Dark Matter: Official Album Thread

[Birds in Hell]

Surely easier to compare to one of the rockers on Gigaton?

The difference isn't subtle.

[Monkey_Driven]

Surely easier to compare to one of the rockers on Gigaton?

The difference isn't subtle.

It's night and day. I'm not sure I can trust an ear that can't hear the difference.

[blueviper]

I compared Breakerfall to Scared of Fear

Breakerfall sounds like they recorded it under a pillow.

[mattyv1908]

I compared Breakerfall to Scared of Fear

Breakerfall sounds like they recorded it under a pillow.

I think the recording concept which gave Binaural its name it the one album that may benefit from quality headphones or at least a quality hi-fi system.

That said, a person “wants” to turn up the volume when listening to Binaural. The nuances and layers begin to truly take shape and give depth to the tracks. There’s a LOT going on in the studio versions albeit in a LOT of space. It’s atmospheric. I can’t imagine “wanting” to turn up Dark Matter to the decibel levels I can comfortably enjoy their other albums.

Personal bias aside in which I feel Breakerfall is a superior song to Scared of Fear, the recordings aren’t comparable and probably affect my perception.

[tragabigzanda]

pearl jam sucks now

[stip]

whether its my settings or my hearing (i listen primarily on headphones on either phone or computer. airpods for phones. headphones reccomended by my audio production faculty so either they’re good or they dont like me). I like music loud. i like the feel of it, of being overwhelmed, but i also have max volume limiters (on my iphone) so i dont overdue it. especially on louder, heavier songs.

the only song the volume is an issue for me is wont tell, which loses its atmosphere.

Scared of Fear and Who Ever Said is maybe the obvious comparison for what is gained/lost. Similar tempos, straight ahead muscular rock with introspective threads running through them. Two five star songs. And the bridge of WES wouldnt work as well if it sounded like SoF. But you dont spend SoF WAITING for the chorus like you sometimes do for WES. SoF wouldnt have that incredible conclusion if it sounded like WES (and its easy to forget that WES goes on for like 45 more seconds after ‘A rumble of commandments’’)

maybe thats just the songwriting but like the first few songs on S/T some of these bugs feel at least a little bit like features. at least for me

[mikejasond]

I just feel like listening to Got to Give I turn it up because I want to hear it right but I notice it’s so loud but 70% of what I’m hearing sounds like “noise” for lack of a better word, like loudness with no…..discernable sound and then just the actual song buried under the noise. It’s hard to explain but I feel it’s killing one of the best songs on the album

[mattyv1908]

whether its my settings or my hearing (i listen primarily on headphones on either phone or computer. airpods for phones. headphones reccomended by my audio production faculty so either they’re good or they dont like me). I like music loud. i like the feel of it, of being overwhelmed, but i also have max volume limiters (on my iphone) so i dont overdue it. especially on louder, heavier songs.

the only song the volume is an issue for me is wont tell, which loses its atmosphere.

Scared of Fear and Who Ever Said is maybe the obvious comparison for what is gained/lost. Similar tempos, straight ahead muscular rock with introspective threads running through them. Two five star songs. And the bridge of WES wouldnt work as well if it sounded like SoF. But you dont spend SoF WAITING for the chorus like you sometimes do for WES. SoF wouldnt have that incredible conclusion if it sounded like WES (and its easy to forget that WES goes on for like 45 more seconds after ‘A rumble of commandments’’)

maybe thats just the songwriting but like the first few songs on S/T some of these bugs feel at least a little bit like features. at least for me

I think you misinterpret the complaints about dynamics as a complaint about volume. Your assumption being you prefer and can tolerate “loud” while those complaining about something entirely different cannot is not seeing the forest through the trees.

I don’t know of an analogy that would adequately help you differentiate what is being lamented. To me it seems obvious and night and day.

Maybe the only equivalent I think I feel the same way about is the “motion smoothing” or “dejuttering” settings on LCD tvs to address the 24 fps that movies were shot in vs plasma TVs. This resulted in the “soap opera effect” when these “features” were enabled. The movies looked artificial, yet some people loved the surrealism of the picture.

