13 is unironically one of my favorite DeG songs now, it hits in all the right ways. That chorus melody just BEGS to be sung along to and sucks you into the world of the song
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This may be a bit long, and may ruffle some feathers -
Vinyl records are a lossy medium, and are, by definition, not “the music as the artist intended” or “higher quality” than digital. Now, people may prefer the sound of a record over the sound of digital media, and that’s totally fine! There’s a lot to love about the sound of vinyl records, there’s a lot of good reasons to love them.
But!!
The format is inherently lossy. I will explain -
Every analog component in an audio signal chain will impart distortion on the signal. Genereally, this is very very low level, and barely discernable, but it IS there. When you stack these different stages of distortion one after another, you end up with a cumulative effect that is generally pleasing - most notably, imo, is how transient information on things like drums get soft-clipped, rounding off the peaks, adding punch and sustain to the impact of these sounds. Often, different parts of a signal chain (microphone pre-amps, equalizers, compressors, etc…) are chosen specifically for how they distort the sound (the Urei 1176LN, a compressor that can be found in nearly every major recording studio in the world, is famous for how it distorts signals before they reach the compression threshold of the unit).
In modern recording, typically things are recorded to digital storage mediums rather than analog ones, binary digital files rather than cases of 2-inch and half-inch tapes. The digital world is, in a technical sense, nearly perfect. Even at the lowest sample rates for digital recording used today, you can capture with 100% accuracy everything within the spectrum of the human hearing range and then some. At higher sample rates, we can accurately capture and reproduce sounds that are WAAAY outside of our hearing range.
So, that begs the question - if digital can be perfect, why do we so often prefer analog?
It’s that distortion I mentioned above!! When we add subtle layers of distortion across an entire recording, small bits in tiny stages, the effect is very subtle but, as I said, cumulative. Every little bit adds more harmonic excitement and soft dynamic compression, in the end giving us the sound we are used to.
But that’s the kicker, isn’t it - it’s what we’re used to!! The history of recorded music is a history of distorted signals, all the way back to recording onto wax cylinders. Yes, the recording consoles of the 70’s and 80’s were damn near sterile in comparison, but that’s nothing in comparison to the sterility of a perfect digital recording without any harmonic treatment anywhere in the process. And a vinyl record is no different than any other analog component - it will add distortion and saturation, and then the signal will get MORE when it gets amplified before hitting the speaker cones (which, again, themselves have their own frequency response from speaker to speaker).
As for artistic intent - I doubt many artists these days are recording and mixing with vinyl as the final production medium in mind. They are far more likely spending their time and energy approving the mixes and masters for digital distribution, whether that be streaming or CD’s (yes, CD’s are digital formats). Much how like stereo mixes were an afterthought for the Beatles, with the band not even attending the sessions for the stereo mixdowns, vinyl is likely an afterthought for any modern band, only something they start considering when they have enough interest in a vinyl release from their fanbase.
Why does that matter?
You cannot master for vinyl the same way you master for digital - the limitations of the medium will not allow it.
You cannot hit the same LUFS loudness levels, you have to keep bass frequencies closer to mono (or the needle may actually jump out of the groove!!), and you are only working with ~ 75dB of dynamic range (compared to 144dB in a 24-bit digital audio file). At the end of the day, the vinyl prints will likely NEED to be different from a digital release purely based on the limitations of the medium.
None of this even starts to consider how the sound of a record will degrade as it ages. Even if kept in the most perfect of conditions, time will always have her way.
So, where is all of this going? Am I hating on vinyl?
Absolutely I am NOT hating!! I have some records I love the sound of, and there are some releases where I prefer the sound of the vinyl masters compared to the normal ones (most of us who have heard the PHALARIS vinyl likely prefer it to the primary release of the album).
But none of that means vinyl is better. And it CERTAINLY doesn’t mean vinyl is “higher quality” - by definition it is not, it is a lossy storage medium that cannot be used without particular considerations, that in the modern day likely does not represent the “true artistic intent” of the artist behind the music. We may at times prefer a vinyl release to it’s digital counterpart but it is nothing more than that - a preference based on taste, not on what is “factually better.”
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This explains a lot, but why do certain CD masters sound like garbage while the vinyl counterpart doesn’t?
PHALARIS is one. The World of Mercy is another. Dum Spiro Spero is a third. Wallflowers by Jinjer is another. There’s a few Megadeth releases where the vinyl mastering is my go-to, but that’s because the CD version is anemic at best. With all the benefits of recording digitally like you described, you would think it would be easier to record good sounding music? I used to blame excessive loudness, but there’s clearly more at play. What’s up with all the shit sounding CD releases, putting visual kei aside for a moment?
