the mixing/mastering is ruining his recent stuff

the fucking high end. My theory is that he's lost his damn hearing, if he's mixing this stuff on his own, i mean the fucking high end man, where's the bass? if you turn it up it rapes your ear

he needs to get someone to help him mix/master if he isn't already. way too much EQ at the top levels

that's all I really had to say, thought it was worth positing as a theory.

and I'm not saying it needs BASS I'm just saying the normal standards of warmth would help a lot

I support this claim.

yeah

i've yet to look at it through a freq analyzer

but my theory is

that it was mixed and/or mastered for optimal loudness

using fletcher-munson curves

so essentially some frequency are louder than others

(e.g 2khz 5khz and 10khz)

however those frequencies cause pain as well

I hope it's not another one of his "I did this and the crowd went nuts, so obviously it's a cheap way to appeal to people" things.

I've listened to Ultravisitor on some bass heavy phones and was surprised because it didn't sound so harsh, I'm sure everyone flinched when those ear piercing sounds in tetra-sync came at near the end of the track, on those phones they don't sound so ear damaging, although they're still annoying and unnecessary.

ultravisitor is probably the last of the really good sounding albums. a/b testing the square window tracks with hello everything is pretty ridiculous. as much as i like the compositions on HE and the albums thereafter, the sound quality ranges from disastrous to somewhat lacking.

I sometimes wonder if Ufabulum was mixed the way it was to compliment his stage show. I've been doing some visual patching for a stage projector rig, and I use FFT analysis a lot for variation automation. Of all the albums I've listened to and run through my patches that way, this album is just worlds apart in the way it responds visually.

Those bits where the frequencies swell up and down, like in Ecstatic Shock, make for some tasty visuals. Most music is too muddied across the frequency spectrum to get such aclean responses from FFT analysis. I've only seen a handful of clips of his live show and its hard to tell if he is using something like that to control the lightboard or just running predistilled patches. Either way I'm curious if that was a factor in how the album was mixed. I think Matt Avery helped Tom put together his LED helmet, wonder if he would know...

interesting theory. I liked the mixing on Just a Souvenir which was quite similar, it had an aesthetic feeling there and on Hello Everything. the tracks felt miniature and highly textured.

On Ufabulum it's like a very sharp blade. I've been suffering from hearing loss lately with these high pitches blasting in my head along with headaches, so I've been more conscious of things that might hurt my ear. Ufabulum is somewhat unlistenable for me, for example.

though a similar "cutting" style was used on Go Plastic, it just seems pushed too far now and since I've been reading about hearing loss, high frequencies are the first to go so it wouldn't surprise me if that had something to do with it.

Ufabulum sounds amazing on speakers but it's unbearable on headphones.

  On 5/1/2013 at 12:33 AM, Drahken said:

I sometimes wonder if Ufabulum was mixed the way it was to compliment his stage show.

Then he should've made different mixes for different contexts; but I doubt he mixed an album people are going to listen in their speakers and headphones with his stage show in mind

  On 5/4/2013 at 9:11 PM, ThatSpanishGuy said:

 

  On 5/1/2013 at 12:33 AM, Drahken said:

I sometimes wonder if Ufabulum was mixed the way it was to compliment his stage show.

 

Then he should've made different mixes for different contexts; but I doubt he mixed an album people are going to listen in their speakers and headphones with his stage show in mind

 

yeah I 100% think the EQ is the way it is for the sake of loudness

Aren't these latest ones mastered by someone else other than Tom (something like 'a guy called Jim' though with the persons actual name)?

  On 5/5/2013 at 12:07 AM, mcbpete said:

Aren't these latest ones mastered by someone else other than Tom (something like 'a guy called Jim' though with the persons actual name)?

yeah but I highly doubt he just handed it off to a second-party without any input

...and besides I think if that were to happen, a good mastering engineer would soften it up instead of making it (more) shrill

(one would think/hope, at least)

this reminds me...does anybody wanna make EQ/RMS plots of Ufabulum and some earlier SP record and compare them? I would do it but I don't know if I have a spectral analyzer plug-in that can do it

i think ufabulum is awesome

  On 5/5/2013 at 2:28 AM, very honest said:

i think ufabulum is awesome

yeah musically I like it

but my ears don't love the hi-end

It's the flipping mid range that wears my ears out.

  On 5/5/2013 at 3:01 AM, mcbpete said:

It's the flipping mid range that wears my ears out.

okay

i should say hi-mids

for some reason when I think of 2khz or 5khz I think hi-end

I don't know why

I think it's from growing up with old gear

that had a hi knob and low knob

where hi meant anything over probably 1khz or so

also he got that new euphonix baord and over used the compressor on it

and i think he is losing his top end hearing curve-it's only normal at his age after all of the work he has put in

i think the unique sound compliments the music. there's nothing that sounds like this and if it had been mastered like his older stuff i think it would have been a missed opportunity, though maybe for some songs it would make for some cool alternate takes.

Overall I think it's not bad... The compression is too extreme in some cases, and the "shreeking" sounds could be a bit easier on the ears for sure, even though I think it's intentional... I tone down the Highs on my receiver and that helps.

I do love the album musically.

  On 5/6/2013 at 4:26 AM, very honest said:

i think the unique sound compliments the music. there's nothing that sounds like this and if it had been mastered like his older stuff i think it would have been a missed opportunity, though maybe for some songs it would make for some cool alternate takes.

The thing is though, I'm pretty sure it's an aesthetic choice to match the content of the music rather than simply 'he's losing his hearing'. Reason being the accompanying release Enstrobia sounds a world apart mix wise, a huge range of dynamics and frequency - the kind of mix we expect from him.

So the question is - why has Tom decided to mix it this way, is it a tongue-in-cheek gesture towards modern mastering methods of dance music, is it meant to replicate the ear fatigue from going to gigs ?

  On 5/6/2013 at 2:52 PM, mcbpete said:

 

So the question is - why has Tom decided to mix it this way, is it a tongue-in-cheek gesture towards modern mastering methods of dance music, is it meant to replicate the ear fatigue from going to gigs ?

I would bet a large sum of money on 'loudness'

Not sure what y'all are talking about when it comes to the loudness or Tom's use of compression. Ufabulum has a good amount of dynamic range compared to a lot of contemporary electronic and club music. In fact, I recall Tom leaving a large amount dynamic range in Ultravisitor as well. On these two albums he is certainly not maximizing loudness or making the levels too hot.

I went ahead booted up a wave editor and loaded four tracks from Ufabulum just to be sure: 4001, Unreal Square, The Metallurgist, and Drax 2. Of each of those 'The Metallurgist' is the hottest. I concur that that track can become distressing over it's duration, but considering how much dynamic space there is in the other tracks it may very well be intentional. The other three are relatively minimal in their usage of buss or mastering compression.

Ufabulum is noticeably crispier than his last few albums. I wonder if what some of you are hearing are the transients which Tom is not only accentuating, but leaving room for by not squashing the hell out of his recordings. Perhaps some of you are simply not used to hearing so much transient in a contemporary recording. That's one theory.

  On 5/7/2013 at 9:12 AM, Wall Bird said:

Not sure what y'all are talking about when it comes to the loudness or Tom's use of compression.

Alright I've said this four times but I guess I'll try one more time.

EQ--like limiting--is a loudness tool. Not all frequencies have the same perceived loudness, some appear much louder than others, so if you have a finite amount of headroom and you want to make your record loud then the obvious thing to do is allocate as much of your headroom* it to the louder frequencies (e.g. 2khz, 5khz 10khz) as you can.

*think of headroom as a sort of 'allowance'