Metallica - Fuel (Dynamic Edit)

Описание: This is what I like to call a ‘dynamic edit’ of “Fuel” by Metallica! While Load and Reload are nowhere near as dynamically-compressed (not to be confused with data-compressed, which concerns MP3s and such) as the band’s Death Magnetic album, they nevertheless are subject to a sizable amount of distortion from their loud mastering. In this, I attempt to undo that mastering compression and resulting distortion, making the music more dynamic and hopefully, more listenable!

For those not in the know, the Loudness War is a phenomenon beginning in the mid-90s onward, in which music was mastered louder and louder, with the underlying reasoning being that louder music sounds better, and thus, should sell better. As with any medium, however, there is a peak loudness a signal can reach, so dynamic range compression (which makes the louder parts of the signal quieter while keeping the quiet parts the same loudness) and sometimes even clipping (attempting to make a signal louder than maximum loudness) were used to make music as loud as possible.

The issue with this is that overuse of dynamic range compression and clipping can make music fatiguing to listen to, and sometimes even audibly distorted. Additionally, clipping, poor compressors, or overuse of compressors can result in artifacts such as hiss or crackle being audible atop the signal. I noted quite a bit of that crackle during the bridge of “2 X 4” and the first chorus of “Bleeding Me” on Load as well as on the solo of “Where the Wild Things Are” and the bass bit at 1:28 on “Carpe Diem Baby” off Reload. I also felt some of the songs sounded a bit claustrophobic and fatiguing from their mastering compression, particularly “Bleeding Me” and “Cure”.

I attempted to undo the heavy dynamic range compression and resulting distortion on these songs with a program called “Perfect Declipper”, which can not only affect clipping, but other types of compression found in mastering as well! It can also undo much of the distortion from that compression, such as during those sections of “2 X 4”, “Bleeding Me”, “Where the Wild Things Are”, and “Carpe Diem Baby” I noted! The program also makes the music more dynamic, and I was able to bring the dynamic range of the albums from 7 to 12 as a result, which hopefully makes the music more listenable!

It’s important to note that the dynamics are not being restored with the “Perfect Declipper” program that I use, but rather, they are being approximated. While one may not be able to “declip” an album as one would be unable to “unbake a cake”, I find the results here to be a convincible attempt at doing so. Only in the most extreme examples have I heard the program produce odd artifacts that would appear unintended in the album’s mix.

I also want to make clear that dynamic range compression is not an inherently bad thing. It can tighten up performances, add grit, and help remove dynamic outliers that would take you out of the mix. Additionally, mastering engineers are often underneath the implicit and explicit pressures of artists and record labels to master albums loudly, so the results of mastering may not necessarily reflect a mastering engineer’s intentions for how they wanted an album to sound. Also, whether my edits sound better than the original release is up to what the listener thinks!

I produce many more dynamic edits on this channel as well as further descriptions in posts over on Reddit! You can look at this for a full list of the albums I’ve done: https://docs.google.com/document/d/19...

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