Anyone else think that The Eternal sounds a little dull (sonically)?
 

The mix sounds like it is lacking in treble. Anyone else noticing this? Compare it to other recordings and you may see what I mean.

I felt that way about Rather Ripped, but I don't see how someone could think that about The Eternal.

the vinyl sounds full and rich. real lush even. have not heard the cd

Yup I've had a problem with the production since day 1. They should keep doing what they did with Sonic Nurse forever and ever. That was the best sounding album in a long time.

i know what you mean but can't quite express it. somebody else w/ a similar opinion wondered if the 'turn up the treble' line in sacred trickster was a literal suggestion. i will say that it sounds great w/ headphones and i can pick out everyone's part beautifully. sometimes it bothers me that they insist on sticking to the same 'lee on left, kim in the middle, thurston in the right' mix but with headphones it's quite luscious. yes, luscious.

am eagerly anticipating hearing that $9 vinyl though...mmm...

maybe it is your ears lacking in treble because there is no lack on it on my eternal cd.

no. the treble is crisp and clear, it evan bites your ear when you turn it up. sound engeneering is very good, though the music itself is shit. i guess, that is why you feel a little dull listening to it. and the mp3s are dull, maybe thats your problem.

MP3'S MUST DIE! :eek: FLAC or nothing at all!

the music is great. sound is a little boxy. there, i tried to describe it. it still sounds great, it's just an observation (that a lot of people seem to have).

Boxy! That's it Chris! I haven't been able to come up with an adjective for it at all and that pretty much says it.

but boxy fits to that music. thats exactly what they wanted to do this time, i guess. thats not any "lack of something" - if you like the music. i dont like it. just wanted to say it again :-)

This.

Pantophobia raved to me about how good it sounded in his car, too. I don't
drive, so I can't quite vouch.

A bit over compressed perhaps?

i really need to start buying all my shit on vinyl. the sound quality is always better.

i think if anything it is because jim O' rourke had pre-set all the settings on the mixing board.

hahahahah!

i've only listened to it with headphones yet - so thats probably why i didnt hear that. but right, thats a big difference sometimes.

Isn't that the sound engineer's fault?

No, it's not that. I've compared it to several other recordings/artists. It's definitely the mix.

it's uncompressed audio that I'm listening to.

This sounds serious as the guys who work in the studio could make a brilliant recording session by a band sound rubbish.

but you guys might be right: though i dont like the album, i love the version of wwk listed below - because the guitars are more seperated:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H1yUib-0vNg

Yes yes this video is a good example of the difference. There's more breathing room in this version on the video. Not perfect but you can see the difference.

Or, just listen to Sonic Nurse and you'll understand.

i was actually thinking about this a lot when i was listening to the eternal. i agree that it lacks that 'punch' to it. it's more lows and deep bass and it just doesn't sound good. i'm listening to the cd version.

i absolutely love the way Washing Machine sounds. it's so crisp and in your face. if the Eternal was recorded like that, it'd be 102% better

here's what the steve hoffman audiophile folks had to say about the album in general (though most of the early pages are pre-release exposition)

http://www.stevehoffman.tv/forums/sh...d.php?t=174547

i hear the clipping on 'what we know' too. perplexes me. still a killer tune though.

Yeah.. the clipping is pretty hideous. They pushed it just a little too hard in mastering (over compressed). It makes the album sound dynamically "flat". It seems that the vinyl version is not much better on that front.

I still think the songs are some of the best SY have written since washing machine though.

i dont think the clipping was an accident. as i said, the record from pitchfork.tv sounds better to me, but i still think, sy wanted the eternal to sound the way it sounds on the album. i agree pretty much with that guy from stevehoffman.tv (with exception of what he says about the other albums):

"To think this is not what the band wants, however, I think is ridiculous. First, this is their fourth straight new release that has this same sonic signature (Murray Street, Sonic Nurse, and Rather Ripped share it). Second, their "deluxe editions" also share a very compressed sound, and T mentioned how great it sounded in the liner notes to one, and one said "super remastered" on the cover. Third, the mastering was in town and I'd guess they attended the session. Fourth, the vinyl sounds pretty much the same as the CD, making it seem even less like an accident. Fifth, the label is not known for compression, and clearly is going out of their way to give the band what it wants in other respects."

The clipping was not an accident , all modern releases have this in common (google loudness war). What was an accident was something sounding fucked up from the compression/limiting that was applied to create said clipping.

you might be right. interesting discussion - for many of you guys where totally impressed by the "production" of the eternal, and evan where talking about nurse and murray sounding too flat and all - and know people think the other way.

edit: to me, the production of murray, nurse and nycgf is perfect. but this does have to do with the music itself: you can hear more what i could call singing notes, more the quality of the tone in those albums, and the production fits to that. but how could you produce the eternal, if there are no such qualities in the writing, if you have only a chord following the bass up and down? you will do what they did, or, make it sound more raw like pitschfork.tv did. a production-style like murray or nurse is not possible, since you dont have all this interesting melodie-fractures, and none of the semi-acoustic-blues-guitar-sound in it. doesnt mean its worse, its something different - but listen to farm from dinosaur jr. thats good sound for that kind of music.

maybe they evan compressed the whole album after recording it. and this leads to another problem: the single songs from the album could all easily have introduced a single record, but they dont fit together on one record.

I got The Eternal through the BEGN program and even the mp3's on the BEGN site sound better. I love the songs and was all excited to get the actual cd thinking it would be amazing and now I hardly even listen to it. It sounds horrible on my computer, on my home system and in my car. It's a huge disappointment.

gtfo no way is treblefest 09

I feel the complete opposite.

limiting is not clipping, limiting is strong compression, clipping sounds like overload.

on what we know, there is a gated reverb on steves snare that could be mistaken for clipping.

that is all.

Limiting is strong compression (ratio of 10:1 or more) that is used to clip wave forms for added volume during mastering. Push it too hard and it makes bad things happen. That could be what happened in the cause of What We Know... and it might reflect why people are finding this album sonically displeasing (flat/dull).

Just a theory.

it is used to limit waveforms for added volume not clip them, clipping is when the input or output channels overload. limiting limits for added volume but so the waveforms do not clip or overload i/o.

It's their best album in a while, and no problems with the sound on any half-decent system, on the illegally downloaded mp3's or the legally-bought cd. the mp3's burned onto a cdr sounded a bit dull played on a cheap dvd player thru an old tv's speakers, but that's not the fault of the music really is it...

hahahahahaha that's pushing yr luck hahahahahaha

Sounds great. They haven't had a badly-produced album since "Sister".

Guess you all have dog's ears.

everyone would hear the highs if they had dogs ears.....

i layered peanut butter and 3 in one oil on my eternal vinyl....i jammed it into the cd player and it sounded alright......

seriously.... its fine....i dont see/hear a problem with it......but im no albini ear guy.

But there are no highs, apparently!