Worst-sounding recordings?

[abboudc]

Which ones? My CDs of Satanic Majesty and Beggar's banquet sound great, given their vintage.

Beggar's Banquet is particularly bad. On most older recordings there's a source tape hiss, on that particular album it's really bad. To contrast, i can barely hear it on older Beatles recordings of the same era.

 

[Joe Schmoe]

Beggar's Banquet is particularly bad. On most older recordings there's a source tape hiss, on that particular album it's really bad. To contrast, i can barely hear it on older Beatles recordings of the same era.

We weren't talking about tape hiss, we were talking about compression. Yes, BB has some hiss, but no more than I expect in recordings of that era. (That the Beatles records sounded better is not surprising, they had George Martin and Abbey Road, after all.)

 

[darien87]

The Nellie Furtado album mentioned is one of the worst major releases from any artist, as far as sound quality, that I have experienced. It is horrific, in terms of compression/hard limiting. The distortion(s) created by this abuse of compression/limiting is a perfect showcase of what not to do. The attack/release volume changes due to the compressors are blatantly audible, and in some cases, such as track 8 especially, further heavy distortion results on the bass. Track 8, to me, sounds much like a subwoofer driven past it's linear limits. Whom ever is responsible must have terrible hearing acuity. This release makes any Britney Spears albums sound like an audiophile recording, in comparison.

-Chris

Which song is track 8? If you are referring to "Say it right", I know what you mean. When I downloaded the song, I was like, "What the hell? It's all distorted."

 

[Joe Schmoe]

Which song is track 8? If you are referring to "Say it right", I know what you mean. When I downloaded the song, I was like, "What the hell? It's all distorted."

That could easily have something to do with the fact that you downloaded it. I think sound quality should be judged based on the CD itself, as I would hardly consider downloads to be reliable in that respect.

 

[darien87]

That could easily have something to do with the fact that you downloaded it. I think sound quality should be judged based on the CD itself, as I would hardly consider downloads to be reliable in that respect.

Could be. But this is the first time I have downloaded a paid for song and thought it sounded like crap. The file is 192kbps, so I would think that should be plenty of resolution.