I am making my own Death Magnetic masters

[danbronson]

I downloaded the flac files of the Guitar Hero III versions of Death Magnetic. They are still a little distorted, but not nearly as much.

Here's what I'm doing:
-flacs converted to wavs in Winamp
-wavs loaded into Steinberg Wavelab 4
-Waves SSLEQ Stereo plugin (high pass at 60 Hz, -1.36 dB at 560 Hz, +3.33 dB shelf at 3.12 kHz
-Izotope Ozone 3 plugin (-8.3 dB loudness maximizer at 1.0 (very fast), a little stereo widening used, I use Ozone to get the loudness up but don't do much 'squishing' with it at all)
-Oxford Limiter Native (+4.38 dB input gain (essentially limiting that much almost all the time), fastest attack and release, soft knee of 0, 50% enhance, I use Oxford to do three or four dB of actual squishing to get things into loud rock/metal territory, if you push too much there will be horrible side effects, but used this much or less this plugin is very good and keeps snare and kick transients up front in the mix)

I decided to do the same process on each file, no individual tweaking. It's just a simple process to get these to a comparable tone and loudness as my other albums. The end result is a master that sounds 3 or 4 dB quieter than the real D.M. masters (still squashed to all hell and quite loud sounding), but is significantly less distorted. I think it's now good enough that I could actually sit through the entire album and not be distracted/fatigued. What little distortion there is is mostly already on the mixes actually. My processing introduced only the last 20% or so. Considering the loudness I was able to squeeze out, I think that's an acceptable compromise.

Now to clean up the new masters and create mp3s. I'll post a clip or two later to show the difference between these and the pro masters.

[TocaLaGuitara]

I would definitely like to hear these, see how they compare.


And YES, I do own a physical copy of Death Magnetic, Metallica has gotten their money from me for this incredible example of the loudness wars gone bad. I know sooner or later somebody would say something about that.

[LeMauce]

Originally Posted by Franky

They'll still sound not very good.

Let's get the the multitracks?

They'll still not sound very good.

Lets record it again.

They'll still not sound very good.

Let's ummm..

ROFL. True,true.

But ok lets try to get the multitracks. GTM? Grande Theft Musictape's? A special Gearslutz SWAT/Ninja team to get in the record building and get the tape's?

[TheArchitect]

Originally Posted by danbronson

I downloaded the flac files of the Guitar Hero III versions of Death Magnetic. They are still a little distorted, but not nearly as much.

Here's what I'm doing:
-flacs converted to wavs in Winamp
-wavs loaded into Steinberg Wavelab 4
-Waves SSLEQ Stereo plugin (high pass at 60 Hz, -1.36 dB at 560 Hz, +3.33 dB shelf at 3.12 kHz
-Izotope Ozone 3 plugin (-8.3 dB loudness maximizer at 1.0 (very fast), a little stereo widening used, I use Ozone to get the loudness up but don't do much 'squishing' with it at all)
-Oxford Limiter Native (+4.38 dB input gain (essentially limiting that much almost all the time), fastest attack and release, soft knee of 0, 50% enhance, I use Oxford to do three or four dB of actual squishing to get things into loud rock/metal territory, if you push too much there will be horrible side effects, but used this much or less this plugin is very good and keeps snare and kick transients up front in the mix)

I decided to do the same process on each file, no individual tweaking. It's just a simple process to get these to a comparable tone and loudness as my other albums. The end result is a master that sounds 3 or 4 dB quieter than the real D.M. masters (still squashed to all hell and quite loud sounding), but is significantly less distorted. I think it's now good enough that I could actually sit through the entire album and not be distracted/fatigued. What little distortion there is is mostly already on the mixes actually. My processing introduced only the last 20% or so. Considering the loudness I was able to squeeze out, I think that's an acceptable compromise.

Now to clean up the new masters and create mp3s. I'll post a clip or two later to show the difference between these and the pro masters.

