Why does this song sound so bad?
Вставка
- Опубліковано 9 вер 2023
- 'Vampire' by Olivia Rodrigo is a good song and very popular. However the sound quality of the recording is atrocious. Why does it have to sound so bad? Featuring Debbie and Audio Phil.
NOTE
"Vampire' was No. 1 in the UK official singles chart at the time of filming.
COPYRIGHT
As noted in the video, this is a review and therefore counts as fair use. UA-cam's automated ContentID system flagged the content and raised a claim, which is normal, which I disputed, which is normal. The administrator of the copyright, ONErpm (onerpm.com/), released the claim in *one day*. This is exemplary performance. Releasing a claim often takes up to the full 30 days allowed. DM
CREDITS AND LINKS
Olivia Rodrigo on Wikipedia en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olivia_...
Official website www.oliviarodrigo.com/
Official video • Olivia Rodrigo - vampi...
Dan Nigro en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dan_Nigro
Bizzaardvark en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bizaard...
High School Musical: The Musical: The Series en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_Sc...
Miss Hoover simpsons.fandom.com/wiki/Eliz...
EQUIPMENT USED TO MAKE AUDIO MASTERCLASS VIDEOS
CAMERA - Sony Alpha A6600 amzn.to/3uj7Dtq
COMPUTER - Apple Mac Mini M2 Pro amzn.to/47tW6Wg
MICROPHONE - Sennheiser KH 416 amzn.to/3QWWvuO
ALTERNATIVE MICROPHONE - AKG C414 amzn.to/3SLqCad
BUDGET MICROPHONE CHOICE - Rode shotgun amzn.to/3G0ni36
MICROPHONE PREAMPLIFIER - Comica LinkFlex AD2 amzn.to/40SMHFT
TELEPROMPTER - Padcaster Parrot alternatives amzn.to/40A55TJ
TELEPROMPTER SOFTWARE - PromptSmart Pro promptsmart.com/
AUDIO INTERFACE - Behringer UMC202HD amzn.to/3ugj6db
HEADPHONES - Sony wired amzn.to/3sEjlht
KEYLIGHT- Amaran 100d amzn.to/40A5Gor
FILL LIGHTS - Switti RGB amzn.to/3ufhOPu
SOFTBOX Phot-R alternatives amzn.to/3QGoTjJ
LIGHTING STANDS Phot-R alternatives amzn.to/3QWXOKe
MONITOR - Samsung UJ59 amzn.to/3MEoBsk
MONITOR ARM - Invision alternatives amzn.to/40SLqi5
MIC ARM - Neewer amzn.to/49Ob0sD
TRIPOD - Velbon alternatives amzn.to/46gu2oa
GREEN SCREEN - Elgato alternatives amzn.to/3SG2F3L
DESK - FlexiSpot E7 Pro amzn.to/3QVIWvS
VIDEO EDITING - Apple Final Cut Pro www.apple.com/final-cut-pro/
IMAGE EDITING - Adobe Photoshop amzn.to/3FZ7Ww0
AUDIO EDITING - Avid Pro Tools amzn.to/3QA5Wz7
NOTEBOOK - Leuchturm 1917 hardback amzn.to/47zonKX
PEN - Sakura Pigma archival pen Sakura Pigma archival pen amzn.to/47zz3cP
OSCILLOSCOPE - Hameg HM 203 alternatives amzn.to/47tWN1O
BEAUTY - Philips 3000 nose hair trimmer amzn.to/40BdLJo
Disclaimer: Videos on this channel may include affiliate links and may feature software that has been received free of charge with an NFR (not for resale) licence, equipment that has been loaned or donated by a manufacturer or distributer, or equipment that has been bought for less than full retail price.
Thank you for giving voice and a definition of clarity to those times when I hear a recording and can only come up with the word "awful" to describe what it sounds like to me.
I don't mind some bad recordings. I really loved the "garage recordings" from blink182 and others. But this one is really bad. I would love a video on how you make your own master of this song and explain why you do this and how it sounds on different steps
Although you are correct in everything you said, you must remember the target audience is mid-late teens listening on their earpods. I don’t think this was ever mixed and mastered with balance and dynamics in mind. Only us “old” folk (40+😂) that actually have actual stereo speakers in the house. Everything else these days a mono smart speaker/ Bluetooth bass cannons or Bluetooth earbuds.
No excuses.
I wanted to say that as a teen i disagree, then i realized im 21…
I've heard worse but it's a shame that this song gets progressively more distorted.
Record companies really need to stop this but they won't.
