Rosner

Not really sure what you mean. He's always been like this. In the VULGAR days he would sometimes take some time out of a song so he could spew fake vomit everywhere (a la the Obscure video), or have a gigantic nosebleed. In WtD, he didn't sing whole portions of some songs, instead putting a bucket over his head or some other such shenanigans.
 
This is really nothing new. Above all, he's an artist. He knows that it's pointless to just perfectly reproduce the music in a live setting. That's what the CD is for. In that way, their live show is more about ambience and atmosphere. It's a statement; a message. A visual representation of what he wants the audience to feel when listening to the music.
 
Bear in mind that touring is really fucking hard on everyone involved. They're all tired, probably jetlagged half the time, eating at weird times and having to perform the same songs constantly, and it becomes a drag. They're not going to be on top form every night. It certainly won't be perfect (this goes for practically any band). If he wants to dress up and bring some theatrics to break up the monotony, I say good for him. Let him have his fun.
 
Edit: Speaking of the MODE OF concerts, it would have been really nice if they had not been A KNOT exclusive. They're expensive as fuck. I would have bought most of them had they been £15-£20 a pop.

Honestly, I kind of agree with the 'if you want perfection, go listen to the studio albums' thing, but I really enjoy the band's live shows more than the albums, so in this case I want to see something astonishing when I watch the recordings. I don't care if they cannot reproduce all of the sounds that they use on the albums (the guitar and vocal layers, the synths, the samples, etc.): I just want to be able to watch a memorable performance that's not as cringe worthy as (for example) the one in Wacken 2007.
 
I still have faith! The 'MODE OF...' shows have some of the most outstanding vocal performances by him yet. From a technical standpoint, I think the 'Uroboros' one is the most balanced, but the 'Vulgar', 'Dum Spiro Spero', 'Kisou' and 'The Marrow of a Bone' ones have incredibly tight performances too (that performance of 'Ryoujoku no Ame' may be one of my favourite live performances ever!). 
 
Watching the 'Withering to Death' one, he sounds strained and really weary. As Ozileras10 said, 'Withering to Death' is the most emotional one, and to some extent, the 'Macabre' one has also a lot of dramatism going on that makes the overall performance amazing, but I think they don't feel as good as the others. I think it may have to do with the way Kyo interprets the old songs that weren't remade, because on the newer tracks he sounds better (he really nails the new version of 'Rasetsukoku', which is also the last track). Or maybe it has to do with the emotional factor, and, as you said, the 'expressing myself' factor takes over the technical one. Regarding this, I think the 'Mode of Macabre' blends the drama and the good singing quite good.
 
Anyway, I still have high hopes for his future: for a man in his forties who has sustained a lot of  damage to his hearing, vocal chords, etc., it's a miracle he can even sing. Sometimes, he has average days; sometimes, he sounds amazing. The good thing is he doesn't seem to have any bad days (judging for this pro-shot live shows, of course). I still think that the band started to become really tight as a whole during 2011/12, with the 'Dum Spiro Spero' and 'Arche' shows at the Budokan being their finest moments. If the 'MODE OF' are an overall standard for what is to come and if Kyo can find the perfect balance between technique and emotion, then I'm more than happy.

https://vk.com/club558881?z=video-558881_456239644%2Fvideos-558881%2Fpl_-558881_-2

Mode of Macabre

Yeah sorry but there is nothing brilliant about self-harm.

Sadly, it is not an hypothesis. I just casually  saw this picture posted on an audio-engineering Facebook page, and it comes in very handy:
 

 
As Saishu said, Shinya is playing the drums, but the hits are triggered. This can be done in real time or during the pre-mixing stage.  Also, keep in mind that most drum takes are edited before the mixing process: this means replacing bad hits with good hits, fixing playing problems or joining different takes (it's like copy-paste, but with audio). No matter how tight you are, some editing is going to happen. With triggering/sampling and editing, you get really tight and almost perfect takes, something that's really common in modern mainstream rock/metal music (hell, even the guitars are heavy edited...).
 
The best thing you can do in order to notice this is to listen to the song and just focus on one of the drums and try and notice how many different types of hits are there. I'd suggest to focus on the kick drum, which is arguably the most triggered drum ever. You'll notice that it always sound the same, thanks to triggering, editing and, of course, compression: the dynamics are (almost) dead.
 
This whole trend of using samples instead of real drums in rock/metal started in the mid 90s with producers such as Andy Sneap. For this kind of producers, the natural drum sound isn't enough to cut through the mix, specially with the mid-boosted guitars that became a norm in that era within the metal genre (especially on extreme metal). Thanks to this, 90% of modern rock/metal has triggered drums. Just check out any mainstream metal record from the mid 00s and you'll notice this. Since the end of the 90s, most metal producers started adopting this technique, and it became a norm in the industry (sucks to use that word to refer to something we all love, but sadly, music is a biggest industry). Add the 'loudness war' to the equation, and you have an stereotypical mainstream metal mix as a result. Of course, taste is everything: I sometimes enjoy it, because it makes everything sound clystar clear and perfect; sometimes, I want to hear something more natural. It really depends on the genre (for example, a Neurosis record with this kind of clean and sterile vision wouldn't feel right). To me, blending is the ideal, but it is very hard to achieve, especially on modern metal.
 
Back to Dir en grey, just look at what happened to 'Uroboros' (the original version): that's maybe the realest drum sound on a Dir en grey album to date, with either really tight playing and/or an amazing drum editing. For me, it is great and really makes the band and the album stand out from its contemporaries. For others, it's simply unhearable, and that seemed to be the opinion of the band, or anyone who manages/produces the band (record label maybe?). Thus, we have that remix/remaster edition of the album where every drum hit is replaced with mechanical and sterile samples. And don't get me started on the reamped guitars...
 
I agree: the Korn-like bass sound wasn't my cup of tea, but this new sound clashes with the bass-heavy guitars and makes it almost unhearable. Would love for the instrument to distinguish themselves from each other.
 
If comparing it to 'The Marrow of a Bone', yes, it is an improvement. The thing is that if you want the bass to have more presence, you need to adjust the EQ of the guitars in order to let it shine. This means enhancing the mids! Enhancing the highs/trebles clashes with the cymbals; enhancing the bass clashes with the bass drum, the toms and the bass guitar. In this mix, they scooped the mids and highs/trebles and boosted the bass, so it is natural that the bass guitar and the guitars' frequencies clashes, especially when using downtuned 7-string guitars.
 
The single version of 'Hageshisa...' has the best distorted rhythm guitar sound that the band has ever had, at least on their 'extreme metal' era. It just sounds really big and 'meaty'. Compare it to the sound the same song has on 'Dum Spiro Spero'.
 
That's an interesting theory! Dir en grey became a tight band during the end of the' Dum Spiro Spero' era. Shinya was, without a doubt, the most virtuous and tight member of them all. Toshiya followed closely; Die and Kaoru were really sloppy, and Kyo... Well, just watch the 'Uroboros -With the Proof...-' DVD (although in studio he was great!). The remix/remaster has triggered drums, reamped guitars and a clear sound that makes everything sound really plastic (which means getting rid of everything that is or sounds like a mistake -with the modern metal production we talked about before used as the standard-). I think they tried to match the quality of 'Dum Spiro Spero' and then failed at it. 
 
Regarding Tue Madsen, he's not one of my favourite producers: he's one of the many that jumped on the same wagon as Andy Sneap, but maybe a little more versatile. I'm thinking of nice sounding albums like Extol's 'The Blueprint Dives, The Haunted's 'Unseen' (I KNOW! But I really like this album...) and Meshuggah's 'The Violent Sleep of Reason' (especially this one, which was supposedly recored in a true analog way -I have my doubts...-). The only thing I cannot always tolerate is how mid-centric most of his albums sound, lacking some extra bass frequencies punch. This makes a lot of his recordings sound really thin. Thankfully, 'Dum Spiro Spero' sounds quite good, but the 'Uroboros' remix/remaster, suffers from that problem.
 
