aged. Can’t you just solder in a switch with a low-pass filter to take the edge off of these things? The high frequency characteristics of bad digital should be similar… call it a “digital crap remover switch”.
Always, always hated the production work Brian Eno did on Cold Play’s, ‘Vida la Vida’ album - it’s flat, compressed, harsh and almost monophonic at times. It may have improved over the years with re releases or maybe not, haven’t bothered to listen in forever - I still shudder.
Nothing will ever compete with Iggy Pop’s personal remix of Iggy and the Stooges “Raw Power”.
Here is the Dynamic Range Data:
DR__Peak__RMS__Duration__Title
DR1 0.00 dB -2.19 dB 3:30 01-Search And Destroy
DR1 0.00 dB -2.24 dB 3:33 02-Gimme Danger
DR0 0.00 dB -0.94 dB 4:55 03-Your Pretty Face Is Going to Hell
DR2 0.00 dB -3.16 dB 3:42 04-Penetration
DR2 0.00 dB -3.48 dB 4:16 05-Raw Power
DR2 0.00 dB -4.08 dB 4:53 06-I Need Somebody
DR1 0.00 dB -1.77 dB 3:05 07-Shake Appeal
DR1 0.00 dB -2.84 dB 6:07 08-Death Trip
You will never see a more compressed recording, hopefully.
To name a current one…no matter if digital or vinyl, this is the most awful sounding of several More or less awful sounding Resonance Records releases.
He hated David Bowies original mix that has more dynamic range than any recording since 2006. Odd.
DR Peak RMS Duration Track
DR09 -1.71 dB -13.18 dB 3:26 01-Search And Destroy
DR11 -0.33 dB -14.52 dB 3:22 02-Gimme Danger
DR11 -0.00 dB -12.24 dB 4:50 03-Your Pretty Face Is Going to Hell
DR12 -0.64 dB -14.53 dB 3:33 04-Penetration
DR10 -0.00 dB -13.00 dB 4:22 05-Raw Power
DR11 -1.79 dB -13.87 dB 4:54 06-I Need Somebody
DR10 -1.08 dB -14.00 dB 3:01 07-Shake Appeal
DR10 -0.47 dB -14.12 dB 5:52 08-Death Trip
There are a good number of artists and producers who actively like the sound of compression. It is not forced upon them by recording and mastering engineers.