Good video by the way 👍🏻
Distortion can sound great, like in Danzig's "Can'tspeak", but only as an effect for some short moments.
That band later made entire songs with that distortion but that's just way too much.
Still I prefer that over what I heard in this video.
Most people simply don't care, it's number 1 after all. Why would they change anything.
I think people must like it. Why else would record companies and producers continue with it for so long? I only wish they would release two versions of each album/single: The "loud" version and the "good" version.
I concur.
Young listeners know no better
The song works for me. It does get distorted past the halfway point but I think that's an artistic choice to show her emotional state. I f you think of it as a play or avant garde instead of traditional pop music it works as a performance piece. I think all sound is valid, even sounds I hate. It all has a place.
100% agree with you, I am not a fan of the distortion at times in the song, but it works for this song.
Great comment. Very true. It is art after all, not a competition for best sounding audio. I love the audio analysis that Audio Masterclass provides. Takes listening to another critical level.
This is a little bit of "old man yells at cloud"
I listened to the song on my phove via earbuds last night. It was alright although a little too sibilant. I can still accept such sibilance. Today I played this track on my KEFs and Focals, and man oh man, her vocals got to the point of being metallic and distorted. Some notes are very glassy and brittle, almost like a female robot trying to scream through a straw. And it doesnt only happen at high volumes, that distortion is present even at 60db from my MLP. I again went to my 4x4 and listened on it's stock system, not as bad but I cant unhear it now.
On the topic of LUFS in Reaper when you bounce a track it has three different LUFS values... LUFS-M, LUFS-S and LUFS-I. The thing that makes the mastering of these songs bad is their LUFS-I value generally. I'm guessing M is for momentary and S maybe short term. When your song is heavily limited throughout, then you end up with a high LUFS-I, which is integrated. If it were for example a Chopin prelude with some major dynamic shifts you would still want to bounce your track with LUFS-M at or around those values of -14 or whatever the streaming platforms have but your LUFS-I value would be something quite low (I'm assuming it's the average LUFS value throughout the track). I'm not sure if that terminology goes beyond Reaper but it seems like you're generally referring to high LUFS-I values. There's no reason not to put the LUFS-M value to the highest value allowed by the platform you're targeting. I'm guessing these mastering engineers go even higher because they like the software limiting done on the backend of those streaming platforms and want the softest part of their songs to still come in at or around the maximum volume on the service.
"...want the softest part of their songs to still come in at or around the maximum volume on the service" - Good point. DM
Your videos have been greatly educating!!! I was enjoying POP music with my Hifi alike minded friend at his house, enjoying his equipment as well, then we started playing 70-80s Disco, what a difference in recordings! Clear pure sound vs. later era POP music! YOU ARE ACTUALLY EDUCATING WHAT I AM HEARING with my wanna be audiophile ears 👍 And keeping that audiophile trait with necessary mockery in proper check too... 😃
I’ve recorded it to cassette. And with my daughters old fisher price places right at the bottom of the garden I get quite an expansive sound stage. Not to bad like that. Another great show by the way.
Exposure. All of us have missed being exposed to one thing or another during our lives. So, in various categories we accept the pedestrian and the mundane because we haven't been exposed, and therefore, don't know that there is something different or better. I grew up around radio stations, and live, impromptu performances. As a teenie I was introduced to the Muscle Shoals Sound---a recording studio a couple of hundred miles up the road from my hometown. My older brother even had demos from the place. I went on to work in radio all of my life, and to be exposed to all sorts of sounds. I listen intently. To everything. NOBODY ELSE IN MY ORBIT GIVES A DAMN. And they wish I'd just shut the hell up and let them listen in peace to what, to them, sounds just great.
I hadn't heard this track. I get what you are saying, and I would have loved to be able to hear what her voice in the studio sounded like prior to the processing... and yes- it seams many sound engineers seem to be using this method with the "sssss"es and the other lack of clarity making other phrasing scratchy. I'm not an engineer- but I have some interest in sound production and composition- I'd like to do some music production in the future so anything I can learn about this and related topics is useful. Another great video.
Why is it that just about every mainstream artist is happy for their music to be processed to within an inch of its life? Don't they care about how it sounds, or do they really believe their music sounds better after this sort of processing compared to a straight mix? I get that many of today's artists who aren't the best singers or the best musicians or the best songwriters might want to hide behind an over-produced mix, but what's the excuse for those who can sing and play and write? What are they afraid of? It's ironic that the closer we get to being able to make the perfect recording the worse popular music becomes. I've never understood the mentality of mixing a track to sound good on an AM radio or through earbuds. Mix it to sound as authentic as possible; if it sounds crap through a smartphone speaker that's the listener's problem.
