The Smiley Smile Message Board

I've just read AGD's post on the blue board that Bob Ludwig has mastered Brian's new album and I'm gutted to say the least.

I'm not a technophile and don't understand the recording process but I do believe me own ears and there are some CD's I've purchased over the last few years that are unlistenable to me..they literally hurt my ears......

After Brian's last CD came out "TLOS"" , I'd spotted this topic being raised on some message boards including this one and went Bingo......that must be why I don't enjoy it as much, it's been hotwalled or whatever the term is. I like the songs, I flew to England to see it performed live, really enjoyed it.

Look at Dennis's POB re-release, that CD is wonderful, not just the music but you can turn the volume up and your ear drums don't explode.

My real fear is that we'll eventually get a SMiLE release from the archives of some sort and the mastering expert in all his or her wisdom will cook the tapes using this hotwalling process.

That's my little rant of my chest....I'd like to introduce myself, my name is Thomas and I'm from Ireland...long time lurker, first time poster.

Hello Thomas,

Unfortunately it seems as though BWRG is semi-Brickwalled just like TLOS and McCartney's "Memory almost Full" among many many other records. I noticed this when I listened to the samples of "Rhapsody in Blue" - the music player on that blog showed the waveforms of the songs, and they were brickwalled.

In this day and age, and especially if something is being released by a company like Disney or Capitol, they almost need to brickwall it to ensure that it will stand out when played in places like Whole Foods, Starbucks and, yes, the radio.

I am with you when it comes to brickwalled mastering - it 'squashes' dynamics and is generally gross sounding - but we'll have to live with it on the digital version. A good way to get around it is to purchase the vinyl version instead. Vinyl cannot be mastered that way - if it were, the needle would jump - the format literally cannot handle it. The vinyl version of "That Lucky Old Sun" has much sweeter dynamics than the CD issue, and the same will be true of the vinyl version of BWRG.

Another Irish fan here  ;D

"The Like In I Love You" seemed pretty tasteful in its volume, at any rate.

It's funny, in any article that I have read in which Bob Ludwig is quoted, he always comes across as a fierce opponent of the hypercompression trend.

Such as here: http://emusician.com/tutorials/emusic_masters_mastering/


Yet whenever we have a new release from Brian, people always lament Ludwig's participation as the Mastering Engineer.

Does pressure from the record companies force him abandon his principles? Or does he simply have a different idea as to what constitutes overly compressed audio compared to the people of this board?

Sam :)

People master to the taste of the people paying for the mastering. I look at it as akin to an arms race. While everyone seems to agree in theory that everything is mastered far too hot, nobody wants to be the only one to stop doing it for fear his work will be overlooked while others keep it up.

Like someone mentioned, this seems to be an issue with cd releases...because the vinyl release sounds great. Which is why I prefer listening to Brian's newer records from ripped vinyl.

Don't blame the engineer. It's usually the producers and record companies telling them to "make it louder". They're only doing their job.

FWIW, I'm sure the vinyl release will sound better than the CD (that is, if you have a reasonably decent turntable set up).

The vinyl will almost certainly sound nicer, but this cd is not brickwalled in any way.  I hear plenty of dynamics.  I'll wait to play it on a proper setup before making a final judgment, but it sure sounds like Bob did a fine job to me.

That said, bring on the the 24th.  I want my record!

Try putting it through something like Audacity or Sound Forge and see what the signal looks like. Even the intro piece is brickwalled.

Edit: OK, hold up hands time... seems I've been somewhat mislead, but also broke my own golden rule ("question everything"): just put random tracks through Audacity and while the mastering is a touch 'hot', it's not close to the TLOS level of brickwalling. I think someone sent me some 'doctored' images.  :(

........great to read from Andrew that my fears about the CD have more or less been unwarranted and put to rest........

Thanks Sam for highlighting that article, very interesting read.

Probably shouldn't have titled this topic with Bob's name as it's this brickwalling process and not him personally that I'm against.

it's funny looking at the other topic on the board about trying to introduce friends, relations and work colleagues to the music of the Beach Boys and the brick wall, to steal a term, that's put up by them whenever the topic is raised................... and also mentioning the warmer sound from LP's or records as opposed to CD's, they look at me as if I've grown another head!!