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hopefully_benign

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  1. Like
    hopefully_benign got a reaction from Total Saikou in Lo-Fi in VK, love it or hate it?   
    Unfortunately the loudness wars hit vk before the mid 2000s. A handful of late 90s/early 2000s releases are among the loudest albums in my library. The waveforms on some of them look like Merzbow.
    I'm looking at you, Lucifer. That one's legitimately up there with Death Magnetic, Californication, et al.
     
    I think a lot of people incorrectly use "lo-fi" as a synonym for "I wish this album had more low-end." Something like Luna Sea's first album (not the re-recording) has better sound quality than Dir en Grey's last album or some other clipped-to-death modern release in terms of being able to hear everything, spaciousness, dynamics, everything being in its proper sonic space, etc. Of course it's really thin sounding, like a lot of old vk, but it's a tradeoff I'll take over brickwalling any day.

    Tangentially, the first Deshabillz album feels like you're watching a haunted VHS tape in some shed in a forest, and it would be a million times less creepy and awesome if it had more professional production
  2. Like
    hopefully_benign got a reaction from Egnirys cimredopyh in LUNA SEA   
    Damn. I've been spending more time with Eden and it's JUST as good as st/Image/Mother. Maybe better than some of those. It's simple but it's so BUSY. There isn't a moment in the album where there aren't licks spilling out of licks. There's something almost otherworldly about the slightly distant sounding vocal recording. (I'm pretty sure it has something to do with how the vocals were recorded anyway, just slapping reverb on stuff gets a different, not-as-cool effect)
     
    Everyone told me this one was inessential. wtf? 
  3. Like
    hopefully_benign got a reaction from Nowhere Girl in Remakes/Re-recordings: Do ya like em?   
    I hate it
    If an artist wants to re-record a song for fun as a bonus on some release, it's whatever, I don't care.
     
    But re-recording an entire album is the worst thing an artist can do. Albums crystallize the youth and hunger of a band at a certain point in their career.
    If you make a few great albums and then start sucking for the next decade or two, who cares, at least your good stuff still exists. But the popularization of re-recordings means even that golden era is subject to its own kind of entropy.
     
    Re-recording an album to "improve" it (read: make it shittier with antiseptic production, brickwalled sound and noticeably aged vocals, usually) is cultural vandalism, I think. So what if the old version was lo-fi? An album sounds the way it does for a reason, it has quirks and an atmosphere that reflects the time it was made in. Just like modern production/recording trends will badly date a lot of what's released now in the future.
     
    There's an elegance to something just being the way it is. Why do you have to muddle things by throwing another version out there?
     
    Learn from your old "mistakes" (which usually aren't even mistakes--artists are notoriously bad judges of their own work) by adjusting the way you tackle new material, and improve that way. Re-recording albums is simultaneously the worst kind of backward-looking indulgence in nostalgia AND irreverence to legacy. It's somehow bad in two diametrically opposed ways at the same time.
  4. Like
    hopefully_benign got a reaction from Karma’s Hat in Dir en grey   
    (I know this is from a demo recording, but I'd argue it's well produced+mastered)
    For best results listen with headphones and crank it
    The snare drum attacks you because the waveform isn't compressed into a brick, it's spikey and has peaks. Because some parts are allowed to be quieter than other parts, stuff like that stop-start breakdown around 1:10 hits hard and feels really punchy.
    The recording's got a nice room ambience, the toms rumble. There's a sense of space, everything is where it should be in the mix. 
    A++++++
     
    play this at an equivalent volume
    Soso production, not-so-good mastering. Notice how the drums don't really punch through. Everything is kinda flat and fighting for space. When the "loud" part comes in around 1:50, it doesn't really hit you like it should, because the "quiet" part before it is compressed to be basically just as loud as the loud part.
     C-
     
    Bad mastering, bad everything else:
    this re-recording. play it at any volume, it will be loud no matter what volume you have it at. notice how it makes your ears bleed. every sound feels like it's coming from everywhere and nowhere at once.
    F-----------
     
    Generally speaking if production/mastering isn't something you care much about and isn't something that can impede your enjoyment, it's best to keep it that way. It can be such a pandora's box for people who get anal about stuff.
  5. Interesting
    hopefully_benign reacted to StriderSubzero in Dir en grey   
    This is generally true, but unless you're talking about specific instances of EQ and mixing decisions, it's hard to delineate between a production or mixing issue, so it's perfectly fine to just call it "production." For instance, you can say the guitars are muddy on TIW, but there's not really a way to specify that being an "error" in mixing specifically since we weren't in the room with the engineer. It might have resulted from the way they chose to record them
     