And you want to know what they all had in common? I hated the mix the second it came on. I didn’t even have to hear the music to know the relationship between where everyone was in the mix was bad. It felt like my ears were being stabbed with invisible treble ice picks the minute “Call me a Symbol” bursts into the room like the Kool-Aid man. And I thought that Dir en grey leading with the ten minute “Schadenfreude” with that jank-ass CD mix should have been considered a war crime, much less whatever they did scooping out the best part of Ochita (even the vinyl mix couldn’t save that). How did people listen to PHALARIS for an entire year with that booty ass mix? Are y’all deaf? Can no one hear how awful and congested all three of those Dir en grey releases sound on CD? Or am I tripping? I bought the deluxe CD of PHALARIS, and after immense disappointment decided to wait for the vinyl, and my wait was rewarded. It’s so bad I deleted PHALARIS CD version outta my collection and replaced it with the record mix, and I never ever delete music.
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And in that, we hit the loudness war!!!
The levels to which we can pump up masters for digital distribution is ABSURD. We may have left the worst of the loudness wars behind in the 2010’s (arguably), but they’re here to stay. Even with the knowledge that streaming distros like Tidal and Spotify will normalize tracks to their own target level (Tidal I believe is -16LUFS, Spotify -14, but I could be outdated), engineers will pump their masters out LOUD. Joel Wanasek, an engineer who’s work I generally have a lot of respect for (having mixed everybody from Machine Head to Monuments to Miyavi!!!), has stated that he’ll hit a mastering limiter hard enough to get a final master of -5LUFS!!!
That’s INSANELY loud and will have effects not only on the transients of the material but also the tonality. Hell, we could even go into how compressors distort sounds, especially with super fast release times, and the fact that a limiter is just a compressor with a very very high ratio setting (generally agreed upon being a ratio of 10:1 or more). And when that absurdly loud master gets turned down elsewhere, it doesn’t remove the limiting that’s happened because that’s already the sound of the file, of the song - removing that limiting would be like trying to get a whole egg back out of a fully baked cake.
These things are actually not in conflict with one another 
What you hear when you listen to the vinyl pressings of these albums is still the result of modern digital recording and mixing. What the vinyl mastering engineer gets should (in theory) be the exact same mixes the digital mastering engineer received! So the difference is really all (or at least almost all) in the mastering process. The CD release of PHALARIS was mastered by Brian Gardner, not just specifically for CD/streaming release, but to Gardner’s taste as an engineer. I’d bet you dollars to donuts if they asked Tohru to master the CD version, it would sound a lot closer to his vinyl master, since his sensibilities and taste would have informed his processing decisions just as much as the medium it was being mastered for.
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hmm…
I think, One OK Rock’s recent works are better than their early works. they fit pop music well.
…
btw, I’m a metalhead and corekid.
Do you think record companies should just stop making money of hide’s passing? Or it has becoming a tradition at this point?
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I’m back with another unpopular opinion, but this time it’s supported by science and crowdsourced by other passionate fans.
None of us have heard Dir en grey’s MACABRE “The Intended Way”
Clickbait title aside, it’s actually true. Dir en grey’s second album was released on September 20, 2000 on HDCD, which today is a dead format, but back then was an attempt at making the next successor to the CD. It boasted increased dynamic range over traditional CDs while still remaining backwards compatible. How did it do this? By adding two reversible filters - one as a soft limiter, one for low end gain - HDCDs are able to cram the equivalent of “20 bits” onto the medium. When played from a compatible drive, those two reversible filters would be undone and all 20 bits would be played. If the drive was not compatible, the music was played back at 16/44.1kHz with peak distortion. The filters work so that they remain present in any WAV file ripped from a compatible drive. However, the implication here is that you have to listen to the disc, and who walks around with HDCDs on their hip these days? No one!
The second implication is that there are only 20 bits on the disc, so when ripping to the computer 4 bits are padded with zeros to create 24 bit files, as we can only create WAV files in powers of two. So it’s not “true 24 bit”, but it’s as close as we’re going to get, as I don’t see Free-Will moving to make high quality versions of Dir en grey’s back catalog available.
And just so you know I’m not yanking your chain, here’s one of the files in my collection:
I would provide a spek, but it’s not useful.
Note that HDCD didn’t die off; that would imply it had to be alive. I think it died due to a combination of poor marketing, little money in it, the core market (audiophiles) having to upgrade their already expensive gear to get the benefits, and more work for audio engineers at that time. Looking back, I also think it came too late. 16 bits is more than enough for the average listener, the bit expansion technique seemed about as much of a gimmick as MQA, and a lot of people deduced it didn’t add enough to the experience. Later formats such as SACD were able to get as much as 24 bits on the disc, but even that wasn’t a big selling point. Why Dir en grey chose to go with HDCD for their second album is a good interview question, but considering they switched back to CD for Kisou, I suppose that even the band determined it wasn’t worth it.
