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Rebel Heart album - sound quality


Guest Medoner

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She seems to just like this Demo guy's sound for whatever reason, and knowing that she personally worked on the MDNA live album with him makes me wonder if her hearing is going a bit these days, lol.

Yeah, Spike did Beat Goes On, She's Not Me and Give It to Me. All the really bad, distorted, compressed stuff was Demo.

That explains a lot.

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BIM is the worst offender on this record! The volume climb just before the chorus is way to loud and makes my skin crawl. I end up just skipping this track because it's actually uncomfortable to listen too. It's such an obvious mistake in mastering and seems like it would be an easy fix. Wish they would touch it up and update it on apple music.

Edited by JayMac
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Iconic is the worst one for me. The beat at 1:29 onwards is too loud and distorted.

I fell asleep listening to RH on my headphones the other night but was suddenly startled when "Iconic" woke me up. I thought someone was kicking the bedroom door in.

The drums on Hold Tight and Rebel Heart are far to loud and Living For Love sounds to basey.

Demo Castellon needs a good smack for what he did to Madonna's last two albums.

giphy.gif

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Well, it's because Demo Castellon did the mastering/mixing again. He really is the most amateurish idiot she has ever worked with imo.

The funny part is, that he mixes her voice the same way he mixes the vocals of his wife, Nelly Furtado who sounds like a squirrel most of the time. That results in him putting the emphasis of the vocals on the high notes which takes away the volume of her voice and makes it sound very thin. There's a fan made mix of L4L on M-Infinity which uses her unmixed demo vocals and my GOD it sounds fucking amazing!!!

I think I found it... sounds amazing!

Watch "Madonna - Living For Love - Raw vocals, NO AUTOTUNE" on YouTube

https://youtu.be/-acghWQDpQ0

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Yeah.. for me Hold Tight is the worst. Don't even get me started on the vinyl mastering! I don't even think it was mastered at all! Just the tracks dumped onto records.

My CD copy sounds good though, besides the issues you guys already pointed out that are apparent on all releases. I also think Madonna worked heavily on the album's production herself? Correct me if I'm wrong, but I remember her saying she was holed up in the studio immediately after the leaks in December, polishing the first 6 tracks for rush release. But to me, the first 6 sounds the best! Clean vocals, no distortion, and they all seamlessly flow. Maybe if she had one person working on the album continuously, the final product would have been cleaner.

I do feel like I'm nit picking because through and through it is still a very good record and I feel as though she did give it her all and worked on it as much as she possibly could given time constraints, leaks, etc.

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I can handle the distorted drums on "Voices" though I always prefer less distortion on drums.

It doesn't work on Rebel Heart the song, but thankfully on demo version #2, which is pretty much the final track, the drums are less distorted, so I use that version now. Because I really like the arrangement and vocal take for that version (not to get into that topic again, lol)

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Unfortunately it's also Madonna herself that also like the autotuning/vocal manipulation because she thinks it adds to the song / artistic process. It's her prerogative as the artist at the end of the day.

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Yeah.. for me Hold Tight is the worst. Don't even get me started on the vinyl mastering! I don't even think it was mastered at all! Just the tracks dumped onto records.

My CD copy sounds good though, besides the issues you guys already pointed out that are apparent on all releases. I also think Madonna worked heavily on the album's production herself? Correct me if I'm wrong, but I remember her saying she was holed up in the studio immediately after the leaks in December, polishing the first 6 tracks for rush release. But to me, the first 6 sounds the best! Clean vocals, no distortion, and they all seamlessly flow. Maybe if she had one person working on the album continuously, the final product would have been cleaner.

I do feel like I'm nit picking because through and through it is still a very good record and I feel as though she did give it her all and worked on it as much as she possibly could given time constraints, leaks, etc.

I think it's really cool that Madonna is having more of a hand in finalizing her records... she just needs a crash course in mixing and sound, haha. Didn't she also finish the MDNA tour DVD? She just needs to realize how it's going to sound on different systems and sources.

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I think it's really cool that Madonna is having more of a hand in finalizing her records... she just needs a crash course in mixing and sound, haha. Didn't she also finish the MDNA tour DVD? She just needs to realize how it's going to sound on different systems and sources.

