The worst ever case of mastering too loud that I am aware of is on Rush's "Vapor Trails" album. The songs are great and the musicianship is amazing, but I have never been able to get through it in one sitting and rarely listen to it because it sounds so bad.

I really wondered how something like that could actually pass through quality control. Yes, it's that bad! I have recently discovered that the band and the producer are very upset by the final results. Makes me feel better to know that they really didn't want it to sound that way!

Here's a quote from Paul Northfield (the producer) "I didn't hear it until it was all said and done, at which point the record company was over the moon with it, saying it was fantastic, let's get it out there...To me its guilty as charged. All you can say is decisions were made at the time, everybody was just really tired and we did what we felt was right, and then given a month or two's hindsight we found it was wrong."

And from Alex Lifeson (Rush guitarist)"For me it's really a sonic issue: it was mastered much too hot; it's too loud and it eats away at us and we want to address that - and maybe for no other reason than it would just make us sleep peacefully at night."

There is suppose to be a re-mastered version released, but the record company is holding back on it for some reason.

There was a very interesting article online about the "Vapor Trails" mastering, with pictures of the wav forms documenting the problem. Quite an interesting read. The webpage is currently unavailable, but when I find it I will post a link.

My opinion is that just about all recorded music is too loud these days. It's absurd. The whole world is too loud really.
Silence is a delicacy. Guess music is having to compete to be heard!?


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