I’m glad you’re happy with the recordings as is. I wish I had the ability to not hear it, but I can’t.

[stip]

I get the difference (I think), but I am probably conflating them at times. But there are also folks arguing that this album is painful to listen to, ear fatigue, etc and I assime that is a volume complaint

[stip]

it is somewhat surprising to me that none /few of the reviews for dark matter mentioned this as an issue, for how much it seemed to impact some people’s experience

[epilogue]

I get the difference (I think), but I am probably conflating them at times. But there are also folks arguing that this album is painful to listen to, ear fatigue, etc and I assime that is a volume complaint

It's definitely not a volume complaint for me.

[stip]

thats how I took it. So maybe I understand less than I thought…

[stip]

i an looking forward to trag’s mix because right now these are all counter factual speculations. maybe this all becomes obvious to me with a DM v DM comparison

[McParadigm]

it is somewhat surprising to me that none /few of the reviews for dark matter mentioned this as an issue, for how much it seemed to impact some people’s experience

Ok but surely in their hearts they’re on a message board, making hundreds of repetitious posts whingeing on and on about it

[Kevin Davis]

it is somewhat surprising to me that none /few of the reviews for dark matter mentioned this as an issue, for how much it seemed to impact some people’s experience

That isn’t surprising — record reviews rarely discuss these kinds of engineering details at all, the same way they rarely discuss what kinds of gear the band uses, what time signatures or keys certain songs are in, etc. Most mainstream publications that review records simply don’t cater to an audience interested in that level of technical detail. I’m not saying all those reviewers are secretly seething about compression, dynamics, etc., and just holding back; I’m just saying that isn’t the space where I’d expect to find that kind of criticism.

[epilogue]

it is somewhat surprising to me that none /few of the reviews for dark matter mentioned this as an issue, for how much it seemed to impact some people’s experience

Ok but surely in their hearts they’re on a message board, making hundreds of repetitious posts whingeing on and on about it

Isn't that what our Star Wars subforum is?

[McParadigm]

it is somewhat surprising to me that none /few of the reviews for dark matter mentioned this as an issue, for how much it seemed to impact some people’s experience

Ok but surely in their hearts they’re on a message board, making hundreds of repetitious posts whingeing on and on about it

Isn't that what our Star Wars subforum is?

I enjoyed discussing Acolyte with you. I enjoyed posting today, as well. We had a conversation about quality and purpose of content that left room for disagreement. We discussed what we thought worked and what we thought didn’t. We were all exposed to multiple other people’s points of view about…and I’ll say this again…quality of content. Nobody posted 47 times to say “I just can’t get over how cheap it looks.“

[epilogue]

it is somewhat surprising to me that none /few of the reviews for dark matter mentioned this as an issue, for how much it seemed to impact some people’s experience

Ok but surely in their hearts they’re on a message board, making hundreds of repetitious posts whingeing on and on about it

Isn't that what our Star Wars subforum is?

I enjoyed discussing Acolyte with you. I enjoyed posting today, as well. We had a conversation about quality and purpose of content that left room for disagreement. We discussed what we thought worked and what we thought didn’t. We were all exposed to multiple other people’s points of view about…and I’ll say this again…quality of content. Nobody posted 47 times to say “I just can’t get over how cheap it looks.“

Indeed. I was just making a cheap, easy (and dumb) joke.

[McParadigm]

it is somewhat surprising to me that none /few of the reviews for dark matter mentioned this as an issue, for how much it seemed to impact some people’s experience

Ok but surely in their hearts they’re on a message board, making hundreds of repetitious posts whingeing on and on about it

Isn't that what our Star Wars subforum is?

I enjoyed discussing Acolyte with you. I enjoyed posting today, as well. We had a conversation about quality and purpose of content that left room for disagreement. We discussed what we thought worked and what we thought didn’t. We were all exposed to multiple other people’s points of view about…and I’ll say this again…quality of content. Nobody posted 47 times to say “I just can’t get over how cheap it looks.“

Indeed. I was just making a cheap, easy (and dumb) joke.

I knew it was a joke. If it hadn’t had an element of truth to it, I wouldn’t have felt compelled to respond

[epilogue]

POTATO