Quote:
Originally Posted by Zeke.
Has anybody else noticed the difference in mixing quality with this album? I have been listening to the first two tracks + The bonus track during my workouts (on a stereo system), and when I switch to WARNING and other A ONE tracks I noticed a substantial difference. The tracks from MADE IN JAPAN sound fuller and fill my weight room much better, and I'm able to pick hear the layers more clearly than those other tracks. And this is merely a rip from the streaming service. I'm wondering if it's an issue with how people rip audio files. I'm curious as to whether the CD rip will sound worse than the rip that's out there now, because to me it sounds flawless when I play those tracks on stereo as they are now.
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No, it's studio mixing/mastering. Actual trend in music industry is to making music less and less dynamic but more and more lauder. Such music sound "better" on your smartphone or mp3 player but when you put the CD to decent audio system it will hurt your ears. Turn on "GUILTY" album - it sounds like wall of sound (instruments are flat and mixed together - not separated from each other giving you feeling of space and air between them) and it's the worse (technically) album of Ayu (shame, because songs are good).
Install Foobar2000 and add Dynamic Range Meter to it - check some of your CDs and you'll see the problem (or here's some reference for Ayu recordings:
http://dr.loudness-war.info/album/li...ayumi+hamasaki). Tracks from "M(A)DE IN JAPAN" are dynamic on
level 6-8 (most of songs 7). Most of tracks from "A One" has
level 4-5 (the only track with level 8 is "The GIFT"). A good level is 14+ but you can forget about it in modern mainstream pop - anything with level bigger than 7 should make us happy nowadays.