Is it just me, or a few of the songs suffering from poor sound mixing? Where it is hard to hear the singing over the background music? It is kinda of frustrating. You kinda expect it at a concert, but not in a cd.

i thought so too.

for instance, Chris's singing gets drowned out a lot in this album. even though the band was going for a darker/fuller sound, i honestly don't think Chris's voice can work up to that as much.

 

aside from singing, there was too much sound-layering and it seemed like everything was on the same volume....?!

to me, it sounded like a big constant blur (especially with "Lovers in Japan").

It's soo frustrating! I've only listened to it once so far, so maybe it will seem to get better as I learn the lyrics...but I literally couldn't understand a damn thing he said except for on the 2 singles & Death & All His Friends. It drove me insane! Hopefully it was just the speakers in my car?? I really hope so. I think I like the CD, but I really can't tell because I can't hear the melodies...just the music. :(

Please delete - double post.

I don't think it is just your car speakers. I have listened to the album on my car speakers, laptop speakers, and ipod headphones, and it has been hard to understand what he says constantly. I have fiddled with the sound volume and it doesn't help me. Even with it very loud, the background music just envelops his voice.

 

talkingonsquareone89 - I agree about Lovers In Japan, I just tried listening to it again and it does sound like a blur. I got it turned way up, and I can understand most of it, but the sonic background just overwhelms his voice.

FWIW, I've been listening to it on laptop speakers for a couple weeks with no problem. Maybe your media player's equalizer is out of whack? And as for iPod headphones, that could easily be explained by the quality at which you ripped the files.

 

Can't explain your car speakers though, unless you're drawing this conclusion while driving. Gotta remember that albums are mixed in a soundproof studio, not a running/driving vehicle. Try tweaking your bass/midrange/treble settings. Hope you get it figured out - it's worth it.

I thought it just me. I was blaming it on the rip quality on some of the early leaks I was listening to * blushing* but now I have my own copy of the CD release now some tracks, particularly Lovers and some of Yes seem not quite right.

I'm sorry to say but I don't think it is my speakers or anything, as I bought the CD and ripped it at a good quality. Using vocal equalizer on Itunes has helped me understand some of the vocals more, but I still am having trouble with quite a bit of them.

Chris said people will get bored of the singer by the fourth album. Maybe that's why they put his volume a little down. It's not bothering me at all.

optimistic statement, i was already bored by the 3rd album

You know what? I was going crazy over the volume thing yesterday...but today I've already gotten completely used to it. (thank god!) I think when you learn the lyrics, it just becomes easier to hear him singing. Before it was like listening to someone talk without seeing their lips, ya know? But now that I know what he's saying...it's much easier. Hopefully that happens for you guys too.

A lot of the album or so they say was recorded live, in churches, the studio etc instead of the usual individual parts mixed so maybe that is why. Personally i prefer it this way sounds much more raw and down to earth, on the previous albums you can sometimes hear where is has been perfected and is to clean cut.

I felt the same way earlier, but now that I know most of the lyrics the vocals seem to stick out a little more. That is, except for Chinese Sleep Chant, but that was done on purpose.

A lot of the album or so they say was recorded live, in churches, the studio etc instead of the usual individual parts mixed so maybe that is why. Personally i prefer it this way sounds much more raw and down to earth, on the previous albums you can sometimes hear where is has been perfected and is to clean cut.

ahh...now i remember that it was mentioned some time ago :)

so were the songs were recorded as a whole in those places, or just the parts? (my guess is the latter)

 

whatever they did, it did help bring an additional raw sound for the music (which is interesting too), but even with live recording i still think the mixing could've been better. now if that kind of "blur-blending" was intended overall...well, then...:dozey:

 

 

LoL...my main gripe is "Lovers in Japan." the song itself is great, but the album recording bugs me to death. hopefully when the band plays it live it'll sound MUCH better.

At the end of the record the first critique my sister and I had was, we missed Chris's voice. A lot of songs flat out have less lyrics to sing, or they seem to be drowning him out purposefully with a wall of sound. I think he took critics to heart when they pined him as the worst thing to happen to their music, and it makes me a little sad. My favorite tracks are the ones you can hear him loud and clear.

Like I said after Violet Hill released.

Was the mixing is very, very bad done here.

 

They didn't removed mistakes.. or rerecorded some mistakes.

They didn't remove the talkings and other weird noices at the back.

 

There are alot of mistakes in timing...

Double tracked places that arnt at the same time.. doubled strings.

Background instruments at the wrong places.

 

As a home-studio owner and well known mixer, mastering person I can say that the new album is on-professional mixed and recorded even worse...

ahh...now i remember that it was mentioned some time ago :)

so were the songs were recorded as a whole in those places, or just the parts? (my guess is the latter)

 

whatever they did, it did help bring an additional raw sound for the music (which is interesting too), but even with live recording i still think the mixing could've been better. now if that kind of "blur-blending" was intended overall...well, then...:dozey:

 

 

LoL...my main gripe is "Lovers in Japan." the song itself is great, but the album recording bugs me to death. hopefully when the band plays it live it'll sound MUCH better.

 

 

I think some were recorded in bits. eg Will said the chrous to Violet hill was recorded in nunery with them gathered round one microphone, so id imagine it was added in. But saying that Violet hill does have a echoey sound to it as if it was recorded in a church, but that could well be sound affects by the engineer. Chris said lovers in Japan was live, other songs like Strawberry swing were live recordings and you can hear the voice and count in at the start. So its probably a mix of both.

I kind of like it. It makes it all sound more raw and pure and real. Not so polished and fine-tuned like a lot of songs on X&Y. It's a little more personal in my opinion.

I was wondering this, too. When I downloaded the preorder from Itunes, I thought something sounded off (and the leaked version sounded better than the finished version.) I've grown used to how it sounds, but it could have been mixed better, I agree.

As a non-musician and someone who is not (yet) able to recognize all instruments, background noises, how good or bad the timing is or whatever, I'm not bothered by it at all!

 

I think it sounds really great. It sounds more alive than X&Y.

 

By the way: can someone give a specific example of a (part of a) song which is badly mixed? And why?

optimistic statement, i was already bored by the 3rd album

 

Knob.

I wish they'd turn Guy up a bit. I can only really appreciate the amazingness of Violet Hill's bass when they play it live, on the CD it seems to get lost a bit. Unless maybe I have a crap CD player :P

I agree Guy's base is not prominent enough on a few songs.

Some songs like reign of love and strawberry swing have intentionally informal feels about them. And in the case of forty-two i find it hard to believe that the voices were just overlooked, my guess is the band just decided to leave them in. Those aren't the only mixing "mistakes", but you get my point.

Before I had no idea what you guys were on about, but I just listened to the album on speakers for the first time and the sound was awful. It was so distorted, I felt I was listening to a recording done by a cell phone AFTER being burned to a CD. I know they were going for a certain sound, but it just ruined the songs for me.

 

The sound seems to be fine on my iTunes and iPod, I'm definitely going to listen to it from there, from now on.