I do think this is what they meant when they advertised the album as “MACABRE with GRAIN”, although what grain has to do with this is beyond me.
P.S.: HDCD’s died off around 2008 for the record, so if you’re looking in your VK collection for an HDCD I’d focus my attention at major label bands between 2000 and 2008. Or reference this link. Or look for this logo:
I titled this experiment as such because I found nothing when I went to reverse my FLAC into WAV to find these filters. And MP3? Forget about it; too much information was thrown away to reconstruct the extra bits. That means that whoever ripped my version of MACABRE in FLAC did so with an unsupported drive/software, and only got 16/44.1 out of it. So unless you own this HDCD, and listened directly from the HDCD, you have likely never heard MACABRE the way the band intended!
Now the prime question is: “Does it really matter?”. My answer to this is Yes*, but it matters what you’re going into this for. The mix is obviously different - things like the electronics in Hydra and the glissando in Rasetsukoku aren’t so forward anymore and the mix feels a tad quieter - but I’m listening off my HD600s and that may not come across to everyone. If you want to see if you can hear a difference, do an A/B test of your own. I went into this because I like having bit-perfect copies of the releases I really like, and hearing that we’ve been leaving quality on the table for over two decades for one of Dir en grey’s finest albums got me motivated. If you’re expecting a radically different experience, walk away disappointed now.
I still believe it’s worth everyone’s time to check this out, even if you don’t like/use lossless files, because this difference is still preserved when mixing down to 320. Lossy files are all about removing sounds it thinks you won’t notice, so more sounds to choose from means a more accurate lossy file!
So yeah, it took me almost 23 years to hear MACABRE “the intended way”!
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I’m pretty sure it refers to the etched plastic case of the first press version.
ain’t afraid to die is HDCD too, by the way. Just in case you want to check that one out as well
Other than that, I have nothing to add, really. So HDCD-FLAC rip is different from a regular FLAC rip, yes? Is it better or worse? Or just different?
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Different. They come from the same master source but one preserves more dynamic range and more bits than the other. After listening, I like the HDCD-FLAC rip more, but that’s just preference.
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I got bad news for some VK fans.
The World doesnt turn around the VK scene.
Its totally fine if a band wants to go past the VK scene or they change.
Also the VK scene wont end, because your VK saviour band broke up.
Its fine, the next VK saviour band will come.
And just because you dont like the music a former VK band makes now, doesnt mean someone else wont like it.
And yes bands can still be popular even when they are formerly VK.
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That, and given the trends…VK bands reform, like, all the time. Maybe not with 100% original members all of the time, but yeah. Give it a couple of years.
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I got another hot take, this time inspired by the beef going on between Seiya and DEVILOOF.
My opinion is that I don’t believe Seiya is entitled to much in his dispute with DEVILOOF (and note that I’m not versed in Japanese copyright law at all). These issues around royalties and permission to play are things that should be ironed out before the band is formed, or at the very least before you depart.
Yeah, it sucks to see the band you used to be in nick your unfinished licks and continue to play your songs - which are arguably among some of the best they’ve got - without giving you much consideration. But when those songs were composed, there was no consideration for anyone to play the songs but DEVILOOF. The songs were composed for DEVILOOF. DEVILOOF is still playing those songs, whether Seiya is in the band or not. They have no reason to stop playing those songs just because Seiya is no longer in the band. If they do, cool - if they don’t, too bad.
Now if they had some arrangement up front where Seiya gets royalties for the songs that he composed, and he hasn’t gotten paid, then honor that arrangement and pay up. If you didn’t have the foresight to arrange that before you left the band, sorry but you’re outta luck. It’s just business, and if Seiya composed at least 60% of DEVILOOF’s back catalog then it’s also unreasonable to demand they stop playing them and then completely synthesize new songs on the spot. Sorry, but any DEVILOOF concert that doesn’t have Gouzinzangoku or Dusky-Vision is a concert missing two staples.
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Are you really expecting those guys with the organisation talent of a goldfish (a friendly reminder of the fucked up organisation of their DVD) to pay someone royalties or take care of the copyright??
IF those songs were composed for Deviloof that is.
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Gonna have to actually disagree with you on this one Zeus!!!
Sure, the songs were written for DEVILOOF to play. Sure they were always intended to be played by that group of people. But it’s if Seiya wrote the riffs or songs, those riffs or songs, as far as I’m concerned, are his to do with what he wants. If things were already released as DEVILOOF before he quit, that’s one thing. But if this was stuff that was actively being worked on and composed by him, they should be his to take with him wherever he goes
Idk. I’ve been in the position where one of my bandmates has asked me for permission to use a song he wrote for the band on one of his solo albums, and my reaction was “bro you wrote it, I didn’t even add anything besides my bass lines, it’s your song do whatever you want with it.” And he responded the same way when I asked if I could re-record a song I had written that we as a full band had recorded together and released.