I like the clear vocals at the beginning and the harmonics in her vocals. Then they spoilt it by putting too much layering of stuff. A much better produced song is Royals by Lorde. Sometimes less is more
If don't have tinnitus yet, just listen to recordings like this.
I'd love to hear your opinion about Amy Winehouse's "Back to black" album. I think it's the best example of a great performance ruined by mixing/mastering (even if, from what I read, it was done "on purpose" in this case)
What a great recording for you to professionally analyse
i love that album but i have to listen on the speaker phone to trully enjoi`it
The live at Shepherd's Bush Empire 2007 is a very nice recording if you like Amy Winehouse.
Really enjoyed your video. Can we have a longer video where go through the top ten songs 😃
Audiophile Phil, I think you've got your cables crossed.
My biggest issue as an AUDIOPHILE is these modern recordings, i really don't like sibilance. Thanks to your explanation i now understand why i prefer nearly all music pre 1996. I find your channel very educational.
Agreed ... there is a pretty good reason my pop music collection ends in the late 1990s.
In photography a common mistake by rookie photographers is for subjects having no 'space' to look into ie a face that has been cropped or framed so tightly it's not able to 'breathe' and gives a claustrophobic sense to the viewer.
This song gives me an audio-phonic version of this. There's so much compression or limiting or whatever it has no quieter parts for your ears to find a resting place to take the next sound in, it's just all hammered into your ears over saturating the eardrums. I guess that's the kind of 'violence' the general public needs to compensate their daily lives with and to apparently feel 'something', just like hard core and heavy metal in the generations before it.
At some point her voice sounds like an electric guitar with a hard overdrive effect on it. A lot of harmonics and square waves are produced which are, to my ears that can take quite a beating from listening to retro computer music ie chip tunes, is rather painful to listen to.
Good analogy. DM
Regards Metal, I would say it suffered the same fate as Pop around about the same time in the late 90s early 2000s. Prior to this Metal had enjoyed a wide variety of performance styles and techniques, but the 2000s it went for maximum compression, distortion, detuned guitars and "cookie cutter" vocals. As with Pop it then became an assault on your senses without any reason to do so, and was all louder, faster and heavier but less music. There were exceptions of course with bands like Symphony X, Rhapsody, Shadow Gallery and others.
I wasn't familiar with this song, so this was the first time I'd ever heard any piece of it. I honestly had no idea what she was singing on the first playthrough. It's odd to me that this distortion is so difficult for me to understand yet I never had issues in understanding the intentionally metallic industrial distortion of Ministry's Stigmata.
Ministry Stigmata- double points for the reference, awesome track.
It's really simple: louder is better! A loud song attracts more attention on a listener's playlist. Since it's in the top charts, I guess the marketing guys did their job well by pushing the audio engineers to make it LOUD.
We have the equipment now to make almost perfect recordings, yet we use this technology to make the recordings sound worse than they sounded decades ago. I find it hard now to find many modern recordings i can listen to on my hifi and many are just painful. Without wanting to sound like my dad when i was young, it all sounds the same . A loud,screeching mess. It's a strange world.
Totally agree, we have the best equipment to make music sound amazing, but instead we produce music to sound loud in small bad quality earbuds??? It is just unbelievable, make two versions, one high quality and one loud, problem solved.
Would love that but we're a very small niche market. Audiophiles or music lovers ,call us what you like , but we like detail , soundstage and realism in our music. The vast majority want it free and LOUD. Its frustrating to say the least.
The thing is... it not the recording method that is at fault, its the producer or label and sometimes the artist is a lab creation and cant Sing.
Well done! Cant be more accurate than that! IMO they started all wrong, the voice was raised in a way that brought out the s sounds and there on as the intensity was rising, everything needed to came up again… could be a rookie mistake or a bold move since most of the people tend to think that sound only gets loud when it gets distorted (😂) and they needed this overdrive so that the listener would feel the rage, the passion, that Olivia was trying to transmite. I think the success came to this part and it’s the transmission of the felling and if it was the porpoise of the artist, it was well done. distorted? Yes… Good or bad? Depends on the listener. I liked the concept (if it was intended like I think it was) if not… a lucky success based on someone 😱 out loud. Your video was brilliant!
Here's a wild guess, the ''radio people'' just like it this way because it sounds good on car speakers?
Many records are like that. Anything from Motown was engineered to sound good in a Cadillac.
