[Justinicus]

Some Nights, by Fun (bought from Amazon MP3 -- 256kbps CBR) -- This song seems like it has amazing technical potential. Opening with autotuned(?) harmony on some crisp vocals... then a STRONG percussion entry at 35 seconds. And no matter what I've tried, the experience always falls flat. Actually, flat would be a pleasure.. it sounds blown out and limited back down. The synth bass at 1:13 comes through clean... When the snares and bass drum come back at 1:30, it sounds like gravelly feces again.

I hear crappy music all the time, but something about this song makes it more apparent than any other. Is it me, or is it the recording? I actually went hunting for a high-res version of the album today, but it looks like I can only get it at 44.1kHz/24b... I was hoping to find some 96 or 192kHz.

Here at work, I'm listening via Fubar2000 to a UCA-202 (operating as my USB to Optical interface) to a FiiO Taishan DAC to a FiiO E9 amp to Monoprice M560s, and this is the clearest I've ever heard the flaws. However, I've had similar complaints no matter how I listen.

 

[Justinicus]

I just pulled up the oscilloscope visualizer in foobar2k -- it doesn't have any labels on the axes, so I wasn't paying attention, but I checked it out during the worst parts anyway, and it certainly seems to clipping, for whatever the authority of a media player visualization is good for. Is that the problem here? Bad mastering? Or maybe bad transcoding by Amazon?

 

[DanPerezSax]

I just bumped it on Tidal. Sounds like there's distortion on the drums but not digital clipping. My roommate at the time this album was worked on engineered the drums so I can ask him if he remembers.

 

[DanPerezSax]

FWIW it sounds pretty good to me... It doesn't SLAM like maybe you're wanting it to, but it sounds to me like the idea was more of a booming rumble than crispy, enveloping drums. That's a production decision that comes down to the producer's, mix-engineer's and the artist's taste.

 

[JWolf]

Some Nights, by Fun (bought from Amazon MP3 -- 256kbps CBR) -- This song seems like it has amazing technical potential. Opening with autotuned(?) harmony on some crisp vocals... then a STRONG percussion entry at 35 seconds. And no matter what I've tried, the experience always falls flat. Actually, flat would be a pleasure.. it sounds blown out and limited back down. The synth bass at 1:13 comes through clean... When the snares and bass drum come back at 1:30, it sounds like gravelly feces again.

I hear crappy music all the time, but something about this song makes it more apparent than any other. Is it me, or is it the recording? I actually went hunting for a high-res version of the album today, but it looks like I can only get it at 44.1kHz/24b... I was hoping to find some 96 or 192kHz.

Here at work, I'm listening via Fubar2000 to a UCA-202 (operating as my USB to Optical interface) to a FiiO Taishan DAC to a FiiO E9 amp to Monoprice M560s, and this is the clearest I've ever heard the flaws. However, I've had similar complaints no matter how I listen.

It's a victim of the lossless wars with an average dynamic range of 6. That's just not good. And the hi-res version is not worth it.Good music ruined by record producers.