I stick to my theory: the band, being self-produced, may be to blame. However, I prefer them having a total control of the creative process and badly mixed albums than little to none control of their art and with masterfuly mixed records.
 
 
I totally agree!!! Shinya is a mystery to me. As fragile and graceful as he looks, sometimes it looks like he's hitting the drums like a bull! I really like how the band sounds live since the 'Dum Spiro Spero At Nippon Budokan' show. On that show and on 'Arche At Nippon Budokan', Shinya's drums sound great (a perfect blend between the real drum sound and the samples that are triggered live), and the hard panning of Kaoru and Die's guitars leave a lot of space for the bass guitar to shine (it is also a nice touch for us fans: you can really tell who is playing each part of the song).
 
I feel like on the 'FROM DEPRESSION TO...' shows they have become one of the best live bands in the world. They are getting tighter each day, have amazing setlist, are talented musicians, have good songs with clever structures and progressive elements and also are a really interesting band to watch perform. And most importantly, they sound REALLY good. To be honest, nowadays I prefer to watch the live shows than to listen to the albums.
 
 
 

https://vk.com/club558881?z=video-558881_456239642%2Fvideos-558881%2Fpl_-558881_-2 - Mode of Withering to Death

Sounds interesting. I like the guitar solo and the ethereal/post-rockish vibe of the song. Reminds me of the calmer parts of 'Different Sense' mixed with one of the most atmospheric songs of 'ARCHE', like 'Tousei' or 'Kaishun'. I just hope that's not the true ending of the song: feels to abrupt (but well, better wait for the full song to judge that).
 
Seems that the song isn't 'Ranunculus', which was reported to be the calmest one on the album. So, one thing for sure, 'The Insulated World' is going to have variety like 'ARCHE'. I was fearing they were going back to a predominance of the 'nu-metal grooves', but seems 'Ningen...' plays the same role as 'Sustain the Untruth' did before. Just hope the singles have at least a better mastering that glues them together to the overall feel of the album.
 
This makes me really excited: whish they could release the samples already!

Sadly, it is not an hypothesis. I just casually  saw this picture posted on an audio-engineering Facebook page, and it comes in very handy:
 

 
As Saishu said, Shinya is playing the drums, but the hits are triggered. This can be done in real time or during the pre-mixing stage.  Also, keep in mind that most drum takes are edited before the mixing process: this means replacing bad hits with good hits, fixing playing problems or joining different takes (it's like copy-paste, but with audio). No matter how tight you are, some editing is going to happen. With triggering/sampling and editing, you get really tight and almost perfect takes, something that's really common in modern mainstream rock/metal music (hell, even the guitars are heavy edited...).
 
The best thing you can do in order to notice this is to listen to the song and just focus on one of the drums and try and notice how many different types of hits are there. I'd suggest to focus on the kick drum, which is arguably the most triggered drum ever. You'll notice that it always sound the same, thanks to triggering, editing and, of course, compression: the dynamics are (almost) dead.
 
This whole trend of using samples instead of real drums in rock/metal started in the mid 90s with producers such as Andy Sneap. For this kind of producers, the natural drum sound isn't enough to cut through the mix, specially with the mid-boosted guitars that became a norm in that era within the metal genre (especially on extreme metal). Thanks to this, 90% of modern rock/metal has triggered drums. Just check out any mainstream metal record from the mid 00s and you'll notice this. Since the end of the 90s, most metal producers started adopting this technique, and it became a norm in the industry (sucks to use that word to refer to something we all love, but sadly, music is a biggest industry). Add the 'loudness war' to the equation, and you have an stereotypical mainstream metal mix as a result. Of course, taste is everything: I sometimes enjoy it, because it makes everything sound clystar clear and perfect; sometimes, I want to hear something more natural. It really depends on the genre (for example, a Neurosis record with this kind of clean and sterile vision wouldn't feel right). To me, blending is the ideal, but it is very hard to achieve, especially on modern metal.
 
Back to Dir en grey, just look at what happened to 'Uroboros' (the original version): that's maybe the realest drum sound on a Dir en grey album to date, with either really tight playing and/or an amazing drum editing. For me, it is great and really makes the band and the album stand out from its contemporaries. For others, it's simply unhearable, and that seemed to be the opinion of the band, or anyone who manages/produces the band (record label maybe?). Thus, we have that remix/remaster edition of the album where every drum hit is replaced with mechanical and sterile samples. And don't get me started on the reamped guitars...
 
I agree: the Korn-like bass sound wasn't my cup of tea, but this new sound clashes with the bass-heavy guitars and makes it almost unhearable. Would love for the instrument to distinguish themselves from each other.
 
If comparing it to 'The Marrow of a Bone', yes, it is an improvement. The thing is that if you want the bass to have more presence, you need to adjust the EQ of the guitars in order to let it shine. This means enhancing the mids! Enhancing the highs/trebles clashes with the cymbals; enhancing the bass clashes with the bass drum, the toms and the bass guitar. In this mix, they scooped the mids and highs/trebles and boosted the bass, so it is natural that the bass guitar and the guitars' frequencies clashes, especially when using downtuned 7-string guitars.
 
The single version of 'Hageshisa...' has the best distorted rhythm guitar sound that the band has ever had, at least on their 'extreme metal' era. It just sounds really big and 'meaty'. Compare it to the sound the same song has on 'Dum Spiro Spero'.
 
That's an interesting theory! Dir en grey became a tight band during the end of the' Dum Spiro Spero' era. Shinya was, without a doubt, the most virtuous and tight member of them all. Toshiya followed closely; Die and Kaoru were really sloppy, and Kyo... Well, just watch the 'Uroboros -With the Proof...-' DVD (although in studio he was great!). The remix/remaster has triggered drums, reamped guitars and a clear sound that makes everything sound really plastic (which means getting rid of everything that is or sounds like a mistake -with the modern metal production we talked about before used as the standard-). I think they tried to match the quality of 'Dum Spiro Spero' and then failed at it. 
 
Regarding Tue Madsen, he's not one of my favourite producers: he's one of the many that jumped on the same wagon as Andy Sneap, but maybe a little more versatile. I'm thinking of nice sounding albums like Extol's 'The Blueprint Dives, The Haunted's 'Unseen' (I KNOW! But I really like this album...) and Meshuggah's 'The Violent Sleep of Reason' (especially this one, which was supposedly recored in a true analog way -I have my doubts...-). The only thing I cannot always tolerate is how mid-centric most of his albums sound, lacking some extra bass frequencies punch. This makes a lot of his recordings sound really thin. Thankfully, 'Dum Spiro Spero' sounds quite good, but the 'Uroboros' remix/remaster, suffers from that problem.
 
I stick to my theory: the band, being self-produced, may be to blame. However, I prefer them having a total control of the creative process and badly mixed albums than little to none control of their art and with masterfuly mixed records.
 
 
I totally agree!!! Shinya is a mystery to me. As fragile and graceful as he looks, sometimes it looks like he's hitting the drums like a bull! I really like how the band sounds live since the 'Dum Spiro Spero At Nippon Budokan' show. On that show and on 'Arche At Nippon Budokan', Shinya's drums sound great (a perfect blend between the real drum sound and the samples that are triggered live), and the hard panning of Kaoru and Die's guitars leave a lot of space for the bass guitar to shine (it is also a nice touch for us fans: you can really tell who is playing each part of the song).
 
I feel like on the 'FROM DEPRESSION TO...' shows they have become one of the best live bands in the world. They are getting tighter each day, have amazing setlist, are talented musicians, have good songs with clever structures and progressive elements and also are a really interesting band to watch perform. And most importantly, they sound REALLY good. To be honest, nowadays I prefer to watch the live shows than to listen to the albums.
 
 
 

Sadly, it is not an hypothesis. I just casually  saw this picture posted on an audio-engineering Facebook page, and it comes in very handy:
 

 
As Saishu said, Shinya is playing the drums, but the hits are triggered. This can be done in real time or during the pre-mixing stage.  Also, keep in mind that most drum takes are edited before the mixing process: this means replacing bad hits with good hits, fixing playing problems or joining different takes (it's like copy-paste, but with audio). No matter how tight you are, some editing is going to happen. With triggering/sampling and editing, you get really tight and almost perfect takes, something that's really common in modern mainstream rock/metal music (hell, even the guitars are heavy edited...).
 