You explained it perfectly, yet I still don't hear why this is "bad". (And I'm not defending the song, either; however it's mixed I'm still not listening to it.) I've heard people make these kinds of arguments countless times, and I'm sure you're right, but I've never been able to understand what it is your hearing. It's a little frustrating to be honest, I wish I could!
I love it as well hahah
But it was interesting to hear this view
somewhere around 3k-4k hz its very harsh starting at 2min to the end
We still love vampire
You hear the Bruno Mars's song "Marry you" from UA-cam music and it's so distorted when you compare with the videoclip from UA-cam app. Why ?
I believe the audience (a commodity) is being manipulated into believe that they are being entertained by the "artists" (another commodity) and now a product has been achieved in the market... by the way I checked out the entire video and felt that normal reasoning was being broken down and I was fighting for my will rather than being entertained. I immediately went and listened to a couple of Starcrawler videos and was actually entertained...they have been working hard and it's paid off ❤. The recording and production has been going too, well in my opinion. My phone with an Altoids peppermint box for a 🎧 amp and my ATH M-50x's at full tilt it sounds pretty good. Anyway have a good day.
Pros: Regarding this particular song, I like the emotion she puts into the song. She's got pipes, I'll give her that.
Cons: When I load a song into Audacity to convert it from one format (such as OGG) to another (such as FLAC or WAV to put it on my Sony music player), I hate seeing a solid block of noise with no discernible waveform. That doesn't give my "de-clipper" and dynamic range expander plugins much to work with :-(
"One difficulty these days is that much popular music has no real-life existence - it is created entirely for electronic consumption.
To be successful in juke-boxes, for instance, 'pop' records must have a dynamic range not greater than 10dB and if possible as little as 6dB,
otherwise the quiet passages are drowned in the clatter of café crockery or pin-table mechanisms.
It is now accepted in recording circles that the narrower the dynamic range on a record the greater the chance of it joining the Top Twenty.
Perhaps this doesn't matter much, but in the meantime a generation is being conditioned to expect six decibels from popular music
while the concert hall still provides a glorious sixty for those who care to attend.
We must hope that practices evolved for 'pop' entertainment are not allowed to infiltrate other fields -
if they do, hi-fi would indeed be on its last lap."
An excerpt from Miles Henslow's editorial, 'Hi-Fi News', February 1965.
In my yoof I bought records. As my system improved, my taste in music broadened to encompass many genres. Life was good.
With children taking more room in my life and house, the stereo system was culled of the record playing elements as I switched to CDs. At this point, a strange thing happened. My taste gradually became more “audiophile”. Jazz was becoming more prominent, as was classical. I sought out specialist labels and stopped playing my old prog rock albums. The sound quality of the CDs I did play was excellent, however, I played fewer of them.
In my next adventure, I heard about Tidal and I started using it via a dongle DAC on my iPad to sample new music. Having found an album I liked, I purchased the CD. Many times, the CD came across as harsh and aggressive and in the worst instances, unplayable. Florence and The Machine, Lana Del Ray and Keane, all artists I can’t listen too on CD.
My solution was to buy a dedicated streamer and decent DAC and try the albums through my system before shelling out for the physical media. Result, I don’t buy any new mainstream CDs any more.
Children now grown, I have returned to vinyl records and lo and behold, I love prog rock once again. And all the other music I’ve listened to over the years. I deliberately buy music on vinyl knowing the levels of compression will almost certainly be reduced in the vinyl mastering compared with the digital version.
I can’t think of another industry where the quality of the output is designed to be bad. It’s like making a Rolls Royce with the smoothest and quietest engine then taking two of the spark plugs out and fitting straight through exhausts.
Phil, remember what most people are listening to this stuff on. You (and I) have nice monitors so the extreme limiting is exaggerated, but most people today listen on Smart phones and laptop speakers, so the compression helps it sound more present. Plus, since people have playlists, the tracks level has to compete with everything else. It's a shame.
It sounds absolutely dreadful, such a shame because it could’ve been something special.
Great channel by the way , I’ve learned a lot about sound and recorded music!