     
  6. LOVE!
    hopefully_benign got a reaction from LEY in MALICE MIZER   
    They're too linked to my late adolescence for me to ever rate them objectively. I'll forever associate them with Naruto AMVs and embarrassing early 2000s forums where we all used signature banners made for us by the one guy there who knew how to use photoshop filters.
  7. Thanks
    hopefully_benign got a reaction from saiko in LUNA SEA   
    Everybody: vk isn't a genre, it doesn't have a "sound"
    every riff in Image: *exists*
  8. Thanks
    hopefully_benign got a reaction from Demivee in LUNA SEA   
    Everybody: vk isn't a genre, it doesn't have a "sound"
    every riff in Image: *exists*
  9. Like
    hopefully_benign got a reaction from Jigsaw9 in LUNA SEA   
    Everybody: vk isn't a genre, it doesn't have a "sound"
    every riff in Image: *exists*
  10. Thanks
    hopefully_benign got a reaction from saishuu in LUNA SEA   
    Everybody: vk isn't a genre, it doesn't have a "sound"
    every riff in Image: *exists*
  11. LOVE!
    hopefully_benign got a reaction from ghostpepper in LUNA SEA   
    Everybody: vk isn't a genre, it doesn't have a "sound"
    every riff in Image: *exists*
  12. Thanks
    hopefully_benign reacted to Takbardzozly in LUNA SEA   
    Ryuichi always will be one of the best, most charismatic and versatile vocalist of all time, he is a living legend and I'm so happy that he beat this cancer.
    We should just get used to the way he sings now.
  13. LOVE!
    hopefully_benign got a reaction from AnchuAnchor in Poor use of foreign languages in visual kei   
    Day owaranai Endless rain
    sou mou ichido Once again
    What time is it now?
    wakaranai kaerenai
    Game Playstation2
  14. Thanks
    hopefully_benign got a reaction from Jigsaw9 in Poor use of foreign languages in visual kei   
    Day owaranai Endless rain
    sou mou ichido Once again
    What time is it now?
    wakaranai kaerenai
    Game Playstation2
  15. LOVE!
    hopefully_benign got a reaction from Tokage in Poor use of foreign languages in visual kei   
    Day owaranai Endless rain
    sou mou ichido Once again
    What time is it now?
    wakaranai kaerenai
    Game Playstation2
  16. ASDFGHJKLAJGLKAG!!!!!
    hopefully_benign got a reaction from Demivee in DIR EN GREY new single 落ちた事のある空 release summer 2020   
    Another psychobilly classic in the making
  17. Thanks
    hopefully_benign got a reaction from Jigsaw9 in DIR EN GREY new single 落ちた事のある空 release summer 2020   
    Another psychobilly classic in the making
  18. ASDFGHJKLAJGLKAG!!!!!
    hopefully_benign got a reaction from benzaiten._ in DIR EN GREY new single 落ちた事のある空 release summer 2020   
    Another psychobilly classic in the making
  19. Thanks
    hopefully_benign reacted to Tokage in deadman   
    thinkin bout thos mr beanz
  20. Interesting
    hopefully_benign reacted to NICKT in DIR EN GREY new single 落ちた事のある空 release summer 2020   
    Everyone here bemoaning digital releases makes me wonder how you consume music. 

    I have a couple music cds but I literally have not listened to non-digital music since the mid 2000s. Spotify for when I'm out and about and when I'm at home I've got my thousands and thousands of songs on my computer, can't imagine sitting there and being like "Hey I wanna listen to music" and then staring at a stack of jewel cases whilst I figure out what I want to listen to. So much ease and comfort with my digital library and can't even begin to imagine going back to physical.
  21. Like
    hopefully_benign got a reaction from Total Saikou in Top 5 VK albums?   
    La'Cryma Christi - Sculpture of Time
    Kuroyume - 生きていた中絶児… (so it's not a full-length, whatever, play it twice in a row and pretend it is)
    X Japan - Blue Blood
    Deshabillz - 精神離脱者
    Luna Sea - Image

    Something like that
  22. Thanks
    hopefully_benign reacted to Naaaaani in Great musician but shitty person?   
    Totally agree, he is still a maximalist silly child, like most of the lefties in this world. Anyway his music is great, though it's not very original.
     
    Also... Yoshiki? He is a greedy egomaniac, but well, he is really awesome as a composer.
  23. Daria
    hopefully_benign reacted to Takadanobabaalien in Madeth gray'll kanji/romaji/translation; tragedy in 6 acts   
    Good thing that women are still standing up for themselves, even in Japan. Also men shouldn't have anything to say about it, as they are not the ones carrying the child in their body.
    Oh well, let's end this here. As we are heading off-topic now.
  24. Daria
    hopefully_benign got a reaction from Ikna in Worst Band Names in VK?   
    La'miss†fairy
     
    no fucking contest
  25. Bitch, excuse me?!
    hopefully_benign got a reaction from lichtlune in Worst Band Names in VK?   
    La'miss†fairy
     
    no fucking contest
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