This is what I like to call a ‘dynamic edit’ of “MaNyfaCedGod (ft. James Blake)” by Jay-Z! _4:44_ faced a decent amount of dynamic range compression (not to be confused with data compression, which concerns MP3s and such) in its mastering, which, when used in excess or poorly, can make music fatiguing to listen to over time and cause audible distortion. In this, I attempt to undo that mastering compression and resulting distortion, making the music more dynamic and hopefully, more listenable!
For those not in the know, the Loudness War is a phenomenon beginning in the mid-90s onward, in which music was mastered louder and louder, with the underlying reasoning being that louder music sounds better, and thus, should sell better. As with any medium, however, there is a peak loudness a signal can reach, so dynamic range compression (which makes the louder parts of the signal quieter while keeping the quiet parts the same loudness) and sometimes even clipping (attempting to make a signal louder than maximum loudness) were used to make music as loud as possible.
The issue with this is that overuse of dynamic range compression and clipping can make music fatiguing to listen to, and sometimes even audibly distorted. Additionally, clipping, poor compressors, or overuse of compressors can result in artifacts such as hiss or crackle being audible atop the signal. There is a degree of distortion on _4:44_ from its mastering, though it is certainly not as bad in that respect as many of other Jay-Z albums. You can hear some distortion on the vocals at 2:22 on “Bam”, on the vocals and beat at 1:31 on “Kill Jay Z”, and on the beat at 2:33 on “The Story of O.J.”. Again, the distortion throughout the album is far less than, say, in _The Black Album,_ wherein the vocals are consistently crackling from clipping.
I attempted to undo the album’s dynamic range compression with a program called “Perfect Declipper”, which can not only affect clipping, but other types of compression found in mastering as well! I was able to fix up the distortion in “Bam”, “Kill Jay Z”, and “The Story of O.J.” that I noted! Through this process, I was also able to bring the dynamic range of the album from 7 to 12, which hopefully makes it more listenable as well!
It’s important to note that the dynamics are not being restored with the “Perfect Declipper” program that I use, but rather, they are being approximated. While one may not be able to “declip” an album as one would be unable to “unbake a cake”, I find the results here to be a convincible attempt at doing so. Only in the most extreme examples have I heard the program produce odd artifacts that would appear unintended in the album’s mix.
I also want to make clear that dynamic range compression is not an inherently bad thing. It can tighten up performances, add grit, and help remove dynamic outliers that would take you out of the mix. Additionally, mastering engineers are often underneath the implicit and explicit pressures of artists and record labels to master albums loudly, so the results of mastering may not necessarily reflect a mastering engineer’s intentions for how they wanted an album to sound. Also, whether my edits sound better than the original release is up to what the listener thinks!
I produce many more dynamic edits on this channel as well as further descriptions in posts over on Reddit! You can look at this for a full list of the albums I’ve done: docs.google.com/document/d/1975IIQohEqbV-iZOSCWD0Cupbk0kGn3l5MgzB_ZCwQ8
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