The best thing you can do in order to notice this is to listen to the song and just focus on one of the drums and try and notice how many different types of hits are there. I'd suggest to focus on the kick drum, which is arguably the most triggered drum ever. You'll notice that it always sound the same, thanks to triggering, editing and, of course, compression: the dynamics are (almost) dead.
 
This whole trend of using samples instead of real drums in rock/metal started in the mid 90s with producers such as Andy Sneap. For this kind of producers, the natural drum sound isn't enough to cut through the mix, specially with the mid-boosted guitars that became a norm in that era within the metal genre (especially on extreme metal). Thanks to this, 90% of modern rock/metal has triggered drums. Just check out any mainstream metal record from the mid 00s and you'll notice this. Since the end of the 90s, most metal producers started adopting this technique, and it became a norm in the industry (sucks to use that word to refer to something we all love, but sadly, music is a biggest industry). Add the 'loudness war' to the equation, and you have an stereotypical mainstream metal mix as a result. Of course, taste is everything: I sometimes enjoy it, because it makes everything sound clystar clear and perfect; sometimes, I want to hear something more natural. It really depends on the genre (for example, a Neurosis record with this kind of clean and sterile vision wouldn't feel right). To me, blending is the ideal, but it is very hard to achieve, especially on modern metal.
 
Back to Dir en grey, just look at what happened to 'Uroboros' (the original version): that's maybe the realest drum sound on a Dir en grey album to date, with either really tight playing and/or an amazing drum editing. For me, it is great and really makes the band and the album stand out from its contemporaries. For others, it's simply unhearable, and that seemed to be the opinion of the band, or anyone who manages/produces the band (record label maybe?). Thus, we have that remix/remaster edition of the album where every drum hit is replaced with mechanical and sterile samples. And don't get me started on the reamped guitars...
 
I agree: the Korn-like bass sound wasn't my cup of tea, but this new sound clashes with the bass-heavy guitars and makes it almost unhearable. Would love for the instrument to distinguish themselves from each other.
 
If comparing it to 'The Marrow of a Bone', yes, it is an improvement. The thing is that if you want the bass to have more presence, you need to adjust the EQ of the guitars in order to let it shine. This means enhancing the mids! Enhancing the highs/trebles clashes with the cymbals; enhancing the bass clashes with the bass drum, the toms and the bass guitar. In this mix, they scooped the mids and highs/trebles and boosted the bass, so it is natural that the bass guitar and the guitars' frequencies clashes, especially when using downtuned 7-string guitars.
 
The single version of 'Hageshisa...' has the best distorted rhythm guitar sound that the band has ever had, at least on their 'extreme metal' era. It just sounds really big and 'meaty'. Compare it to the sound the same song has on 'Dum Spiro Spero'.
 
That's an interesting theory! Dir en grey became a tight band during the end of the' Dum Spiro Spero' era. Shinya was, without a doubt, the most virtuous and tight member of them all. Toshiya followed closely; Die and Kaoru were really sloppy, and Kyo... Well, just watch the 'Uroboros -With the Proof...-' DVD (although in studio he was great!). The remix/remaster has triggered drums, reamped guitars and a clear sound that makes everything sound really plastic (which means getting rid of everything that is or sounds like a mistake -with the modern metal production we talked about before used as the standard-). I think they tried to match the quality of 'Dum Spiro Spero' and then failed at it. 
 
Regarding Tue Madsen, he's not one of my favourite producers: he's one of the many that jumped on the same wagon as Andy Sneap, but maybe a little more versatile. I'm thinking of nice sounding albums like Extol's 'The Blueprint Dives, The Haunted's 'Unseen' (I KNOW! But I really like this album...) and Meshuggah's 'The Violent Sleep of Reason' (especially this one, which was supposedly recored in a true analog way -I have my doubts...-). The only thing I cannot always tolerate is how mid-centric most of his albums sound, lacking some extra bass frequencies punch. This makes a lot of his recordings sound really thin. Thankfully, 'Dum Spiro Spero' sounds quite good, but the 'Uroboros' remix/remaster, suffers from that problem.
 
I stick to my theory: the band, being self-produced, may be to blame. However, I prefer them having a total control of the creative process and badly mixed albums than little to none control of their art and with masterfuly mixed records.
 
 
I totally agree!!! Shinya is a mystery to me. As fragile and graceful as he looks, sometimes it looks like he's hitting the drums like a bull! I really like how the band sounds live since the 'Dum Spiro Spero At Nippon Budokan' show. On that show and on 'Arche At Nippon Budokan', Shinya's drums sound great (a perfect blend between the real drum sound and the samples that are triggered live), and the hard panning of Kaoru and Die's guitars leave a lot of space for the bass guitar to shine (it is also a nice touch for us fans: you can really tell who is playing each part of the song).
 
I feel like on the 'FROM DEPRESSION TO...' shows they have become one of the best live bands in the world. They are getting tighter each day, have amazing setlist, are talented musicians, have good songs with clever structures and progressive elements and also are a really interesting band to watch perform. And most importantly, they sound REALLY good. To be honest, nowadays I prefer to watch the live shows than to listen to the albums.
 
 
 

From an audio engineering point of view (mixing/mastering process), there's a lot of things that I don't like:
 
-Drums have a lot of problems. The triggering is becoming more and more mechanic with every release. Just check out how the snare sample behaves whenever there are some snare rolls or fills happening. That's a really serious issue that almost every mid-tier triggering software can solve (even with Drumagog you can get a better and more natural snare sound). Beyond that, I really like the snare sample, much better than the one used in 'ARHCE'.  Bass drum is OK: I'm not a big fan of the 'typewriter ' sound, but it works on this song. Toms are the worst of all: they sound mechanic and 'out of the mix'. When triggering, and if going for a 'natural sound', one should always try and get the full samples of a whole kit. On this single, it feels like it doesn't belong to the same drum kit as the rest of the samples. Maybe the engineer was using samples of a kit that didn't have rototoms and ended up using that sample. Anyway, it sounds really out of place. Also, cymbals have no presence whatsoever: they sound really weak and I have the sad feeling that they are also sampling them! 
 
-Bass is barely hearable. Really weird: they dropped entirely the Korn-esque sound they had on the last previous albums in favour of a more regular sound. You can hear it "pop" during the choruses, but it sounds really bad. This is a real mistery: I wasn't a big fan of how loud and mid-fueled it was on previous albums, but at least you could hear Toshiya's amazing and clever bass playing. Here it is non existant.
 
-Guitars sound horrible. I mean, not as horrible as the mid-scooped guitars in 'The Marrow of a Bone', but they still lack energy and presence. It's like they scooped mids and highs/trebles and boosted the shit out of the bass frequencies with a multi-band compressor. That way, it clashes with the poor bass sound and causes the whole mix to bloate. The cleans in the intro, on the other hand, sound really good. Too bad the dynamics are horrendous...
 
-Vocals sound good; my only complain would be the wide-panned vocal scream in the section after the second chorus. They clash with the guitars and overpower the rest of the mix. It sounds really unbalanced.
 
-Dynamics are TRASHED. Chorus has no dynamic impact, only emotional one (which is good but not enough). The song sounds very linear: just check out how the intro creates anticipation for the main riff but ends having no impact. The lack of DR destroys the build-ups. I would love a good WAV-rip of the song to measure the dynamic range, just to confirm my suspicions.
 
-Overall, it sounds 'over-processed' and over-compressed, a problem that was already present on 'ARCHE'. The thing is, somehow, here everything sounds sterile and opaque. I'm no mastering expert, so I cannot really say if this is an issue that could be solved with just a better mastering. Mastering can do wonders (for example, I once worked on a record that had really poor toms that where miraculously enhanced with mastering), but I think 'Ningen...' is a real mess. I really feel the song should be remixed from scratch.
 