It’s artistic expression, and it came from somebody’s heart. Idk, just for me, I feel like somebody’s artistic expression is THEIRs to do with as they please
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That’s why I said it’s an unpopular opinion. He can take a year to chase down these riffs for compensation but he couldn’t take fifteen minutes and a USB stick to take them with him before he left? If the picture is really as he painted, where he was the only one in the studio paying for time recording all this music, then I think it’s a bit sloppy on his part to leave these materials behind with people who obviously didn’t appreciate his contributions. I do feel bad for him - and I do think DEVILOOF is a dumpster fire behind the scenes - but I’m not sure what he’s going for. So until he can elaborate, I can’t find it within myself to feel bad for him.
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Okay maybe I’m missing some context. I don’t actually know the story, I was just going off of your post - I assumed the issue was that the band is for some reason claiming that pieces of music he wrote belong to the band and not to Seiya. With that framing, I was thinking to myself “yeah but Seiya could just… record those parts again for his own music, no?”
Is the entire issue revolving around the custody of computer files?
It’s been a while since I read the post, so I’m open to being corrected, but he claims that he was the main workhorse behind DEVILOOF activities when he was part of the band. Gonna quote from another thread in the forum.
So what I’m basically saying is that while I agree that he should get paid, I don’t think that he will. That’s what I meant when I said that he wasn’t entitled to much; I don’t think there’s much in the way of recompense that he could (reasonably) ask for. What’s done has been done, and I’m not sure that the new label is going to care about stolen demos from releases that aren’t theirs, so I’m not sure how the shakedown for the major label will go. Hopefully he gets paid somehow, but the odds aren’t looking good.
So from this background context here, if he was the only one in the studio and he was the only one recording and the band took his demos, then it means he left them around for them to take. It’s the logical solution, and it was a misstep on his part to not take his materials with him before he left/got kicked out (especially if he left with bad blood between them). Unless they literally blindsided this man with the dismissal, there’s a good chance he could have seen it coming. I’m extra paranoid; I would have backed up all my stuff months ago. He would probably be accused of plagiarizing if he reused his own riffs in new songs too. I support Seiya 100%, but I just don’t see how he could win when this theft happened so long ago…
And what I said about DEVILOOF still playing Seiya’s songs…I’ve noticed a trend in visual kei where bands no longer play certain songs when the main composer leaves the band. I’ve seen it framed as “respect”, but I’m also not versed in Japanese copyright law or tribal visual kei conventions. But if he’s expecting them to not play the songs they ripped from him…I don’t see how that’s enforceable really.
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Ahh I see. So he’s kind of an idiot I guess
Even if I had the luxury of going to a larger studio on a regular basis, rather than doing most of my work in a home studio, I would STILL be sending myself session files or copying them to an external drive every time I left at the end of a work day. Not because it’s MINE so much as because I would want to listen, to tweak, to keep working on it in my own spare time. And I would expect any professional working guitar player in the mid-2010’s to have, at a BARE MINIMUM, a working home setup of a laptop, 1-input interface, some amp sims, and a DAW. You and I both know how stupid affordable that can be even for a hobbyist, especially given the breadth and quality of freeware for music production available on the internet. Hell, iPhone voice memos were good enough for Kirk Hammett until he lost the phone. I agree with you on this principle for sure, it’s absurd that he wouldn’t have had ANY way of having these tracks himself when he was working on them.
I also don’t know jack shit about Japanese copyright law, so I think I honed in on a matter of moral entitlement, not legal. But those can easily be VERY different conversations
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Just wanted to add that I meant “entitled” in a legal phrase, like those commercials that say “you may be entitled to legal compensation”. I know his hard work made DEVILOOF go major, but what is he “entitled” to in compensation? Not sure, but I hope something.
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it’s not about royalties (which for a band of that size won’t be really significant anyway), it’s about them mooching off his recording and scoring a major contract while being not up to par with his skill level on their own.
if they parted ways on bad terms and they were self-managed at that point - he wouldn’t have much to deal with except for hoping they will play fair and respect his departure, launching whatever they typically do - a new single, a short hiatus and a gig 『Deviloof - NEW SCENE - une rêverie de tarte aux framboises et à la crème』with five new songs and 3x repeat of the first new single for the encore or whatever - and he would move on from that.
now that there’s a major label handling their business he actually can do quite a bit in regards to either being signed as well, if he has any interest in majoring, or in having his part of the discography removed from their streaming/performing catalogue.
VK is a tiny scene, and if they didn’t do any session or non-band stuff together with him after the og departure - which isn’t unheard of with former band members who drop out for w/e reason - they probably got a bit too far a bit too early, while giving him no credit.
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