I bought the album from HDtracks, which is 24bits 96khz (opposed to 16bits 44.1 khz on cd). It's supposed to be the same quality as the master. I checked this on Gravity Storm, and the cracks and pops are there in the beginning.bkornaker1977 wrote:Ok after a good few days of critical listening......
The guy who "mastered" this album screwed up big time. Im hearing distortions/pops/crackles all over the place and its almost on every song. This album was pushed way too hot.....and the funny thing is, its not even 'commercially loud'. Kinda disappointing cause this songs do sound great and they are nice and bright, balanced and crisp.......but these random distortion crackles bug the crap out of me. kinda annoying
I tend to believe that this is intentional. Steve is quite a perfectionist when it comes to his sound and playing. He re-records his live material. Or pospones a releasedate on a live dvd because he's not quite happy about it. So I can't imagine he'd put out his first cd since 2007, and his first "normal" cd since 2005, with mistakes in the mastering.
I like the cd quite a lot. Much better than Real Illusions. The soundquality of the HDtracks version is amazing. So much better than the cd. If you have a good hi-fi, or a good pair of headphones with a quality soundcard which plays 24bits 96khz like it should, get this version.
Only problem I have with the cd is that my taste of music has evolved. I'm not a lot into guitar stuff anymore.