Amon Tobin - ISAM

[Guest illfly mandog]

What drags it down the most for me actually is the mastering. All these lovely meticulous sounds moving about yet it's all as flat as a pancake. Especially all the little musique concrete sections end up sounding thin, no depth, way,way,way too compressed.

You do realize there are envelopes on compressors, right? To think this album is "brick-walled" is really silly. Compressors don't just flatten dynamic...sheeesh. I can give that individual sounds are very compressed, but that doesn't equal no dynamic. Shit, if you know your way around a compressor you can GIVE dynamics to a sound. And the master compression and such isn't any different than any other album in the last ten years. If people wanna hate on loads and loads of compression, they should go to the Aphex, Autechre or BOC sub-forum.

[Deepex]

Preach!

[elusive4]

What drags it down the most for me actually is the mastering. All these lovely meticulous sounds moving about yet it's all as flat as a pancake. Especially all the little musique concrete sections end up sounding thin, no depth, way,way,way too compressed.

You do realize there are envelopes on compressors, right? To think this album is "brick-walled" is really silly. Compressors don't just flatten dynamic...sheeesh. I can give that individual sounds are very compressed, but that doesn't equal no dynamic. Shit, if you know your way around a compressor you can GIVE dynamics to a sound. And the master compression and such isn't any different than any other album in the last ten years. If people wanna hate on loads and loads of compression, they should go to the Aphex, Autechre or BOC sub-forum.

 

it;'s still loud as shit, is shit, and doesn't have the headroom.

 

period.

[Guest illfly mandog]

it's still loud as shit, is shit, and doesn't have the headroom.period.

Have you put it through a peak analyzer of any kind? I'm getting dynamic of here...I also have the loss-less versions from his site. Are you hearing that crappy leak?

[Guest Adam]

What drags it down the most for me actually is the mastering. All these lovely meticulous sounds moving about yet it's all as flat as a pancake. Especially all the little musique concrete sections end up sounding thin, no depth, way,way,way too compressed.

You do realize there are envelopes on compressors, right? To think this album is "brick-walled" is really silly. Compressors don't just flatten dynamic...sheeesh. I can give that individual sounds are very compressed, but that doesn't equal no dynamic. Shit, if you know your way around a compressor you can GIVE dynamics to a sound. And the master compression and such isn't any different than any other album in the last ten years. If people wanna hate on loads and loads of compression, they should go to the Aphex, Autechre or BOC sub-forum.

 

it;'s still loud as shit, is shit, and doesn't have the headroom.

 

period.

 

No. You're idiot. period.

[huzur]

What drags it down the most for me actually is the mastering. All these lovely meticulous sounds moving about yet it's all as flat as a pancake. Especially all the little musique concrete sections end up sounding thin, no depth, way,way,way too compressed.

You do realize there are envelopes on compressors, right? To think this album is "brick-walled" is really silly. Compressors don't just flatten dynamic...sheeesh. I can give that individual sounds are very compressed, but that doesn't equal no dynamic. Shit, if you know your way around a compressor you can GIVE dynamics to a sound. And the master compression and such isn't any different than any other album in the last ten years. If people wanna hate on loads and loads of compression, they should go to the Aphex, Autechre or BOC sub-forum.

 

it;'s still loud as shit, is shit, and doesn't have the headroom.

 

period.

 

[Deepex]

You do also realize there are other ways to make music loud other than compression/limiting, right??? Proper EQ will add volume and power to a mix. Just because music is loud doesn't mean its brickwalled.

[Guest Coalbucket PI]

I just listened to it and I think it is sick as balls, bravo

[Guest Adam]

It's fucking miles away from brickwalled. Look at this.

[Deepex]

And there it is. Fucking lol. Now lets get back to talking about the music and quit pretending that this is over compressed.

[elusive4]

well there you have it !

[elusive4]

is there a possibility my source is tainted?

is the cracked leak loud? if so illl retreat

 

edit: has to be - this 'surge' track is fukuing deafeninng.

[Boxus]

to me the compression on this album seems to draw too much attention to dynamics, rather than downplaying them.

 

you get a lot of sudden dynamic changes when you have sounds sucking each other up all the time, and that can be a little jarring and distract from the overall flow of a track. my problem is that the album sounds too jagged, not too flat. the layers have trouble breathing because they sometimes seem to be suffocating each other.

 

but i can tell he tries to use compression in a dramatic sort of way, and he often succeeds. it's just a little overdone here

[mcbpete]

It's fucking miles away from brickwalled. Look at this.

Hmm, you have to admit that some have been rather heavily compressed though. E.g. Dropped from the sky -

 

The 6 minute mark is basically a solid block of sound.

 

And that's the purchased flac of it rather than some dodgy rip ...

[Boxus]

OH SNAP

[elusive4]

It's fucking miles away from brickwalled. Look at this.

Hmm, you have to admit that some have been rather heavily compressed though. E.g. Dropped from the sky -

 

The 6 minute mark is basically a solid block of sound.

 

And that's the purchased flac of it rather than some dodgy rip ...

 

thanks for making me feel like maybe im not crazy

[mcbpete]

Yeah I think Adam Beker might have been a little creative with his choice of waveform, Night Swim is one of the more subdued tracks after all ...

 

EDIT: BTW despite all this, don't get me wrong I fookin' love the album !

[elusive4]

Yeah I think Adam Beker might have been a little creative with his choice of waveform, Night Swim is one of the more subdued tracks after all ...

 

clearly.

 

period.

[Guest hahathhat]

case trolled !

[crono3]

Just got back from a trip and FINALLY got to hear this! i think it's great... there's some really awesome moments! Not sure quite yet how it compares with Foley Room (which I loved), but it definitely seems like a natural progression from that.

[Guest Adam]

Yeah I think Adam Beker might have been a little creative with his choice of waveform, Night Swim is one of the more subdued tracks after all ...

 

EDIT: BTW despite all this, don't get me wrong I fookin' love the album !

 

Shit, you got me. Anyway I still think it's not compression on master. Some individual sounds are very compressed such as kick and bass but not the master channel. As there still is big contrast between loud and subdued parts.

[goDel]

To find some ground in the middle: the album sounds like it's very consciously produced to sound like the way it does. And a lot of craftsmanship/effort went into it. Whether you like the resulting dynamics or not.

 

Big up to the brazilian AT for such an album!

[Redruth]

amon takes work so very seriously and you can hear every time. isam is number three for all times sake (aside from its title which i'm not so fond of)

 

the cover art is absolutely brilliant, has anyone had some time for linky i plunkety plunked down?

[mcbpete]

amon takes work so very seriously and you can hear every time. isam is number three for all times sake (aside from its title which i'm not so fond of)

 

the cover art is absolutely brilliant, has anyone had some time for linky i plunkety plunked down?

A couple of questions:

 

1. Isam is number three for all times sake of what ?

2. Linky i plunkety plunked down ?

[Redruth]

compared to other amon tobins

 

 

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tessa farmer

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