Yeah, she did a lot of work on the MDNA tour, and I think I remember her addressing all the issues around the release and apologizing.

from wiki:

"In an online chat with website Reddit, Madonna addressed the concerns regarding the mastering issues with the DVD and Blu-ray in Europe, saying that she was horrified about the glitches and her record label was solving it. She concluded by saying that "[I] spent 6 months editing and doing the sound mix for the DVD the last thing I want to hear is that the fans aren't getting the fruits of my labor."[42] On September 23, 2013, Interscope Records announced that they were recalling all the Blu-ray discs issued in US, after hearing continuous reports of glitches in the sound from consumers, adding that an "error in manufacturing" compromised the 5.1 audio of the discs"

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Unfortunately it's also Madonna herself that also like the autotuning/vocal manipulation because she thinks it adds to the song / artistic process. It's her prerogative as the artist at the end of the day.

But the vast quality difference on the untouched (mostly) vocals and unfiltered video is SO APPARENT. Why doesn't she see/hear it? Must be psychological :bad:

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Yeah, she did a lot of work on the MDNA tour, and I think I remember her addressing all the issues around the release and apologizing.

from wiki:

"In an online chat with website Reddit, Madonna addressed the concerns regarding the mastering issues with the DVD and Blu-ray in Europe, saying that she was horrified about the glitches and her record label was solving it. She concluded by saying that "[I] spent 6 months editing and doing the sound mix for the DVD the last thing I want to hear is that the fans aren't getting the fruits of my labor."[42] On September 23, 2013, Interscope Records announced that they were recalling all the Blu-ray discs issued in US, after hearing continuous reports of glitches in the sound from consumers, adding that an "error in manufacturing" compromised the 5.1 audio of the discs"

True, she did address the Blu-ray glitches, but the actual soundmixing on the official live CD audio is just SO BAD...and she spent months working on it.

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But the vast quality difference on the untouched (mostly) vocals and unfiltered video is SO APPARENT. Why doesn't she see/hear it? Must be psychological :bad:

Remember the clip from the HC sessions?

Madonna: "I think you should do something with my vocals.... mmm.. you should autotune them."

Timbaland: *WTF is this cracka on about, I'm producing the record*.

Justin: *looking twinky as usual*

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She must be getting more insecure as the years go on, because even though there was production on her voice in albums past, it isn't quite to the extreme of her latest finished material. Anyway, like I said earlier, I still have zero issues with quite a number of tracks on RH.

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She must be getting more insecure as the years go on, because even though there was production on her voice in albums past, it isn't quite to the extreme of her latest finished material. Anyway, like I said earlier, I still have zero issues with quite a number of tracks on RH.

It's got nothing to do with her getting insecure.

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Remember the clip from the HC sessions?

Madonna: "I think you should do something with my vocals.... mmm.. you should autotune them."

Timbaland: *WTF is this cracka on about, I'm producing the record*.

Justin: *looking twinky as usual*

lol

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It's got nothing to do with her getting insecure.

Ok, well use whatever word you want then... I feel like she probably thinks she isn't the best singer in the world so more effects are "better"... when in reality, less is more.

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Ok, well use whatever word you want then... I feel like she probably thinks she isn't the best singer in the world so more effects are "better"... when in reality, less is more.

I really don't think she uses autotune/vocal effects etc. because she's insecure about not being the best singer in the world. She genuinely thinks that is best for the song. This is her thinking as a producer, not as a singer. It's not 1990 anymore. Since she did Evita she's had a lot more self-confidence in her vocal abilities. I remember her being asked a question about her vocal range in that bizarre 1998 Swedish press conference and her response was basically "WTF".

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I don't think she has any hang-ups about her voice at this point. Ageing/appearance, yes. It's totally understandable, and most celebs have the same issue to one extent or another...but I really hate that she's banned close-ups of her face while performing. It really removes some of the emotion from her performances. Especially something like Ghosttown where it would be great to see her eyes etc. That's the only thing I wish she'd reconsider. I don't think I saw ANY bad close-up photos of her on MDNA tour and of course in person, close-up, she was stunning. Even in daylight at the start of the show. No need for all those shitty filters.

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Only slight problem I had with the sound quality of the album was her not using the Avicci versions for WAOM and Rebel Heart, other than that I didn't notice any inconsistencies of any sort, but I am not one to pay too much attention to those kinds of details anyway

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BIM is so loud, then Hold Tight follows and I can barely hear it. Also lets not forget about the poor vinyl job, the last minute of WAOM is pure distortion.

Don't get me wrong, I still love the album

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There are many, many mixing/mastering issues on this record and most of them were mentioned already.

However, all in all it sounds more dynamic than MDNA to my ears.

The worst thing ever was the MDNA Tour DVD/bluray. It sounds like it was recorded by Mercy in the golden triangle.

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Guest Medoner

The worst thing ever was the MDNA Tour DVD/bluray. It sounds like it was recorded by Mercy in the golden triangle.

Omfg i died

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