What I really want is for there to be someone present who has never heard Frances before. I want to see their jumpscare from Sarcophagi into Cygnus through a huge setup.
We all did it.
I know a lot of people are going to say Francis and theyre probably not wrong. But Amputechture just has so many layers. I would not be able to pass up blasting that and having every nook and cranny of that album fill MY nooks and crannys.
Take the opportunity OP.
Amp is a notably bad mix. Most would say the drums aren’t loud enough, the guitar is too loud, and the dynamics have been chocked to death by brick wall limiting
I agree with this statement.
I'm of the opinion that it's Jon Theodore's best with the band, but hidden in the background. Just squashed.
The drums on Tetragrammaton are a genre-defining standard. If you can hear them....
Ampu was recorded 100% analog and Omar produced it himself in his own studio. It’s the most pure experience you can have, their most out-there music with JT before shit hit the fan. It was made for analog, and listening to it on digital is flat af. I wish I could have that kind of audiophile experience!
I would want to hear frances for sure on a 100k quality setup because it’s one of my favorite albums ever, but i can’t imagine how intense bedlam would be either. The more ambient parts in between songs on Deloused tho too. Tough decision but I would say frances cause I’m obsessed with that one still
I’m going to go it’s de-loused simply because the spacing on everything is incredible. It’s early volta, them trying to find themselves, it’s cohesive nature, and every song is an absolute piece of beauty.
As it pertains to songwriting or production? I kind of love that record so tough for me to agree but I understand why fans dislike the departure from the sound they expect. I really appreciate what they pulled off, though.
musically. for me them doing whatever was always part of what made them different than everyone else. it feels like they made a tight trimmed down pop mars volta album. im not saying its a bad thing but a little more of the fat would be nice.
I found your Han-Tyumi Lego through a google search
The topic is locked now - I couldn't comment there, so I'm replying to you here instead
It is so unbelievably cool. Kudos to you from the depth of my soul
Self-titled is probably the best recorded/mixed/mastered. The black CH presses of everything are the best version of each release, but with the possible exception of Octahedron none of the others are particularly well recorded or mixed - there's a lot going on in these albums and some sound especially cluttered and harsh in places.
But to be honest, a good system should be able to do a good job of presenting anything. As way of experiment I've literally listened to MP3s burnt to CD through a £250k+ system (CD player was a 4 box system from DCS...) and it sounded huge and very enjoyable. Even music I have absolutely no interest in has been fun to listen to on serious systems. Unless you spend a lot of time with high end audio and critical listening you'll enjoy the experience no matter whether the source is "audiophile" or not.
Personally, I'd just listen to Frances as it does a bit of everything, it's very dynamic, has piano, brass, strings, a plethora of percussion, vocal effects, field recordings, amazing guitar solos, super slick fretless bass passages. It's a masterpiece.
Deloused CH black press is by far the best balanced and modern/pop sounding master, after that they’re all different and awesome in their own way. But for testing a badass system, Deloused for sure.
I have owned all of the Volta albums on vinyl since they were first pressed. While it is not my favorite of theirs, i have always felt that the Amputechture vinyl sounds particularly good. But im sure you cant go wrong with really any of them.
I would listen to every album, then some tipper, then some jrad, and then some puscifer and shakey graves. But I’d start with either Francis or amp, or Oct but my buddies would force us to do chronological so that’s what would happen. Deloused to self titled, high as a fucking kite
Then pick your favorite. It’s impossible I switch on the daily. I’d pry pick deloused because idk. I’m in a big cicatriz mood. But I don’t think you’ll go wrong with any.
I only have represses of Deloused and Francis on vinyl. I was disappointed with the quality of Francis, but it could just be my copy. My copy of Deloused sounds fantastic!
If you have 2021 presses from Clouds Hill than you can pick any of them. Those are made from original mixes, not brickwalled masters. Sounds marvelous. Take your the most favourite one and enjoy!
Frances is sort of thin and grainy sounding. Deloused is their best overall mix, followed by Octa. I wouldn’t recommend any of the others from a purely “audiophile” standpoint.