Unfortunately, this is not a new problem. I was listening to "Backfield in Motion" by Mel and Tim. It was a Top 10 hit in 1969. The recording of the single is so distorted and compressed, that, for me, makes it hard to appreciate the all the football (and a few baseball) metaphors in the song. Pop producers have always pushed the audio technology of the time to ( and beyond) the limit in order to capitalize from the psychoacoustic phenomenon of "louder is better". I hope that LUFS will help make recorded music more dynamic and not just merely loud. Enjoyed the video.
if you compare this for example to the beatles twist and shout vocals, it sounds rather clean to be honest. As i recently watched Warren Huarts latest Video about EMI/Abbey Road in particular always tried to push the envelope in terms of sound. In popular music it has ever been and continues to be a race between different labels/producers/artists to come up with the most "exciting" sound. it is what it is... unless the music industry settles on some loudness standards as in TV & Film or Broadcast.
You give a very good explanation (although I don't really understand LUFS levels) to why I can't stand most of modern music, and it's not necessarily about the songs itself but the recording (or mixing, mastering) quality. I really hate the way modern pop tracks sound! Imagine this song being recorded in the 70's or 80's - it would have sounded much better! There is a reason I prefer CDs released in the 80's and early 90's to later remastered editions.
This song actually gives credit to a viola/violin, electric guitar player, and pianist!
As for the quality of sound, I can hear the distortion quite plainly , however I think the way that it is executed works well for this particular song. I’m not sure I’d like it if it were done elsewhere though… I think it works artistically and it struck such a chord in me (pun not intended) that I’ve been trying to recreate the effects. I find the decisions made with the mixing to be creatively satisfying, but that’s just me! I can totally understand how it’s not for everyone.
I am a producer presently preparing music for Spotify and other streamers... I generally master the tracks to about -12dB Lufs, definitely leaving dynamics and never crushing the mainly acoustic music... That being said, my music is definitely alot quieter than most other "record label" tracks as the directive from the labels is to get the music as loud as possible, going to the -8dB avg with peaking right to 0dB... In some cases, the artist does not have a choice, the label will give the music to the mastering engineer with the loudness directive to compete with all the other music that they are crushing... Thankfully, Spotify is set by default to the limiting of all music to -14dB, so most consumers hear all music at about the same level, albeit much of it still crushed. But if the consumer turns off the limiting, the music I release will be definitely quieter...
For obvious reasons I have never actually experienced this, but the unnaturalness of Olivia’s vocal stems from an apparent listening position somewhere between her molars.
Maybe she was in severe pain and discomfort when recording this 🙅♂️👉🏼😖👈🏻
The melody is a lift from Catatonia's Mulder and Scully. I'm easily triggered by sibilance and such...holes in my tinnitus I'm told. The faux whisper is filled with this and drives me away.
I came to this video because I also thought the song was extremely badly recorded, mixed and mastered. But the fact that songs like this are completely limited and compressed I just accepted.
My main complaint is that the high-end is pushed, limited and distorted so much that I can hear very high noise especially in the quiet parts probably above 12kHz. Not only sibilances and all that.
I know that not everybody is able to hear this especially older people but it is so extremely annoying. Play this song to some teenagers on some good equipment and they will tell you the same.
I think we need some kind of young ears safety plugin for sound engineers that cannot hear this. Or just always slap a low pass filter and a negative high shelf on the song to the point that the sound doesn't get affected.
Designed to be listened to through a phone speaker or shite earbuds. It'll sound shit with or without the compression on a phone, but with the compression at least it's loud.
Mastering techniques are being tuned for low quality equipment, plain and simple.
This has been mastered for phone speakers which have abysmal high frequency resolution and low frequency response.
This is the basics of it.
A typical cell phone speaker will play 500hz to 3.5Khz VERY loud and anything outside this range is basically not played.
To avoid just general low volume complaints on these devices, audio engineers are compressing everything to be represented in these ranges.
This leads to everything being audible on a cheap cell phone speaker, but makes the listening experience on a system that actually has sub 500Hz and post 3.5Khz ranges unbearable.
As with much these days, you have the cheapening of standards of the general population to blame.
Old fart notwithstanding, the sound of Olivia’s production is horrendous. I produce pop singles occasionally, when I find a piece I really believe in. I have released some heavily compressed music in my day but nothing even close to this atrocity. It has become a science experiment, lacking any emotional impact the song might have otherwise had.
The song is made "loud" to get more views, in very much the same way youtube videos have inflammatory or overly reductive titles like "Why does this song sound so bad?" to get more views.
It's the compression, distortion and sibilance...oh and lack of dynamics. The semi muttered vocals are so stylised and dated in my view, plus it has a 'tyranny of 4' chord progression.
I like your channel only came across it recently, but I think you’re missing the point ..there’s energy and excitement that jumps out of the speakers when this song comes on any kind of a home device.
