Will Guitar Hero Save Death Magnetic?
News of Guitar Hero's mix of Death Magnetic being of better quality than the CD or vinyl has now hit mainstream. Yahoo has it on their front page, and Rolling Stone has an article as well.
Some people on the Metallica forums have asked the question, "Why did no one notice this before the record went to mass duplication?" My guess: someone did know. And they ignored it.
Any reader of Band Chat knows I've been complaining about the Loudness War for some time. This is not news. Almost every CD released today is a victim to it to some degree. The issue has got some attention as of late, but the general public has mostly ignored it. So record companies have continued to punish us with this garbage. And they felt, once again, that only the audiophiles, a very small minority, would be upset with Death Magnetic.
So what was the difference this time? A direct comparison to something obviously better: the Guitar Hero mix. Metallica, in their infinite business savvy way, managed to release the album for Guitar Hero the same day the CD went on sale. Up until that day, even though the mp3 releases were unsatisfactory, most Metallica fans were uneducated and stated there was no issue. That changed once release day hit, because any fan that wasn't deaf could easily tell which version sounded better.
So now the band has a real problem on their hands, and for the sake of their reputation, I hope they address the issue publicly soon. DVDs and CDs have been recalled before, so will Metallica do the right thing and offer a trade-in?
Some people on the Metallica forums have asked the question, "Why did no one notice this before the record went to mass duplication?" My guess: someone did know. And they ignored it.
Any reader of Band Chat knows I've been complaining about the Loudness War for some time. This is not news. Almost every CD released today is a victim to it to some degree. The issue has got some attention as of late, but the general public has mostly ignored it. So record companies have continued to punish us with this garbage. And they felt, once again, that only the audiophiles, a very small minority, would be upset with Death Magnetic.
So what was the difference this time? A direct comparison to something obviously better: the Guitar Hero mix. Metallica, in their infinite business savvy way, managed to release the album for Guitar Hero the same day the CD went on sale. Up until that day, even though the mp3 releases were unsatisfactory, most Metallica fans were uneducated and stated there was no issue. That changed once release day hit, because any fan that wasn't deaf could easily tell which version sounded better.
So now the band has a real problem on their hands, and for the sake of their reputation, I hope they address the issue publicly soon. DVDs and CDs have been recalled before, so will Metallica do the right thing and offer a trade-in?
posted by Hollow Man at 11:22 PM
3 Comments:
Ripped from my CD:
http://stashbox.org/226668/thedaythatnevercomes-cd.png
Guitar hero III illegal version:
http://stashbox.org/manage_file/226670/thedaythatnevercomes-guitarheroIII.png
I'm burning the Guitar Hero III version to CD, putting that in the box, sticking the original CD out of the way somewhere, and putting the rips on my iPod too.
Plus, I'm putting the Guitar Hero III version onto Snakenet in place of the album version.
THEMike - Snakenet Metal Radio
Thanks for the comment. I think the 2nd URL you wanted was:
http://stashbox.org/226670/thedaythatnevercomes-guitarheroIII.png
Glad to see that Snakenet is taking a stand and using the GH files. They really start to approach audiophile type quality with the amount of openness and space between the instruments. That makes a big difference, I imagine, for streaming audio. Keep up the good work over there!
Generally, our library is 128kbps CD rips. These then get re-encoded on the fly to 128kbps SHOUTcast streaming MP3. So a little loss of quality.
But, the difference between the CD rip 128->128 vs the Guitar Hero 320->128 is VERY big. You can hear the music. Which is always nice I find!
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