Why would you go to all the trouble to get unlimited masters just to squash them yourself? Just curious.

[Geoff Firebaugh]

I got the flac files from a friend yesterday, converted them to wav files, and did a similar thing. I put the URS channel strip pro on each file on the mix buss 15ips preset, bumped 16k a bit and bumped 60Hz a bit just to polish it up a bit (the raw files sound very flat) and then put the Kjaerhus classic master limiter on the 2buss set at -4 with the audio just barely hitting -2 db on the compression meter. its not terribly loud, but there are dynamics, and lowend, and you can make out the bass parts.

I took my DM commercial CD and made a coaster out of it, and my personal 'ghetto mastered' version now lives in the cd case.

g

btw this is the screenshot of the GH3 wav. vs the commercial cd wav.

[BOWIE]

Originally Posted by TheArchitect

Why would you go to all the trouble to get unlimited masters just to squash them yourself? Just curious.

Yea, my thoughts exactly. Seems kinda masturbatory. Then again, I think doing tube shootouts is fun so I can't talk.

[Moo]

I really dig the album but the master is super crushed and truncated!! What's with Rick Rubin (I know he's the producer and not mix/master engineer)? He gets the best bands, does some pretty damn cool pre-prod/prod and then has the end result crushed to bits! Not only that, he seems to hate bass....I thought Metalica would have learned from their And Justice For All experience particularly given Rob Trujillo's work on Infectious Grooves (not that he was ever going to lay anything down like that for Metallica).

Anyway, blah blah blah. Would love to have copies of what you guys have done and would be willing to pay for postage/CD etc to hear a less distorted version of an album I'm really starting to love.

Oh and when did Rick Rubin loose interest in making lead guitarists 'write' solos rather than just whippin them out. Slayers last ditty has the most terrible solos I've ever heard Kerry and Jeff do IMHO!

[Pawel]

I did the same thing yesterday:
+3dB@50Hz Q4, +1dB@2kHz Q2, +5dB shelf @7.5kHz and Oxford Limiter +4dB with 40% enhance, definitely punchier and more pleasant than the retail version.

[mauvehead]

I've been listening to the unmastered versions of the album and other than needing to turn it up slightly to compensate I have really been enjoying it. A lot. I've been hit and miss with Metallica ever since the Black album but this new "collection of songs" is excellent. (I'd say "CD" but as we all know the CD sucks bad for all of the squashing and clipping.)

As per Rick Rubin, I'd say that he was more or less a pawn on this particular project and that Hetfield and Lars ruled the roost and demanded that things be maxed out. They probably threatened to sue ole' Rubin (like everyone else on the planet) if he didn't comply. Clearly fame and fortune have eclipsed Lars and Het's good judgment on the bigger picture.

It has probably been posted elsewhere here on GS but I did come across these comments from the folks that did the mastering process:

"Metallica are too bloody loud" article

[eligit]

i recently "remastered" the GH3 version of these tracks...simply out of curiosity as to what would happen.

true....it was exciting to hear real dynamics in a hard rock albums....

however the basic sounds that they got when tracking are not really that great...so although the dynamics are exciting....the tone is still less than cool.

just one man's ears.

[tracktension]

i would like to do this myself , more for experience and practicing then anything. but i dont know how to get the GH file, i dont play video games so i wouldnt know where to get them.can anyone send me the GH files?

tk-2372@hotmail.com

thanks , cory

[danbronson]

download utorrent. search for "metallica guitar hero III" or something along those lines. you'll find the files pretty quick.

[u b k]

Originally Posted by danbronson

The end result is a master that sounds 3 or 4 dB quieter than the real D.M. masters (still squashed to all hell and quite loud sounding)

...

I think that's an acceptable compromise.

why are you compromising? why is 'squashed to all hell' something you're willing to accept when you don't have to?


gregoire
del
ubk
.

[kzkingsley]

I can't imagine the logic behind limiting these recordings yourself. Do not have a volume knob?