Also, there’s an integrity to what she’s singing. It’s not just something made up by a committee of songwriters, and if it was to too well produced it could all go a bit Céline Dion, anyway that’s my take on what they’re aiming for.
Like you I’ve been at Sound Engineer for over four decades, so I’ve heard mixes every which way I just think this one is okay just the way it is!
Years ago i heard Hurt by Johnny Cash. At 3.13 sound gets distorted to my ears, but i think this was done purposely and in a good way as it serves the lyrics: it serves a purpose.
It pushes the song over an edge and i actually feel the hurt the lyrics are talking about.
There is a new exploration going on in the pop music industry, where elements of electronic music is seeping into hip hop and pop. You can find creative uses of pushing a track way past it’s usual enjoyable level, where distortions can sound interesting in there brokenness, in the track Lalala Phonk by Bgnzinho. This was explored first in Baile Funk and some Japanese versions of hip hop sampling styled electronic music. These producers on this track simply miss the target. It sounds not artistic nor interesting. Garage Inc-ish, anyone?
I completely agree with the point you make in this video. 'Vampire' by Olivia Rodrigo sounds terrible and especially the last part of the song is very tiring to listen to. I know that the term "unpleasant noise" is a personal experience. For one person the same sound can be an annoying noise and for another the same sound can be pleasant to listen to. The sound of 'Vampire' by Olivia Rodrigo sounds like very annoying noise to me. For me that is completely separate from the music. I think it's a very nice song.
The big question for me now is, why is so much music still mastered this way? A few years ago we had the loudness wars. This meant that most modern music on media with the technically highest dynamic range actually has the lowest dynamic range in practice. LUFS was invented to do something about this. When I search for LUFS on the internet I find that LUFS has put an end to the loudness wars. Then I get confused. Why do these articles explaining LUFS say this? In my experience, most modern music is still mastered in the same way as during the loudness wars. And I don't understand why this still happens. Due to the "normalize volume" of Spotify, such a master does not sound louder at all, but it does sound with a greatly reduced dynamic range. To me it sounds more like noise than pleasant listening music. So why is music mastered this way? Are there really any listeners who would rather hear music with a greatly reduced dynamic range where everything is compressed into a lump of sound instead of music with a "native" dynamic range where you can hear all the instruments and vocals clearly?
I think you should make a follow-up to this video, explaining why LUFS was created and how exactly it works. You can also conclude that the whole idea behind LUFS does not work (yet) because a lot of music is still compressed flat. I'm very curious whether there are people who really like this sound, whether there are people who also find it ugly or people who are not aware of this at all.
👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏
Most recordings today sound shouted and overdriven. What happened? Was the meaning and essence of music lost?
No, your so right' it would of definitely benefited more quality orchestral sound but there only catering for teens with this music and casual older listeners. More of its programming minds than love of music
I love Olivias voice but got outraged at how bad this recording is and googled "Olivia vampire sounds like sht" and found this video lol. I thought these people were supposed to be professionals. I could have done a better job in garage band. How tf they think it's okay to have this buzzing all through her vocals. Great song, one of the worst recording I've ever heard. Olivia deserves better. Her voice is actually wonderful.
And you have to read mastering engineers telling us that -8 LUFS is a really good compromise between the music expression and the habits of listening of the youngest generations that almost never have a proper set-up at home and the best scenario is that they listen with in-ear headphones on the streets. I'm 50 and listening to music was always something to do at home. I really can't accept -8 LUFS as a good loudness approach, I grow up on an era when almost all records were mastered between -16 LUF and -11 LUFS the most loud of them, but more important, where nobody would have the idea of truncate the differences between 4 different consecutive drum hits. Yes, they were evened a little bit, but since they used to use tube analogue compression each hit preserve it own characteristics.
I wish mastering engineers would stop adding distortion to songs that are already intense. I listen to a lot of metal, and even if the music itself is good, the harsh limiting and clipping just removes everything that would make it exceptional. What I find interesting is that when a band releases instrumental mixes, they often sound a lot cleaner in the parts where there used to be vocals. It's like a glimpse of how amazing the songs could have been.
My feeling is that creative distortion should be in the individual tracks, not in the mastering.
I am sure you are absolutely right about how overdone and compressed it is, and yes I am 64 years old so I do remember when actual dynamics were a thing but honestly the mastering decisions do not really bother me. I like the performance and the song and if you did not point out the problems they would never enter my consciousness.
Would love to hear the pre-master copy to hear who is to blame. the singer is most proberbly oblivious
6:08 Was that a diss against Dan Worrall, the famous undisputed winner of the loudness war?