From a music production point of view, there's just a couple of small things I do not enjoy; keep in mind this are more personal:
 
-The transition from the verse to the first chorus does not work. It does not have flow and feels really forced. On the other hand, the transition from the verse into the second chorus is flawless.
 
-The vocal layering on the second bridge sounds really bad. Same thing happens with the vocal layering on the section after the second chorus. I applaud the audicity to innovate, but I think the mixing does not favor it. It sounds badly recorded and the metrics feel wrong. 
 
 
Don't get me wrong: I really like the song and I am very excited for the new album, but I feel like the band could do so much better in terms of production and engineering. I hope there's a lot of variety in the thirteen songs, just like on Arche; I also hope the final product has a superb production and not an average/mediocre one. 
 
 

Sadly, it is not an hypothesis. I just casually  saw this picture posted on an audio-engineering Facebook page, and it comes in very handy:
 

 
As Saishu said, Shinya is playing the drums, but the hits are triggered. This can be done in real time or during the pre-mixing stage.  Also, keep in mind that most drum takes are edited before the mixing process: this means replacing bad hits with good hits, fixing playing problems or joining different takes (it's like copy-paste, but with audio). No matter how tight you are, some editing is going to happen. With triggering/sampling and editing, you get really tight and almost perfect takes, something that's really common in modern mainstream rock/metal music (hell, even the guitars are heavy edited...).
 
The best thing you can do in order to notice this is to listen to the song and just focus on one of the drums and try and notice how many different types of hits are there. I'd suggest to focus on the kick drum, which is arguably the most triggered drum ever. You'll notice that it always sound the same, thanks to triggering, editing and, of course, compression: the dynamics are (almost) dead.
 
This whole trend of using samples instead of real drums in rock/metal started in the mid 90s with producers such as Andy Sneap. For this kind of producers, the natural drum sound isn't enough to cut through the mix, specially with the mid-boosted guitars that became a norm in that era within the metal genre (especially on extreme metal). Thanks to this, 90% of modern rock/metal has triggered drums. Just check out any mainstream metal record from the mid 00s and you'll notice this. Since the end of the 90s, most metal producers started adopting this technique, and it became a norm in the industry (sucks to use that word to refer to something we all love, but sadly, music is a biggest industry). Add the 'loudness war' to the equation, and you have an stereotypical mainstream metal mix as a result. Of course, taste is everything: I sometimes enjoy it, because it makes everything sound clystar clear and perfect; sometimes, I want to hear something more natural. It really depends on the genre (for example, a Neurosis record with this kind of clean and sterile vision wouldn't feel right). To me, blending is the ideal, but it is very hard to achieve, especially on modern metal.
 
Back to Dir en grey, just look at what happened to 'Uroboros' (the original version): that's maybe the realest drum sound on a Dir en grey album to date, with either really tight playing and/or an amazing drum editing. For me, it is great and really makes the band and the album stand out from its contemporaries. For others, it's simply unhearable, and that seemed to be the opinion of the band, or anyone who manages/produces the band (record label maybe?). Thus, we have that remix/remaster edition of the album where every drum hit is replaced with mechanical and sterile samples. And don't get me started on the reamped guitars...
 
I agree: the Korn-like bass sound wasn't my cup of tea, but this new sound clashes with the bass-heavy guitars and makes it almost unhearable. Would love for the instrument to distinguish themselves from each other.
 
If comparing it to 'The Marrow of a Bone', yes, it is an improvement. The thing is that if you want the bass to have more presence, you need to adjust the EQ of the guitars in order to let it shine. This means enhancing the mids! Enhancing the highs/trebles clashes with the cymbals; enhancing the bass clashes with the bass drum, the toms and the bass guitar. In this mix, they scooped the mids and highs/trebles and boosted the bass, so it is natural that the bass guitar and the guitars' frequencies clashes, especially when using downtuned 7-string guitars.
 
The single version of 'Hageshisa...' has the best distorted rhythm guitar sound that the band has ever had, at least on their 'extreme metal' era. It just sounds really big and 'meaty'. Compare it to the sound the same song has on 'Dum Spiro Spero'.
 
That's an interesting theory! Dir en grey became a tight band during the end of the' Dum Spiro Spero' era. Shinya was, without a doubt, the most virtuous and tight member of them all. Toshiya followed closely; Die and Kaoru were really sloppy, and Kyo... Well, just watch the 'Uroboros -With the Proof...-' DVD (although in studio he was great!). The remix/remaster has triggered drums, reamped guitars and a clear sound that makes everything sound really plastic (which means getting rid of everything that is or sounds like a mistake -with the modern metal production we talked about before used as the standard-). I think they tried to match the quality of 'Dum Spiro Spero' and then failed at it. 
 
Regarding Tue Madsen, he's not one of my favourite producers: he's one of the many that jumped on the same wagon as Andy Sneap, but maybe a little more versatile. I'm thinking of nice sounding albums like Extol's 'The Blueprint Dives, The Haunted's 'Unseen' (I KNOW! But I really like this album...) and Meshuggah's 'The Violent Sleep of Reason' (especially this one, which was supposedly recored in a true analog way -I have my doubts...-). The only thing I cannot always tolerate is how mid-centric most of his albums sound, lacking some extra bass frequencies punch. This makes a lot of his recordings sound really thin. Thankfully, 'Dum Spiro Spero' sounds quite good, but the 'Uroboros' remix/remaster, suffers from that problem.
 
I stick to my theory: the band, being self-produced, may be to blame. However, I prefer them having a total control of the creative process and badly mixed albums than little to none control of their art and with masterfuly mixed records.
 
 
I totally agree!!! Shinya is a mystery to me. As fragile and graceful as he looks, sometimes it looks like he's hitting the drums like a bull! I really like how the band sounds live since the 'Dum Spiro Spero At Nippon Budokan' show. On that show and on 'Arche At Nippon Budokan', Shinya's drums sound great (a perfect blend between the real drum sound and the samples that are triggered live), and the hard panning of Kaoru and Die's guitars leave a lot of space for the bass guitar to shine (it is also a nice touch for us fans: you can really tell who is playing each part of the song).
 
I feel like on the 'FROM DEPRESSION TO...' shows they have become one of the best live bands in the world. They are getting tighter each day, have amazing setlist, are talented musicians, have good songs with clever structures and progressive elements and also are a really interesting band to watch perform. And most importantly, they sound REALLY good. To be honest, nowadays I prefer to watch the live shows than to listen to the albums.
 
 
 

Sadly, it is not an hypothesis. I just casually  saw this picture posted on an audio-engineering Facebook page, and it comes in very handy:
 

 
As Saishu said, Shinya is playing the drums, but the hits are triggered. This can be done in real time or during the pre-mixing stage.  Also, keep in mind that most drum takes are edited before the mixing process: this means replacing bad hits with good hits, fixing playing problems or joining different takes (it's like copy-paste, but with audio). No matter how tight you are, some editing is going to happen. With triggering/sampling and editing, you get really tight and almost perfect takes, something that's really common in modern mainstream rock/metal music (hell, even the guitars are heavy edited...).
 
The best thing you can do in order to notice this is to listen to the song and just focus on one of the drums and try and notice how many different types of hits are there. I'd suggest to focus on the kick drum, which is arguably the most triggered drum ever. You'll notice that it always sound the same, thanks to triggering, editing and, of course, compression: the dynamics are (almost) dead.
 
This whole trend of using samples instead of real drums in rock/metal started in the mid 90s with producers such as Andy Sneap. For this kind of producers, the natural drum sound isn't enough to cut through the mix, specially with the mid-boosted guitars that became a norm in that era within the metal genre (especially on extreme metal). Thanks to this, 90% of modern rock/metal has triggered drums. Just check out any mainstream metal record from the mid 00s and you'll notice this. Since the end of the 90s, most metal producers started adopting this technique, and it became a norm in the industry (sucks to use that word to refer to something we all love, but sadly, music is a biggest industry). Add the 'loudness war' to the equation, and you have an stereotypical mainstream metal mix as a result. Of course, taste is everything: I sometimes enjoy it, because it makes everything sound clystar clear and perfect; sometimes, I want to hear something more natural. It really depends on the genre (for example, a Neurosis record with this kind of clean and sterile vision wouldn't feel right). To me, blending is the ideal, but it is very hard to achieve, especially on modern metal.
 