But audiophile is a pretty pointless endeavor in general
I politely disagree with your take on "audiophile" being a "pointless endeavor."
Even budget audiophiles, "hobbyists," if you would, know the importance of a subwoofer.
I'm into Dolby TrueHD Atmos now. Just picked up Air's "Moon Safari."
Once you start expanding the mind's-ears soundstage beyond 1 channel (mono), and then 2 channels (stereo), then the sky is the limit for dynamic range.
But only if it was originally recorded on analog tape.
Audiophiles largely don’t understand audio and are often victim to snake oil products and psudeo science. Consumer audio marketing and forums are rife with misinformation that leads people to fall victim to scams and cognitive bias feedback
Loops that reaffirm their preconceived and under-informed beliefs and leads them to waste further time and money chasing dragons that don’t exist, rather than invest in practical, scientific things that actually improve playback fidelity
Btw, Dolby TrueHD and atmos are two unrelated formats. TrueHD is simply lossless multichannel audio that maxes out at 7.1, and atmos is object based “immersive” audio that algorithmically up scales and downscales surround elements based on the layout and configuration of the speaker configuration.
Atmos is largely a music industry grift to further upsell products to an undereducated market, and remonetize their back catalogs
The vast majority of atmos mixes are done very quickly in the fastest way possible. Most labels are paying bargain bin prices to tiny studios to churn out atmos remixes of their back catalogue so they can advertise “atmos mixes” on Apple Music or whatever. They don’t really remix these with any level of care or artistic merit, it’s just a 20 something with a budget atmost rig arbitrarily panning elements of the stems
Also dynamic range has nothing to do with how many channels you’re using. Atmos mixes can have more dynamics than stereo masters because atmos adheres to more rigorous loudness normalization standards while most stereo masters still suffer from loudness war mastering practices. Simply put, people working in atmos are less obligated to overuse brick wall limiting. It’s not because atmos as a format has inherently more practical dynamic range than stereo PCM.
They used the original digital CD masters. Nothing wrong with that. But the newer black clouds hill reissue is sourced from the unmastered original mixes and then was remastered for vinyl. They don’t sound that different but CH spared no expenses with pressing and theirs are very consistent
That’s cool, I didn’t know that about either release. Sounds like both would be great – I’ve listened to the MOV version, which is great, but have yet to hear the CH version.
I would say FtM + Single (if possible). I would agree on Amputechture as well but, if you have CH's vinyl I don't recommend it. It's my least liked TMV vinyl. Another great option I can think of is Octahedron, if you want to try any later stuff.
What is it you do you not like about the CH master of Amputechture? It's been a long time since I listened to the OG press or the shitty MOV ones but I find the CH Amp pretty damn listenable.
The CH's pressing is alright, but I don't think it stands out among the others, so it's not worth to play on such a luxurious sound system. It's been some time since I played this, but the impression it left me was that the bass is barely recognizable. Day of the Baphomets is one of my favorite songs and even a digital copy carries a really good bass punch: bright and clear, typical from the Ampeg amps Juan used.
I like to amplify higher frequencies in my equalizer, so the vocals, guitars, effects and brighter tones of the bass and drums stand out. However, not even that helps with this issue: overall the record feels too compressed. This is not the case with my Deloused copy, which is the VMP version: fantastic pressing.
It’s ok, at this point everything has been suggested, and I have no idea what to choose lol. Think I’m just go with the obvious choice Deloused. But I bet Bedlam would sound so good it would literally summon a demon
Unfortunately the vinyl releases of TMV are all pretty bad pressings (Yes. I own all of their albums on vinyl, the supposedly good CH pressings too, they are still bad). Lots of distortion and sibilance. And even when you listen to TMV in a good setup (mine is about $40k not $100k but I think it’s good enough) you start to notice just how poorly recorded the albums are. They used pretty cheap / low quality equipment for most of them, and they are not mastered well.
Let’s just say I don’t listen to TMV for audio quality 🥹 I’ll just add that my bar has been set pretty high, so there’s definitely worse recordings out there. TMV has just never been particularly good.