[robertbonello]

Whilst you guys are at it, how much do you need to push L2(or whatever you're using) to get the Guitar Hero version as mashed as the CD version, both audibly as well as visually?

[Makinithappen]

Originally Posted by Franky

They'll still sound not very good.

Let's get the the multitracks?

They'll still not sound very good.

Lets record it again.

They'll still not sound very good.

Let's ummm..

Thats the funniest thing I've read all day!

[Neon Heart]

Originally Posted by robertbonello

Whilst you guys are at it, how much do you need to push L2(or whatever you're using) to get the Guitar Hero version as mashed as the CD version, both audibly as well as visually?

four instances each with

threshold to -30

in a chain

then oxford limiter input to +18

and finally everything through multiband fuzz.

pretty close to the retail version

[Moo]

I'd disagree about Hetfiled and Ulrich ruling the roost. This sound is common on many Rubin productions - SOAD Hypnotize/Mezmerize, RHCP's Californication, Slayer's Christ Illusion.

I think the problem is more like a snowball (apologies if this is me teaching Grandma to suck eggs). There is a competition for comercial recordings to be loud and 'present' (I use this word loosely, however a good crushing can make things sound a little more present when the transients are lopped off) as a result of a number of influences (iPods, the digital age, other commercial recordings being 'this loud', fear that consumers will think it;s inferior if they have to turn it up). It snowballs because that's what people are used to. And not just consumers but producers, mastering engineers, record execs, radio etc etc. When you're putting out something you want it to be able to compete with other product out there and other product you've produced. "Gee, this doesn't quite sound as in your face as that last album I did? Can you limit it just a bit more? And maybe a bit more of that Exciter.....Yeah that's it!" If you've been eating a bar of choclate a day and someone then gives you half a bar but says it's primo quality, you're likely to balk especially when you question whether it will satisfy you.....

Again blah blah blah. Apologies if I'm hit and miss on some of the technical aspects; still a newbie really.

I recently had an experience when getting an EP mastered for a project I produced for my brother where we asked him to back off the compression. Now, this guys has been mastering for over 15 years and has mastered some high profile Australian acts yet he couldn't hear the way some of the dynmaics were smashed out of the songs with the mastering chain he was using. We eventually got there however for the effort, I reckon I could have done better with a combo of Soanlksis EQ, Ozone 3 (just the stereo dynamics), Massey Tape Head or PSP Saturator (used lightly) and the Massey L2007 (which is damn cool fro $90). Now this happended because this guy has to earn a living and I'm pretty sure most of his clients say "Can you make it louder?" and as a result this becomes his default.

Am I raving again.....tell me to shut up!!

[danbronson]

The reasons I slammed them as well was

a) I have grown to like the sound of a fairly compressed mix in this genre. Too much space doesn't sound right for music that is supposed to be 'in your face'. Metallica's version is overkill, but still, a little sounds right to me.

b) At the same time, limiting helps get things to sound equally loud when casually listening to my library with shuffle on. I'm not listening to these songs with my audiophile hat on, if you get my drift. If I was, I'd be puking all over the place regardless of the mastering, because these songs are still clipped a little.

c) I wanted to try my hand at it to see how hard it would be to get to 'commercial loudness' without adding much clipping. Turns out, not too difficult!

In any case, this whole notion that limiting on a master means you're compromising the audio quality needs to be re-examined by a lot of people. Every process that changes the way something sounds is destructive in some way. And it's creative in another. Brickwall limiting is no different. At the end of the day you have to ask yourself if you like the sound of the limiting or not. If yes, do it.

Personally, depending on the way I think the music should sound (can't stress this enough), I think hard limiting can benefit the overall sound (in moderation of course like anything else). Perhaps that's just because I've gotten used to it after years of listening to 'overcompressed' albums. But think about all the other things people have learned to love that were initially 'wrong'. Guitar amp distortion anyone?