Stadium Arcadium: An LP and CD audio comparison.

[Space Farm]

I found an interesting thread the other day about Stadium Arcadium. Basically it has a horribly compressed sound to it whether people can hear it or not...what does this mean?

http://img76.imageshack.us/img76/6905/peppe508fr.jpg
Above is a picture of the LP mastered version and the CD mastered version, quite a difference, no?

Here's another screenshot:

Stadium Arcadium from LP
http://img172.imageshack.us/img172/8546/salpum1.jpg

Stadium Arcadium from CD
http://img175.imageshack.us/img175/296/sacdxt2.jpg

Here's a link to download a comparison between the two versions.

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=0U6041KD

(45 seconds from Dani California). The first half is the CD version, the second the LP verison. There is a huge difference between the two in my opinion. Remember this isn't a Vinyl vs CD thread, these are just two very different masters of what's become a very popular trend these days.

What happened to Stadium Arcadium is just an example of many other albums that have also been compressed really badly and have been released in the last 10 years:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Gmex_4hreQ

I'm interested in hearing your thoughts...

 

[brink's]

Apparently, every Red Hot Chili Peppers cd has this problem...really pisses some people off to.

Me, I can't tell the difference.

 

[Bad^Hat]

Yeah, someone posted an article about this "loudness war" thing awhile back but... it was kinda long

The Chili clip wasn't too bad, I noticed a difference but I didn't think either was lacking too much punch or anything (this is through my headphones though). The video is worrying though... what exactly is the reasoning behind pumping up the volume on CDs?

I have noticed a bit of disparity in volume in my own CD collection though, and not just from older to newer albums. Huge example - System of a Down, specifically the two latest. GODDAMN are they loud. Every time a song from them comes up on my Xbox playlist, I have to take the volume down about 5 notches on my TV.

Doesn't help that SoaD already has blared-out-to-hell guitars, inaudible bass and flat drums. But hey, atleast you can still hear the piercing whine of Daron Malakian's vocals soaring above everything else. Yay.

 

[Space Farm]

what exactly is the reasoning behind pumping up the volume on CDs?

It's just to make it sound louder and "fuller". It may be not that much of a bad thing but the problems not exactly so much to do with the volume, I mean that's the obvious difference but more to do with the compression of the instruments. You hear the drums and you can tell they're different, once you hear it you recognise it. It's not as obvious in metal of course, but other genre's it's really obvious once you recognise the trademarks and it really is annoying that there's a trend in compressing albums.

Apparently, every Red Hot Chili Peppers cd has this problem...really pisses some people off to.

Me, I can't tell the difference.

Just the last 3 I believe, all mastered by the same engineer.

I can't believe you can't hear the difference though (have you got this up loud?), the first is tiny and trebly while the second is warm. Again, once you hear it it's easy to tell the difference.