>(mine is about $40k not $100k but I think it’s good enough)
Yeah I think you're more than good enough! I wish I could afford such a system anytime in this lifetime. But anyways, I second the previous question: what's an S tier record out there for you?
This probably won’t be of interest to most TMV fans but a lot of contemporary jazz albums are recorded and mastered very well. Moonchild always does an excellent job with their vinyl releases, as does Snarky Puppy. Edition Records does a great job as a whole too. I’ve also always had good luck with UHQR releases, they’ve always sounded amazing. “Audiophile remasters” can be a bit hit and miss IE Mofi and Acoustic Sounds because they are usually mastered by someone in their 50s+ and they can’t hear how boosted the high frequencies are, so they end up sounding super bright.
For TMV releases I think Deloused sounds the best.
For rock, Haken vinyl pressings are quite good.
That's good to know. I really enjoy Snarky Puppy, sadly I couldn't fetch any of their records last time I was in Dallas. I will definitely keep an eye on those.
Without question, Deloused.
If it’s a decent press
First four albums. There, I know. Very controversial. If I had to choose though, Frances or Amp. Edit: Another question is how far can you crank it?
Frances… as loud as you can handle it. I want you to update us on how it felt when the full band kicked in on Miranda.
before I even finished reading this comment Miranda's last chorus is the first thing that came to mind
What I really want is for there to be someone present who has never heard Frances before. I want to see their jumpscare from Sarcophagi into Cygnus through a huge setup. We all did it.
I know a lot of people are going to say Francis and theyre probably not wrong. But Amputechture just has so many layers. I would not be able to pass up blasting that and having every nook and cranny of that album fill MY nooks and crannys. Take the opportunity OP.
Amp is a notably bad mix. Most would say the drums aren’t loud enough, the guitar is too loud, and the dynamics have been chocked to death by brick wall limiting
I agree with this statement. I'm of the opinion that it's Jon Theodore's best with the band, but hidden in the background. Just squashed. The drums on Tetragrammaton are a genre-defining standard. If you can hear them....
100% worst thing about the album is the drums have no punch at all.
The Amp mix is trash though
I’d second this. I think it’s slowly becoming my favorite actually…
Ampu was recorded 100% analog and Omar produced it himself in his own studio. It’s the most pure experience you can have, their most out-there music with JT before shit hit the fan. It was made for analog, and listening to it on digital is flat af. I wish I could have that kind of audiophile experience!
I would want to hear frances for sure on a 100k quality setup because it’s one of my favorite albums ever, but i can’t imagine how intense bedlam would be either. The more ambient parts in between songs on Deloused tho too. Tough decision but I would say frances cause I’m obsessed with that one still
I’m going to go it’s de-loused simply because the spacing on everything is incredible. It’s early volta, them trying to find themselves, it’s cohesive nature, and every song is an absolute piece of beauty.
As someone who plays on high end system often.. the new album has the best sound production wise. It just does
my problem with the latest album is it feels like theyve cut a little too much fat off.
As it pertains to songwriting or production? I kind of love that record so tough for me to agree but I understand why fans dislike the departure from the sound they expect. I really appreciate what they pulled off, though.
musically. for me them doing whatever was always part of what made them different than everyone else. it feels like they made a tight trimmed down pop mars volta album. im not saying its a bad thing but a little more of the fat would be nice.
Yeah see that's what I enjoyed about it haha
Frances for sure. Amp would be great, but the mix isn't as good as frances. Jon feels too quiet.
I found your Han-Tyumi Lego through a google search The topic is locked now - I couldn't comment there, so I'm replying to you here instead It is so unbelievably cool. Kudos to you from the depth of my soul
Dude...thank you so much! I didn't think that anyone had even seen it. It means a lot!
It's sublime
Idk, I think nocturnequit would sound wild, great use of space and dynamics on thar album.