Winning so far.. DM
Tune is Familiar, it will come to me sometime.
I wouldn't have known how to describe what I was hearing with this song and to be honest it doesn't sound 'bad' exactly to me but I did think something was weird. Before going into the whole video I stopped and listened to the song a few times (first on youtube then on amazon music), the music isn't exactly my thing but I like her voice so once I understood what I was finding weird I'm unsure what to think.
I do agree that it is an awful sonic picture - I abhor that over production and high levels of saturation. I prefer less production. I think you hit why i generally prefer most music recorded decades ago over the 1990's onwards push for over modulation (classical music exempted of course, as are some jazz and world music). I can get into 70's and too many channels in jazz recording (the string bass ending up spunding like a rubber band - yikes)
Thank you
Ditto Gary Numan's last 3 albums, start wonderfully dynamic
but then the big chorus always gets squashed, to the point of mush
guess they use the same criminal software.
Isn't this done so that you get high enough volume on phone speakers and other crap bluetooth reproducers that are nowadays sold as "HiFi"? All this compression is needed just to get some volume out of these systems, but it absolutely does away with sound quality and dynamic range. This means that on any "normal" sound system this stuff just sounds terrible while it probably really shouldn't have to if it was mastered those systems.
It doesn't have to sound so bad, but people now are invested in the music sounding LOUD rather than good. The loudness war has even surpassed the CD era.
Music, movies are like buffet. Most of them gives you tester. Yes I got your point about noise and mixing, but to make it fair, how about other singers with voice way over too stylized in the way they sing like bebe rhexa or katy perry or even cursive like Halsey? Some people more tolerant about noise rather than hearing cursive people sing. Some things, if reviewed deeply, it turns out to be double standard.
plucker?
I don't understand your very short point at the beginning about gender swapping the lyrics. I've read them through and there is a fair amount of venom there, is it that?
Some of the song's on Olivia's Sour were recorded ffrom LIVE recordings. You could say what this means in the Studio. I don't know which ones. It might leave quality issues I suppose. I have noticed some other songs on the album with audio issues.
-8 is loud but still not crushed most tracks now are mastered to -9 to -7 some -4
"Yes. Well it started badly, it tailed off a little in the middle & the less said about the end the better! But apart from that, excellent!" (Blackadder Goes Forth).
I will say it’s not nearly as -clear and 3-D as a Paul McCartney album which is also loud, but May they were going for this sound? It’s definitely flat and mushy compared to most modern productions
This type of recording was made for being played in speaker's phone
You laughed at analog recordings so much and so long as you finally got proper digital applause.
I can only assume that folks who enjoy “that sound” will say they do so, because if feels like more energy. I might buy that argument, but I don’t have to enjoy the result of losing it.
The Fletcher-Munson graph in my brain says it sounds gooder louder.
I am an old Fartvas well. I like a variety of music but not pop . A lot of it sounds the same and is really distorted. If I want distorted sound I'll listen to my cat.
Hello there. The thing is... can She Sing it live with a band and sound good and close to the recording? A bunch of "singers" these days cannot Sing if their lives depended on it.
There is no excuse for the bad sound of that track in the modern recording environment!
It’s the same with remastered albums pushing everything to the max loosing the original atmosphere and cohesion or maybe like you in the “ old fart” club
To make a long story short, the s sounds are terrible and almost everything in the track is compressed like hell. In this track it is very clear to hear, but most modern tracks in the hit charts are mixed and mastered like this. The big question is, WHY? Are the record company's who ask the mixing and mastering engineers to make it sound like this completely mad? I would think so. I don't really know (but I definitely like to know for sure) but I think most listeners on Spotify have "normalize volume" set to on, because this is the default setting. If "normalize volume" is set to on, songs like 'Vampire' by Olivia Rodrig wont sound louder then other songs without any compression. The big difference, songs without any compression sound decent to me and songs like 'Vampire' by Olivia Rodrig sound terrible. Imagine you just have spend a fortune for your new hifi setup and this terrible noise comes out of your speakers! Because most modern hit charts songs sound like this, you even might think there is something terrible wrong with your new hifi setup.
It would be great if a lot of hifi enthousiast start complaining to record company's about destroying sound quality of their new releases. Maybe this can end this stupid loudness war which is still going on. And really, in a time where everybody was listening to cd's, I could see the point (I still hated it) but with most people on Spotify listening with "normalize volume" set to on (I think) it does not make any sense.