Back to Dir en grey, just look at what happened to 'Uroboros' (the original version): that's maybe the realest drum sound on a Dir en grey album to date, with either really tight playing and/or an amazing drum editing. For me, it is great and really makes the band and the album stand out from its contemporaries. For others, it's simply unhearable, and that seemed to be the opinion of the band, or anyone who manages/produces the band (record label maybe?). Thus, we have that remix/remaster edition of the album where every drum hit is replaced with mechanical and sterile samples. And don't get me started on the reamped guitars...
 
I agree: the Korn-like bass sound wasn't my cup of tea, but this new sound clashes with the bass-heavy guitars and makes it almost unhearable. Would love for the instrument to distinguish themselves from each other.
 
If comparing it to 'The Marrow of a Bone', yes, it is an improvement. The thing is that if you want the bass to have more presence, you need to adjust the EQ of the guitars in order to let it shine. This means enhancing the mids! Enhancing the highs/trebles clashes with the cymbals; enhancing the bass clashes with the bass drum, the toms and the bass guitar. In this mix, they scooped the mids and highs/trebles and boosted the bass, so it is natural that the bass guitar and the guitars' frequencies clashes, especially when using downtuned 7-string guitars.
 
The single version of 'Hageshisa...' has the best distorted rhythm guitar sound that the band has ever had, at least on their 'extreme metal' era. It just sounds really big and 'meaty'. Compare it to the sound the same song has on 'Dum Spiro Spero'.
 
That's an interesting theory! Dir en grey became a tight band during the end of the' Dum Spiro Spero' era. Shinya was, without a doubt, the most virtuous and tight member of them all. Toshiya followed closely; Die and Kaoru were really sloppy, and Kyo... Well, just watch the 'Uroboros -With the Proof...-' DVD (although in studio he was great!). The remix/remaster has triggered drums, reamped guitars and a clear sound that makes everything sound really plastic (which means getting rid of everything that is or sounds like a mistake -with the modern metal production we talked about before used as the standard-). I think they tried to match the quality of 'Dum Spiro Spero' and then failed at it. 
 
Regarding Tue Madsen, he's not one of my favourite producers: he's one of the many that jumped on the same wagon as Andy Sneap, but maybe a little more versatile. I'm thinking of nice sounding albums like Extol's 'The Blueprint Dives, The Haunted's 'Unseen' (I KNOW! But I really like this album...) and Meshuggah's 'The Violent Sleep of Reason' (especially this one, which was supposedly recored in a true analog way -I have my doubts...-). The only thing I cannot always tolerate is how mid-centric most of his albums sound, lacking some extra bass frequencies punch. This makes a lot of his recordings sound really thin. Thankfully, 'Dum Spiro Spero' sounds quite good, but the 'Uroboros' remix/remaster, suffers from that problem.
 
I stick to my theory: the band, being self-produced, may be to blame. However, I prefer them having a total control of the creative process and badly mixed albums than little to none control of their art and with masterfuly mixed records.
 
 
I totally agree!!! Shinya is a mystery to me. As fragile and graceful as he looks, sometimes it looks like he's hitting the drums like a bull! I really like how the band sounds live since the 'Dum Spiro Spero At Nippon Budokan' show. On that show and on 'Arche At Nippon Budokan', Shinya's drums sound great (a perfect blend between the real drum sound and the samples that are triggered live), and the hard panning of Kaoru and Die's guitars leave a lot of space for the bass guitar to shine (it is also a nice touch for us fans: you can really tell who is playing each part of the song).
 
I feel like on the 'FROM DEPRESSION TO...' shows they have become one of the best live bands in the world. They are getting tighter each day, have amazing setlist, are talented musicians, have good songs with clever structures and progressive elements and also are a really interesting band to watch perform. And most importantly, they sound REALLY good. To be honest, nowadays I prefer to watch the live shows than to listen to the albums.
 
 
 

Sadly, it is not an hypothesis. I just casually  saw this picture posted on an audio-engineering Facebook page, and it comes in very handy:
 

 
As Saishu said, Shinya is playing the drums, but the hits are triggered. This can be done in real time or during the pre-mixing stage.  Also, keep in mind that most drum takes are edited before the mixing process: this means replacing bad hits with good hits, fixing playing problems or joining different takes (it's like copy-paste, but with audio). No matter how tight you are, some editing is going to happen. With triggering/sampling and editing, you get really tight and almost perfect takes, something that's really common in modern mainstream rock/metal music (hell, even the guitars are heavy edited...).
 
The best thing you can do in order to notice this is to listen to the song and just focus on one of the drums and try and notice how many different types of hits are there. I'd suggest to focus on the kick drum, which is arguably the most triggered drum ever. You'll notice that it always sound the same, thanks to triggering, editing and, of course, compression: the dynamics are (almost) dead.
 
This whole trend of using samples instead of real drums in rock/metal started in the mid 90s with producers such as Andy Sneap. For this kind of producers, the natural drum sound isn't enough to cut through the mix, specially with the mid-boosted guitars that became a norm in that era within the metal genre (especially on extreme metal). Thanks to this, 90% of modern rock/metal has triggered drums. Just check out any mainstream metal record from the mid 00s and you'll notice this. Since the end of the 90s, most metal producers started adopting this technique, and it became a norm in the industry (sucks to use that word to refer to something we all love, but sadly, music is a biggest industry). Add the 'loudness war' to the equation, and you have an stereotypical mainstream metal mix as a result. Of course, taste is everything: I sometimes enjoy it, because it makes everything sound clystar clear and perfect; sometimes, I want to hear something more natural. It really depends on the genre (for example, a Neurosis record with this kind of clean and sterile vision wouldn't feel right). To me, blending is the ideal, but it is very hard to achieve, especially on modern metal.
 
Back to Dir en grey, just look at what happened to 'Uroboros' (the original version): that's maybe the realest drum sound on a Dir en grey album to date, with either really tight playing and/or an amazing drum editing. For me, it is great and really makes the band and the album stand out from its contemporaries. For others, it's simply unhearable, and that seemed to be the opinion of the band, or anyone who manages/produces the band (record label maybe?). Thus, we have that remix/remaster edition of the album where every drum hit is replaced with mechanical and sterile samples. And don't get me started on the reamped guitars...
 
I agree: the Korn-like bass sound wasn't my cup of tea, but this new sound clashes with the bass-heavy guitars and makes it almost unhearable. Would love for the instrument to distinguish themselves from each other.
 
If comparing it to 'The Marrow of a Bone', yes, it is an improvement. The thing is that if you want the bass to have more presence, you need to adjust the EQ of the guitars in order to let it shine. This means enhancing the mids! Enhancing the highs/trebles clashes with the cymbals; enhancing the bass clashes with the bass drum, the toms and the bass guitar. In this mix, they scooped the mids and highs/trebles and boosted the bass, so it is natural that the bass guitar and the guitars' frequencies clashes, especially when using downtuned 7-string guitars.
 
The single version of 'Hageshisa...' has the best distorted rhythm guitar sound that the band has ever had, at least on their 'extreme metal' era. It just sounds really big and 'meaty'. Compare it to the sound the same song has on 'Dum Spiro Spero'.
 
That's an interesting theory! Dir en grey became a tight band during the end of the' Dum Spiro Spero' era. Shinya was, without a doubt, the most virtuous and tight member of them all. Toshiya followed closely; Die and Kaoru were really sloppy, and Kyo... Well, just watch the 'Uroboros -With the Proof...-' DVD (although in studio he was great!). The remix/remaster has triggered drums, reamped guitars and a clear sound that makes everything sound really plastic (which means getting rid of everything that is or sounds like a mistake -with the modern metal production we talked about before used as the standard-). I think they tried to match the quality of 'Dum Spiro Spero' and then failed at it. 
 