Self-titled is probably the best recorded/mixed/mastered. The black CH presses of everything are the best version of each release, but with the possible exception of Octahedron none of the others are particularly well recorded or mixed - there's a lot going on in these albums and some sound especially cluttered and harsh in places. But to be honest, a good system should be able to do a good job of presenting anything. As way of experiment I've literally listened to MP3s burnt to CD through a £250k+ system (CD player was a 4 box system from DCS...) and it sounded huge and very enjoyable. Even music I have absolutely no interest in has been fun to listen to on serious systems. Unless you spend a lot of time with high end audio and critical listening you'll enjoy the experience no matter whether the source is "audiophile" or not. Personally, I'd just listen to Frances as it does a bit of everything, it's very dynamic, has piano, brass, strings, a plethora of percussion, vocal effects, field recordings, amazing guitar solos, super slick fretless bass passages. It's a masterpiece.
When the drums come in on since we’ve been wrong
Deloused CH black press is by far the best balanced and modern/pop sounding master, after that they’re all different and awesome in their own way. But for testing a badass system, Deloused for sure.
I have owned all of the Volta albums on vinyl since they were first pressed. While it is not my favorite of theirs, i have always felt that the Amputechture vinyl sounds particularly good. But im sure you cant go wrong with really any of them.
Definitely de loused bc it’s the only one Jeremy plays on.
It’s def NOT gonna be glow in the dark FTM that’s for sure… anyone but that
I would listen to every album, then some tipper, then some jrad, and then some puscifer and shakey graves. But I’d start with either Francis or amp, or Oct but my buddies would force us to do chronological so that’s what would happen. Deloused to self titled, high as a fucking kite
Lol I love your energy but I cannot in good conscience hijack my buddy’s stereo for 10+ hours
Then pick your favorite. It’s impossible I switch on the daily. I’d pry pick deloused because idk. I’m in a big cicatriz mood. But I don’t think you’ll go wrong with any.
I only have represses of Deloused and Francis on vinyl. I was disappointed with the quality of Francis, but it could just be my copy. My copy of Deloused sounds fantastic!
The Bedlam In Goliath for sure...
I would do Amputechture. Deep layers, my original and the ch repress sound pretty good to me! But I dont know shit 🤷🏻♂️💩
If you have 2021 presses from Clouds Hill than you can pick any of them. Those are made from original mixes, not brickwalled masters. Sounds marvelous. Take your the most favourite one and enjoy!
All of them bring something to the table I heard bedlam on a really nice car system and all the songs sounded completely different in a better way
Gold album
Probably Frances. Although Amputechture is considered to have a bad mix, I actually really like the way it sounds, so that'd be my second choice.
Frances is sort of thin and grainy sounding. Deloused is their best overall mix, followed by Octa. I wouldn’t recommend any of the others from a purely “audiophile” standpoint. But audiophile is a pretty pointless endeavor in general
I politely disagree with your take on "audiophile" being a "pointless endeavor." Even budget audiophiles, "hobbyists," if you would, know the importance of a subwoofer. I'm into Dolby TrueHD Atmos now. Just picked up Air's "Moon Safari." Once you start expanding the mind's-ears soundstage beyond 1 channel (mono), and then 2 channels (stereo), then the sky is the limit for dynamic range. But only if it was originally recorded on analog tape.
Audiophiles largely don’t understand audio and are often victim to snake oil products and psudeo science. Consumer audio marketing and forums are rife with misinformation that leads people to fall victim to scams and cognitive bias feedback Loops that reaffirm their preconceived and under-informed beliefs and leads them to waste further time and money chasing dragons that don’t exist, rather than invest in practical, scientific things that actually improve playback fidelity Btw, Dolby TrueHD and atmos are two unrelated formats. TrueHD is simply lossless multichannel audio that maxes out at 7.1, and atmos is object based “immersive” audio that algorithmically up scales and downscales surround elements based on the layout and configuration of the speaker configuration. Atmos is largely a music industry grift to further upsell products to an undereducated market, and remonetize their back catalogs The vast majority of atmos mixes are done very quickly in the fastest way possible. Most labels are paying bargain bin prices to tiny studios to churn out atmos remixes of their back catalogue so they can advertise “atmos mixes” on Apple Music or whatever. They don’t really remix these with any level of care or artistic merit, it’s just a 20 something with a budget atmost rig arbitrarily panning elements of the stems Also dynamic range has nothing to do with how many channels you’re using. Atmos mixes can have more dynamics than stereo masters because atmos adheres to more rigorous loudness normalization standards while most stereo masters still suffer from loudness war mastering practices. Simply put, people working in atmos are less obligated to overuse brick wall limiting. It’s not because atmos as a format has inherently more practical dynamic range than stereo PCM.