There would be a chance this all can change for the future. If a band releases their own music on Spotify without a record company (which is possible nowadays) and asks the mixing and mastering engineer not to compress their music, and this band becomes one of the most popular bands in the world, record company's may want to start believing this sound is the new big thing and they would ask their mixing and mastering engineers to do the same. I am asked to mix and master an album for a new band who release their music on Spotify without a record company. They have asked me to compress their music as little as possible. We all now are praying that they will be a great success.
Oh, and maybe it would be a good idea to make a video about loudness units relative to full scale.
Remember when stereo mixes weren't taken too seriously by engineers because most people were listening on mono record players anyway? (Yes, I'm talking about the 1960s). This is similar. Why make a lovely transparent mix with lots of headroom when 80% of the listeners are using crappy pods anyway? Might as well mix for those. This is all about product. Not about art. Which is a shame, of course.
No individual vocal character, its all the same. But hey everyone can be a singer now huh. I want the real vocal character that let you know who the singer was.
I'm curious, are you referring to Lufs integrated, or short term, or momentary? If it's hitting -8lufs integrated I shudder to think what the momentary values are.
Either way, even -8lufs momentary is still too squashed.
My heart goes out to all the struggling speakers with overheated voice coils in the world.
Beyond that, I think the world could use a remedial course about the difference between sine waves and square waves.
Coming from the heavy metal and noise scenes, I think the distorted/oversaturated is used to accentuate the singer's emotional state as it rises to its climax at the end of the song. This saturation gives me the sense of the haptics one might feel in a small concert space, where every stacked frequency causes the pleasing rumble of bass buildup in your chest.
The song starts as a whisper and then leads to massive drums so a lot of compression was needed or you would have to crank your volume knob up and then lower it.
Great video! I would appreciate if you made a video about Louis Cole/Knower music, maybe ''I'm The President''. You can tell the guy really likes compression and distortion, but instead of this ''Vampire'' song i find it very enjoyable to hear and way less messy despite being recorded literally on a living room and hallway
Modern music from the past 15 years has been completely strangled by all the compression and limiting, but to be fair very few modern songs are worth listening to anyway.
If you're an old fart, that makes two of us. I find a lot of modern recordings are mastered in this way, I really don't like the modern mush that's often released. Good songs being ruined by awful mastering; it's why I seldom buy older albums that have been digitally remastered, invariably they have been digitally destroyed.
I'd go after the producer if anyone is to be gone after - but I'll take aggressive in your face over clever gloss most days of the week. For all the commenters ready to write her off, maybe watch her Tiny Desk concert : She's got a great band, genuine charisma, and some good songs. Can't blame her for becoming a superstar: Sh*t happens.
I had a FLAC copy of this track. As you say it starts of quite nicely, but it brings pain to my ears as it progresses. I just hate it. Sadly, almost all music is like this today. I have now deleted this track from my library, never to be heard again.
Typical of a generation for whom every discovery is "the first time ever' and every activity is "the best adventure ever" ... They are entitled, flamboyant, loud, aggressive (in a passive sort of way) and expect everything to be *big* , *special* and *extravagant* . It seems reasonable that for the past few years, now they are starting to run things, their music echoes that mindset... start off gentle, build it up and then WHAM hit them with the big finale ... just like a few million UA-cam videos.
Audio Phil excuses this strident flamboyancy with some very colourful language that is, in itself, a form of the problem he excuses.
I'm no audiophile and I'm an old fart. I like _real_ music. Show me one singer who can perform that song acapella, without a significant loss of apparent talent... Just one.
Simple comment ... people make music ... machines make noise.
Hurts even more on "v-shaped" speakers😅
...and to think how much money we spend on audio gear only to listen to this?
Given that I basically ignore modern pop music - I was a little surprised to recognize the song you were reviewing. So it must be quantitively different enough that it has risen above the "noise" (not LUFF's - but the garbage that is all around us noise) that I was aware of it. So in THAT sense - thank goodness - pop music needs something to break out of "the formula" and do something interesting. Like the new Rolling Stones single "Angry" has. Or has it just gone back in time?
Anyway - this single - yep it rises to a STOOPID LUFF which quite ruins it. Interestingly and next up on my suggestions from UA-cam - Dido from 2009...... Now she CAN sing and is not over produced. Oh for the good old days......... (Remembering that for me that is pop music from the 1960's....)
End of ramble,
Audiophile Phil is frickin' hilarious.
interesting
Please just poke out my ear drums and put me out of my misery
Could we just have the recordings done correctly and let those that want to compress songs to death buy the hardware to do this on their playback systems?
Mark Devlin is great source of info on these bands and music