Regarding Tue Madsen, he's not one of my favourite producers: he's one of the many that jumped on the same wagon as Andy Sneap, but maybe a little more versatile. I'm thinking of nice sounding albums like Extol's 'The Blueprint Dives, The Haunted's 'Unseen' (I KNOW! But I really like this album...) and Meshuggah's 'The Violent Sleep of Reason' (especially this one, which was supposedly recored in a true analog way -I have my doubts...-). The only thing I cannot always tolerate is how mid-centric most of his albums sound, lacking some extra bass frequencies punch. This makes a lot of his recordings sound really thin. Thankfully, 'Dum Spiro Spero' sounds quite good, but the 'Uroboros' remix/remaster, suffers from that problem.
 
I stick to my theory: the band, being self-produced, may be to blame. However, I prefer them having a total control of the creative process and badly mixed albums than little to none control of their art and with masterfuly mixed records.
 
 
I totally agree!!! Shinya is a mystery to me. As fragile and graceful as he looks, sometimes it looks like he's hitting the drums like a bull! I really like how the band sounds live since the 'Dum Spiro Spero At Nippon Budokan' show. On that show and on 'Arche At Nippon Budokan', Shinya's drums sound great (a perfect blend between the real drum sound and the samples that are triggered live), and the hard panning of Kaoru and Die's guitars leave a lot of space for the bass guitar to shine (it is also a nice touch for us fans: you can really tell who is playing each part of the song).
 
I feel like on the 'FROM DEPRESSION TO...' shows they have become one of the best live bands in the world. They are getting tighter each day, have amazing setlist, are talented musicians, have good songs with clever structures and progressive elements and also are a really interesting band to watch perform. And most importantly, they sound REALLY good. To be honest, nowadays I prefer to watch the live shows than to listen to the albums.
 
 
 

Sadly, it is not an hypothesis. I just casually  saw this picture posted on an audio-engineering Facebook page, and it comes in very handy:
 

 
As Saishu said, Shinya is playing the drums, but the hits are triggered. This can be done in real time or during the pre-mixing stage.  Also, keep in mind that most drum takes are edited before the mixing process: this means replacing bad hits with good hits, fixing playing problems or joining different takes (it's like copy-paste, but with audio). No matter how tight you are, some editing is going to happen. With triggering/sampling and editing, you get really tight and almost perfect takes, something that's really common in modern mainstream rock/metal music (hell, even the guitars are heavy edited...).
 
The best thing you can do in order to notice this is to listen to the song and just focus on one of the drums and try and notice how many different types of hits are there. I'd suggest to focus on the kick drum, which is arguably the most triggered drum ever. You'll notice that it always sound the same, thanks to triggering, editing and, of course, compression: the dynamics are (almost) dead.
 
This whole trend of using samples instead of real drums in rock/metal started in the mid 90s with producers such as Andy Sneap. For this kind of producers, the natural drum sound isn't enough to cut through the mix, specially with the mid-boosted guitars that became a norm in that era within the metal genre (especially on extreme metal). Thanks to this, 90% of modern rock/metal has triggered drums. Just check out any mainstream metal record from the mid 00s and you'll notice this. Since the end of the 90s, most metal producers started adopting this technique, and it became a norm in the industry (sucks to use that word to refer to something we all love, but sadly, music is a biggest industry). Add the 'loudness war' to the equation, and you have an stereotypical mainstream metal mix as a result. Of course, taste is everything: I sometimes enjoy it, because it makes everything sound clystar clear and perfect; sometimes, I want to hear something more natural. It really depends on the genre (for example, a Neurosis record with this kind of clean and sterile vision wouldn't feel right). To me, blending is the ideal, but it is very hard to achieve, especially on modern metal.
 
Back to Dir en grey, just look at what happened to 'Uroboros' (the original version): that's maybe the realest drum sound on a Dir en grey album to date, with either really tight playing and/or an amazing drum editing. For me, it is great and really makes the band and the album stand out from its contemporaries. For others, it's simply unhearable, and that seemed to be the opinion of the band, or anyone who manages/produces the band (record label maybe?). Thus, we have that remix/remaster edition of the album where every drum hit is replaced with mechanical and sterile samples. And don't get me started on the reamped guitars...
 
I agree: the Korn-like bass sound wasn't my cup of tea, but this new sound clashes with the bass-heavy guitars and makes it almost unhearable. Would love for the instrument to distinguish themselves from each other.
 
If comparing it to 'The Marrow of a Bone', yes, it is an improvement. The thing is that if you want the bass to have more presence, you need to adjust the EQ of the guitars in order to let it shine. This means enhancing the mids! Enhancing the highs/trebles clashes with the cymbals; enhancing the bass clashes with the bass drum, the toms and the bass guitar. In this mix, they scooped the mids and highs/trebles and boosted the bass, so it is natural that the bass guitar and the guitars' frequencies clashes, especially when using downtuned 7-string guitars.
 
The single version of 'Hageshisa...' has the best distorted rhythm guitar sound that the band has ever had, at least on their 'extreme metal' era. It just sounds really big and 'meaty'. Compare it to the sound the same song has on 'Dum Spiro Spero'.
 
That's an interesting theory! Dir en grey became a tight band during the end of the' Dum Spiro Spero' era. Shinya was, without a doubt, the most virtuous and tight member of them all. Toshiya followed closely; Die and Kaoru were really sloppy, and Kyo... Well, just watch the 'Uroboros -With the Proof...-' DVD (although in studio he was great!). The remix/remaster has triggered drums, reamped guitars and a clear sound that makes everything sound really plastic (which means getting rid of everything that is or sounds like a mistake -with the modern metal production we talked about before used as the standard-). I think they tried to match the quality of 'Dum Spiro Spero' and then failed at it. 
 
Regarding Tue Madsen, he's not one of my favourite producers: he's one of the many that jumped on the same wagon as Andy Sneap, but maybe a little more versatile. I'm thinking of nice sounding albums like Extol's 'The Blueprint Dives, The Haunted's 'Unseen' (I KNOW! But I really like this album...) and Meshuggah's 'The Violent Sleep of Reason' (especially this one, which was supposedly recored in a true analog way -I have my doubts...-). The only thing I cannot always tolerate is how mid-centric most of his albums sound, lacking some extra bass frequencies punch. This makes a lot of his recordings sound really thin. Thankfully, 'Dum Spiro Spero' sounds quite good, but the 'Uroboros' remix/remaster, suffers from that problem.
 
I stick to my theory: the band, being self-produced, may be to blame. However, I prefer them having a total control of the creative process and badly mixed albums than little to none control of their art and with masterfuly mixed records.
 
 
I totally agree!!! Shinya is a mystery to me. As fragile and graceful as he looks, sometimes it looks like he's hitting the drums like a bull! I really like how the band sounds live since the 'Dum Spiro Spero At Nippon Budokan' show. On that show and on 'Arche At Nippon Budokan', Shinya's drums sound great (a perfect blend between the real drum sound and the samples that are triggered live), and the hard panning of Kaoru and Die's guitars leave a lot of space for the bass guitar to shine (it is also a nice touch for us fans: you can really tell who is playing each part of the song).
 
I feel like on the 'FROM DEPRESSION TO...' shows they have become one of the best live bands in the world. They are getting tighter each day, have amazing setlist, are talented musicians, have good songs with clever structures and progressive elements and also are a really interesting band to watch perform. And most importantly, they sound REALLY good. To be honest, nowadays I prefer to watch the live shows than to listen to the albums.
 
