Yet another disappointment, thanks for the heads-up. Who did the remastering?

Don Bartley of Benchmark Engineering.

So he wrecks another batch of great music

Yet another disappointment, thanks for the heads-up. Who did the remastering?

A recording engineer using data not ears imho

A recording engineer using data not ears imho

I just looked at his website and trail of recording destruction.

I own several of those albums.

Now I know why the Tex,Don and Charlie album sounds so appalling.

And as for Missy Higgins....total butchery.A sound that is as flat and smeared as you could get.

He needs to be made to listen to Where Joy Kills Sorrow.

don@donbartley.com

Send him an e-mail. I did.

don@donbartley.com

Send him an e-mail. I did.

TD, you might also like to let the artists know what has happened to their music, I've done this and the common response is they are blissfully unaware.

Cold Chisel - EAST (2011 Remasters)

Total garbage. Using the DR Database tool it gets a DR of 5.

Nuff said - Avoid these re-releases like the plague.

Absolute disgrace that any band would endorse such a terrible mastering job.

If you have the DR tool, can you load the results up onto the DR database.

Give me a couple of extra details on this release, I'll add it to the Hall of SHame in the OP.....

Artist: Cold Chisel

Album: East

Mastered by: Don Bartley of Benchmark Engineering

Label/Studio: ??

Year: 2011

DR Rating Album: DR5 > [link to DR database entry]

Rhino Original Album Series.

You get five albums / CD's for $20.

I purchased The Cars set . (The Cars, Candy-O, Panorama, Shake it Up, and Heart Beat City).

http://www.dr.loudness-war.info/details.php?id=10702

The Pretenders set contains their first five albums with DR ratings of 13+ .........

It's about time we had some releases of this quality. And at $20 for five albums there is no excuse.

Awesome.

Edited August 28, 201114 yr by tdunster

Good little link there tdunster , thanks.

Rhino Original Album Series.

You get five albums / CD's for $20.

I purchased The Cars set . (The Cars, Candy-O, Panorama, Shake it Up, and Heart Beat City).

http://www.dr.loudness-war.info/details.php?id=10702

The Pretenders set contains their first five albums with DR ratings of 13+ .........

It's about time we had some releases of this quality. And at $20 for five albums there is no excuse.

Awesome.

Yes about time, very nice, and some of the other titles available from AMAZON UK (free postage)

I just listened to the Pretenders first album. Sounded brilliant.

http://www.dr.loudness-war.info/details.php?id=10707

With respect to the Cars releases, Candy-O is a little compressed but still sounds nice and punchy with good dynamics when you compare it with the majoriity of garbage out there.

http://www.dr.loudness-war.info/details.php?id=10703

Not the best but the sound of the other cd's in the package more thanmake up for it.

Shake it Up.. Awesome sound.

http://www.dr.loudness-war.info/details.php?id=10709

Edited August 29, 201114 yr by tdunster

Here is a dose of reality courtesy of Cold Chisel's EASt (2011) and Don Bartley of benchmark Mastering.

http://www.dr.loudness-war.info/details.php?id=10708

The numbers tell it all.

Red Hot Chili Peppers Californication is now the 2nd worst mastered CD in their catalogue. Their latest effort (or lack of effort) is an absolute shocker.

http://www.dr.loudness-war.info/details.php?id=10687

IT was "especially mastered for iTunes" LMAO. Like that's a good thing.

Rick Rubin and others are actually excited about how great this mastering job is.

http://www.artistdirect.com/entertainment-news/article/red-hot-chili-peppers-i-m-with-you-is-first-album-specifically-mastered-for-itunes/9049245

R they Serious ?

Artist: Depeche Mode

Album: Playing The Angel

Mastered by: Emily Lazar, at The Lodge New York

Label/Studio: Venusnote ltd/Mute Records

Year: 2005

DR Rating Album: DR5 > DR Database 7582

Track: 02, John the Revelator

DR Rating Track: DR2 !!

OP updated with an entry for this title.

Even on vinyl this is clipping big time. That is where tubes help to maintain some musicality

Its getting to the point where its just not worth buying new music or remastered classics...