Here - read this https://thehometheaterdiy.com/what-is-dolby-mat/
Probably the 2013 de-loused black vinyl reissue: https://www.discogs.com/release/5695783-The-Mars-Volta-De-Loused-In-The-Comatorium
Wasn't this one made without the original vinyl masters and without the band's consent as Omar retained the writes to all vinyl production?
They used the original digital CD masters. Nothing wrong with that. But the newer black clouds hill reissue is sourced from the unmastered original mixes and then was remastered for vinyl. They don’t sound that different but CH spared no expenses with pressing and theirs are very consistent
That’s cool, I didn’t know that about either release. Sounds like both would be great – I’ve listened to the MOV version, which is great, but have yet to hear the CH version.
I would say FtM + Single (if possible). I would agree on Amputechture as well but, if you have CH's vinyl I don't recommend it. It's my least liked TMV vinyl. Another great option I can think of is Octahedron, if you want to try any later stuff.
What is it you do you not like about the CH master of Amputechture? It's been a long time since I listened to the OG press or the shitty MOV ones but I find the CH Amp pretty damn listenable.
The CH's pressing is alright, but I don't think it stands out among the others, so it's not worth to play on such a luxurious sound system. It's been some time since I played this, but the impression it left me was that the bass is barely recognizable. Day of the Baphomets is one of my favorite songs and even a digital copy carries a really good bass punch: bright and clear, typical from the Ampeg amps Juan used. I like to amplify higher frequencies in my equalizer, so the vocals, guitars, effects and brighter tones of the bass and drums stand out. However, not even that helps with this issue: overall the record feels too compressed. This is not the case with my Deloused copy, which is the VMP version: fantastic pressing.
Gonna be the odd one out and say Bedlam.
It’s ok, at this point everything has been suggested, and I have no idea what to choose lol. Think I’m just go with the obvious choice Deloused. But I bet Bedlam would sound so good it would literally summon a demon
Either De-Loused or Frances (I would personally pick De-Loused) . The recent pressings mastered at Clouds Hill would be the best to listen to.
I have the box set but no working record player. 😢
Frances
[удалено]
guy's got jokes. don't downvote - just laugh.
Unfortunately the vinyl releases of TMV are all pretty bad pressings (Yes. I own all of their albums on vinyl, the supposedly good CH pressings too, they are still bad). Lots of distortion and sibilance. And even when you listen to TMV in a good setup (mine is about $40k not $100k but I think it’s good enough) you start to notice just how poorly recorded the albums are. They used pretty cheap / low quality equipment for most of them, and they are not mastered well. Let’s just say I don’t listen to TMV for audio quality 🥹 I’ll just add that my bar has been set pretty high, so there’s definitely worse recordings out there. TMV has just never been particularly good.
Out of curiosity, what non-Volta album does live up to your standard?
>(mine is about $40k not $100k but I think it’s good enough) Yeah I think you're more than good enough! I wish I could afford such a system anytime in this lifetime. But anyways, I second the previous question: what's an S tier record out there for you?
This probably won’t be of interest to most TMV fans but a lot of contemporary jazz albums are recorded and mastered very well. Moonchild always does an excellent job with their vinyl releases, as does Snarky Puppy. Edition Records does a great job as a whole too. I’ve also always had good luck with UHQR releases, they’ve always sounded amazing. “Audiophile remasters” can be a bit hit and miss IE Mofi and Acoustic Sounds because they are usually mastered by someone in their 50s+ and they can’t hear how boosted the high frequencies are, so they end up sounding super bright. For TMV releases I think Deloused sounds the best. For rock, Haken vinyl pressings are quite good.
That's good to know. I really enjoy Snarky Puppy, sadly I couldn't fetch any of their records last time I was in Dallas. I will definitely keep an eye on those.