 
 

From an audio engineering point of view (mixing/mastering process), there's a lot of things that I don't like:
 
-Drums have a lot of problems. The triggering is becoming more and more mechanic with every release. Just check out how the snare sample behaves whenever there are some snare rolls or fills happening. That's a really serious issue that almost every mid-tier triggering software can solve (even with Drumagog you can get a better and more natural snare sound). Beyond that, I really like the snare sample, much better than the one used in 'ARHCE'.  Bass drum is OK: I'm not a big fan of the 'typewriter ' sound, but it works on this song. Toms are the worst of all: they sound mechanic and 'out of the mix'. When triggering, and if going for a 'natural sound', one should always try and get the full samples of a whole kit. On this single, it feels like it doesn't belong to the same drum kit as the rest of the samples. Maybe the engineer was using samples of a kit that didn't have rototoms and ended up using that sample. Anyway, it sounds really out of place. Also, cymbals have no presence whatsoever: they sound really weak and I have the sad feeling that they are also sampling them! 
 
-Bass is barely hearable. Really weird: they dropped entirely the Korn-esque sound they had on the last previous albums in favour of a more regular sound. You can hear it "pop" during the choruses, but it sounds really bad. This is a real mistery: I wasn't a big fan of how loud and mid-fueled it was on previous albums, but at least you could hear Toshiya's amazing and clever bass playing. Here it is non existant.
 
-Guitars sound horrible. I mean, not as horrible as the mid-scooped guitars in 'The Marrow of a Bone', but they still lack energy and presence. It's like they scooped mids and highs/trebles and boosted the shit out of the bass frequencies with a multi-band compressor. That way, it clashes with the poor bass sound and causes the whole mix to bloate. The cleans in the intro, on the other hand, sound really good. Too bad the dynamics are horrendous...
 
-Vocals sound good; my only complain would be the wide-panned vocal scream in the section after the second chorus. They clash with the guitars and overpower the rest of the mix. It sounds really unbalanced.
 
-Dynamics are TRASHED. Chorus has no dynamic impact, only emotional one (which is good but not enough). The song sounds very linear: just check out how the intro creates anticipation for the main riff but ends having no impact. The lack of DR destroys the build-ups. I would love a good WAV-rip of the song to measure the dynamic range, just to confirm my suspicions.
 
-Overall, it sounds 'over-processed' and over-compressed, a problem that was already present on 'ARCHE'. The thing is, somehow, here everything sounds sterile and opaque. I'm no mastering expert, so I cannot really say if this is an issue that could be solved with just a better mastering. Mastering can do wonders (for example, I once worked on a record that had really poor toms that where miraculously enhanced with mastering), but I think 'Ningen...' is a real mess. I really feel the song should be remixed from scratch.
 
From a music production point of view, there's just a couple of small things I do not enjoy; keep in mind this are more personal:
 
-The transition from the verse to the first chorus does not work. It does not have flow and feels really forced. On the other hand, the transition from the verse into the second chorus is flawless.
 
-The vocal layering on the second bridge sounds really bad. Same thing happens with the vocal layering on the section after the second chorus. I applaud the audicity to innovate, but I think the mixing does not favor it. It sounds badly recorded and the metrics feel wrong. 
 
 
Don't get me wrong: I really like the song and I am very excited for the new album, but I feel like the band could do so much better in terms of production and engineering. I hope there's a lot of variety in the thirteen songs, just like on Arche; I also hope the final product has a superb production and not an average/mediocre one. 
 
 

From an audio engineering point of view (mixing/mastering process), there's a lot of things that I don't like:
 
-Drums have a lot of problems. The triggering is becoming more and more mechanic with every release. Just check out how the snare sample behaves whenever there are some snare rolls or fills happening. That's a really serious issue that almost every mid-tier triggering software can solve (even with Drumagog you can get a better and more natural snare sound). Beyond that, I really like the snare sample, much better than the one used in 'ARHCE'.  Bass drum is OK: I'm not a big fan of the 'typewriter ' sound, but it works on this song. Toms are the worst of all: they sound mechanic and 'out of the mix'. When triggering, and if going for a 'natural sound', one should always try and get the full samples of a whole kit. On this single, it feels like it doesn't belong to the same drum kit as the rest of the samples. Maybe the engineer was using samples of a kit that didn't have rototoms and ended up using that sample. Anyway, it sounds really out of place. Also, cymbals have no presence whatsoever: they sound really weak and I have the sad feeling that they are also sampling them! 
 
-Bass is barely hearable. Really weird: they dropped entirely the Korn-esque sound they had on the last previous albums in favour of a more regular sound. You can hear it "pop" during the choruses, but it sounds really bad. This is a real mistery: I wasn't a big fan of how loud and mid-fueled it was on previous albums, but at least you could hear Toshiya's amazing and clever bass playing. Here it is non existant.
 
-Guitars sound horrible. I mean, not as horrible as the mid-scooped guitars in 'The Marrow of a Bone', but they still lack energy and presence. It's like they scooped mids and highs/trebles and boosted the shit out of the bass frequencies with a multi-band compressor. That way, it clashes with the poor bass sound and causes the whole mix to bloate. The cleans in the intro, on the other hand, sound really good. Too bad the dynamics are horrendous...
 
-Vocals sound good; my only complain would be the wide-panned vocal scream in the section after the second chorus. They clash with the guitars and overpower the rest of the mix. It sounds really unbalanced.
 
-Dynamics are TRASHED. Chorus has no dynamic impact, only emotional one (which is good but not enough). The song sounds very linear: just check out how the intro creates anticipation for the main riff but ends having no impact. The lack of DR destroys the build-ups. I would love a good WAV-rip of the song to measure the dynamic range, just to confirm my suspicions.
 
-Overall, it sounds 'over-processed' and over-compressed, a problem that was already present on 'ARCHE'. The thing is, somehow, here everything sounds sterile and opaque. I'm no mastering expert, so I cannot really say if this is an issue that could be solved with just a better mastering. Mastering can do wonders (for example, I once worked on a record that had really poor toms that where miraculously enhanced with mastering), but I think 'Ningen...' is a real mess. I really feel the song should be remixed from scratch.
 
From a music production point of view, there's just a couple of small things I do not enjoy; keep in mind this are more personal:
 
-The transition from the verse to the first chorus does not work. It does not have flow and feels really forced. On the other hand, the transition from the verse into the second chorus is flawless.
 
-The vocal layering on the second bridge sounds really bad. Same thing happens with the vocal layering on the section after the second chorus. I applaud the audicity to innovate, but I think the mixing does not favor it. It sounds badly recorded and the metrics feel wrong. 
 
 
Don't get me wrong: I really like the song and I am very excited for the new album, but I feel like the band could do so much better in terms of production and engineering. I hope there's a lot of variety in the thirteen songs, just like on Arche; I also hope the final product has a superb production and not an average/mediocre one. 
 
 

From an audio engineering point of view (mixing/mastering process), there's a lot of things that I don't like:
 
-Drums have a lot of problems. The triggering is becoming more and more mechanic with every release. Just check out how the snare sample behaves whenever there are some snare rolls or fills happening. That's a really serious issue that almost every mid-tier triggering software can solve (even with Drumagog you can get a better and more natural snare sound). Beyond that, I really like the snare sample, much better than the one used in 'ARHCE'.  Bass drum is OK: I'm not a big fan of the 'typewriter ' sound, but it works on this song. Toms are the worst of all: they sound mechanic and 'out of the mix'. When triggering, and if going for a 'natural sound', one should always try and get the full samples of a whole kit. On this single, it feels like it doesn't belong to the same drum kit as the rest of the samples. Maybe the engineer was using samples of a kit that didn't have rototoms and ended up using that sample. Anyway, it sounds really out of place. Also, cymbals have no presence whatsoever: they sound really weak and I have the sad feeling that they are also sampling them! 
 
-Bass is barely hearable. Really weird: they dropped entirely the Korn-esque sound they had on the last previous albums in favour of a more regular sound. You can hear it "pop" during the choruses, but it sounds really bad. This is a real mistery: I wasn't a big fan of how loud and mid-fueled it was on previous albums, but at least you could hear Toshiya's amazing and clever bass playing. Here it is non existant.
 
-Guitars sound horrible. I mean, not as horrible as the mid-scooped guitars in 'The Marrow of a Bone', but they still lack energy and presence. It's like they scooped mids and highs/trebles and boosted the shit out of the bass frequencies with a multi-band compressor. That way, it clashes with the poor bass sound and causes the whole mix to bloate. The cleans in the intro, on the other hand, sound really good. Too bad the dynamics are horrendous...
 