I believe the bug they're referring to, is in Audacity reporting on freq's above 22khz. We havent used it that way on this thread. Just the bog standard amplitude graph, which I think is fairly accurate.

I'll check out those tools. Another free 1 I've stumbled onto recently is "dynamicsanalysis" , it's a simple tool, and it presents the volume data in a different way. Available here; http://www.audiosignal.co.uk/freeware.html

I understand alot of the stuff posted on HDtracks, are SACD releases that have been ripped from the disc. I've been doing abit of this recently, and I'm discovering that a fair proportion of my sacd's are also compressed (ie: the dsd layer).

Hay OZ.

I have been using a Dynamic Range Meter plug-in for foorbar, any idea how accurate it is? That's "A Coral Room"

[ATTACH=CONFIG]35580[/ATTACH]

I grabbed it from here http://www.dynamicrange.de/de/free-downloads a free download.

Edited August 31, 201114 yr by datafone

Ooops!

That doesn't work any longer, have to wait for them to put up the new revision of the app.

Ooops!

That doesn't work any longer, have to wait for them to put up the new revision of the app.

Here you go: http://www.dynamicrange.de/sites/default/files/DR-Meter%201_4a.zip

or this one: http://www.jokhan.demon.nl/DynamicRange/foo_dynamic_range_1.1.0-beta3.zip

Edited September 3, 201114 yr by tdunster

Cheers mate

Its getting to the point where its just not worth buying new music or remastered classics...

Absolutely agree with your comment. I have been collecting CDs since it first came out internationally before I immigrated to Australia 23 year ago. All my CDs are Made in Japan, USA or Germany. I listen to alot of smooth Jazz and all of those CDs are not compressed at all and the dynamics are fantastic. Some of my original Pop/rock CDs purchased back then sounds great too.

I too have a hundred or so classical CDs and the sound amazing....

The few CDs I buy today are basically rubbish. Heavily compressed and gives me ear fatigue after only a short listen. Shocking. I avoid buying any new CDs now.

Rgds

Pat

Edited September 5, 201114 yr by souwalker

I bought Eskimo Joe's latest CD over the weekend and I only listened to the CD last night and I was horrified how bad it sounded. Compressed, compressed, compressed!!

I am shying off getting any new pop/rock CDs of today apart from Jazz stuffs....

Rgds

Pat

I bought Eskimo Joe's latest CD over the weekend and I only listened to the CD last night and I was horrified how bad it sounded. Compressed, compressed, compressed!!

I am shying off getting any new pop/rock CDs of today apart from Jazz stuffs....

Rgds

Pat

Many modern pop/rock (whatever its called these days) recordings do seem to suffer a lot from over compression. Things are not quite so bad in other musical genres though.

Don't think you can make blanket statements like these. Ryan Adams and the Cardinals last few records are nice sounding, especially the last one. A lot of indie/pop stuff i listen to has some great sound. The Decemberists and Phoenix are two of those. I can withstand loud records if the music is good enough. Adele's new record is compressed to hell isn't it? And that's quite a listenable album.

Don't think you can make blanket statements like these. Ryan Adams and the Cardinals last few records are nice sounding, especially the last one. A lot of indie/pop stuff i listen to has some great sound. The Decemberists and Phoenix are two of those. I can withstand loud records if the music is good enough. Adele's new record is compressed to hell isn't it? And that's quite a listenable album.

The MFSL masters of Ryan Adams sound superb if you can afford them. The standard releases are "meh".

Adele 21 http://www.dr.loudness-war.info/details.php?id=7674 (DR7) That's terrible.

Phoenix http://www.dr.loudness-war.info/details.php?id=8705 (DR5) Oh dear.

Obviously these can't be the ones you are writing about.

Perhaps you can post a grab from audacity or upload them to DR Database.

Here is a dose of reality courtesy of Cold Chisel's EASt (2011) and Don Bartley of benchmark Mastering.

http://www.dr.loudness-war.info/details.php?id=10708

The numbers tell it all.

Indeed the numbers tell it all and a picture is worth a thousand words: (from Hoffman Forums)

Bloody shocking, he should call it a day and the record company execs should be sacked.

Wonder if Walker, Moss & Barnes have even heard the CD's?