-Vocals sound good; my only complain would be the wide-panned vocal scream in the section after the second chorus. They clash with the guitars and overpower the rest of the mix. It sounds really unbalanced.
 
-Dynamics are TRASHED. Chorus has no dynamic impact, only emotional one (which is good but not enough). The song sounds very linear: just check out how the intro creates anticipation for the main riff but ends having no impact. The lack of DR destroys the build-ups. I would love a good WAV-rip of the song to measure the dynamic range, just to confirm my suspicions.
 
-Overall, it sounds 'over-processed' and over-compressed, a problem that was already present on 'ARCHE'. The thing is, somehow, here everything sounds sterile and opaque. I'm no mastering expert, so I cannot really say if this is an issue that could be solved with just a better mastering. Mastering can do wonders (for example, I once worked on a record that had really poor toms that where miraculously enhanced with mastering), but I think 'Ningen...' is a real mess. I really feel the song should be remixed from scratch.
 
From a music production point of view, there's just a couple of small things I do not enjoy; keep in mind this are more personal:
 
-The transition from the verse to the first chorus does not work. It does not have flow and feels really forced. On the other hand, the transition from the verse into the second chorus is flawless.
 
-The vocal layering on the second bridge sounds really bad. Same thing happens with the vocal layering on the section after the second chorus. I applaud the audicity to innovate, but I think the mixing does not favor it. It sounds badly recorded and the metrics feel wrong. 
 
 
Don't get me wrong: I really like the song and I am very excited for the new album, but I feel like the band could do so much better in terms of production and engineering. I hope there's a lot of variety in the thirteen songs, just like on Arche; I also hope the final product has a superb production and not an average/mediocre one. 
 
 

From an audio engineering point of view (mixing/mastering process), there's a lot of things that I don't like:
 
-Drums have a lot of problems. The triggering is becoming more and more mechanic with every release. Just check out how the snare sample behaves whenever there are some snare rolls or fills happening. That's a really serious issue that almost every mid-tier triggering software can solve (even with Drumagog you can get a better and more natural snare sound). Beyond that, I really like the snare sample, much better than the one used in 'ARHCE'.  Bass drum is OK: I'm not a big fan of the 'typewriter ' sound, but it works on this song. Toms are the worst of all: they sound mechanic and 'out of the mix'. When triggering, and if going for a 'natural sound', one should always try and get the full samples of a whole kit. On this single, it feels like it doesn't belong to the same drum kit as the rest of the samples. Maybe the engineer was using samples of a kit that didn't have rototoms and ended up using that sample. Anyway, it sounds really out of place. Also, cymbals have no presence whatsoever: they sound really weak and I have the sad feeling that they are also sampling them! 
 
-Bass is barely hearable. Really weird: they dropped entirely the Korn-esque sound they had on the last previous albums in favour of a more regular sound. You can hear it "pop" during the choruses, but it sounds really bad. This is a real mistery: I wasn't a big fan of how loud and mid-fueled it was on previous albums, but at least you could hear Toshiya's amazing and clever bass playing. Here it is non existant.
 
-Guitars sound horrible. I mean, not as horrible as the mid-scooped guitars in 'The Marrow of a Bone', but they still lack energy and presence. It's like they scooped mids and highs/trebles and boosted the shit out of the bass frequencies with a multi-band compressor. That way, it clashes with the poor bass sound and causes the whole mix to bloate. The cleans in the intro, on the other hand, sound really good. Too bad the dynamics are horrendous...
 
-Vocals sound good; my only complain would be the wide-panned vocal scream in the section after the second chorus. They clash with the guitars and overpower the rest of the mix. It sounds really unbalanced.
 
-Dynamics are TRASHED. Chorus has no dynamic impact, only emotional one (which is good but not enough). The song sounds very linear: just check out how the intro creates anticipation for the main riff but ends having no impact. The lack of DR destroys the build-ups. I would love a good WAV-rip of the song to measure the dynamic range, just to confirm my suspicions.
 
-Overall, it sounds 'over-processed' and over-compressed, a problem that was already present on 'ARCHE'. The thing is, somehow, here everything sounds sterile and opaque. I'm no mastering expert, so I cannot really say if this is an issue that could be solved with just a better mastering. Mastering can do wonders (for example, I once worked on a record that had really poor toms that where miraculously enhanced with mastering), but I think 'Ningen...' is a real mess. I really feel the song should be remixed from scratch.
 
From a music production point of view, there's just a couple of small things I do not enjoy; keep in mind this are more personal:
 
-The transition from the verse to the first chorus does not work. It does not have flow and feels really forced. On the other hand, the transition from the verse into the second chorus is flawless.
 
-The vocal layering on the second bridge sounds really bad. Same thing happens with the vocal layering on the section after the second chorus. I applaud the audicity to innovate, but I think the mixing does not favor it. It sounds badly recorded and the metrics feel wrong. 
 
 
Don't get me wrong: I really like the song and I am very excited for the new album, but I feel like the band could do so much better in terms of production and engineering. I hope there's a lot of variety in the thirteen songs, just like on Arche; I also hope the final product has a superb production and not an average/mediocre one. 
 
 

From an audio engineering point of view (mixing/mastering process), there's a lot of things that I don't like:
 
-Drums have a lot of problems. The triggering is becoming more and more mechanic with every release. Just check out how the snare sample behaves whenever there are some snare rolls or fills happening. That's a really serious issue that almost every mid-tier triggering software can solve (even with Drumagog you can get a better and more natural snare sound). Beyond that, I really like the snare sample, much better than the one used in 'ARHCE'.  Bass drum is OK: I'm not a big fan of the 'typewriter ' sound, but it works on this song. Toms are the worst of all: they sound mechanic and 'out of the mix'. When triggering, and if going for a 'natural sound', one should always try and get the full samples of a whole kit. On this single, it feels like it doesn't belong to the same drum kit as the rest of the samples. Maybe the engineer was using samples of a kit that didn't have rototoms and ended up using that sample. Anyway, it sounds really out of place. Also, cymbals have no presence whatsoever: they sound really weak and I have the sad feeling that they are also sampling them! 
 
-Bass is barely hearable. Really weird: they dropped entirely the Korn-esque sound they had on the last previous albums in favour of a more regular sound. You can hear it "pop" during the choruses, but it sounds really bad. This is a real mistery: I wasn't a big fan of how loud and mid-fueled it was on previous albums, but at least you could hear Toshiya's amazing and clever bass playing. Here it is non existant.
 
-Guitars sound horrible. I mean, not as horrible as the mid-scooped guitars in 'The Marrow of a Bone', but they still lack energy and presence. It's like they scooped mids and highs/trebles and boosted the shit out of the bass frequencies with a multi-band compressor. That way, it clashes with the poor bass sound and causes the whole mix to bloate. The cleans in the intro, on the other hand, sound really good. Too bad the dynamics are horrendous...
 
-Vocals sound good; my only complain would be the wide-panned vocal scream in the section after the second chorus. They clash with the guitars and overpower the rest of the mix. It sounds really unbalanced.
 
-Dynamics are TRASHED. Chorus has no dynamic impact, only emotional one (which is good but not enough). The song sounds very linear: just check out how the intro creates anticipation for the main riff but ends having no impact. The lack of DR destroys the build-ups. I would love a good WAV-rip of the song to measure the dynamic range, just to confirm my suspicions.
 
-Overall, it sounds 'over-processed' and over-compressed, a problem that was already present on 'ARCHE'. The thing is, somehow, here everything sounds sterile and opaque. I'm no mastering expert, so I cannot really say if this is an issue that could be solved with just a better mastering. Mastering can do wonders (for example, I once worked on a record that had really poor toms that where miraculously enhanced with mastering), but I think 'Ningen...' is a real mess. I really feel the song should be remixed from scratch.
 
From a music production point of view, there's just a couple of small things I do not enjoy; keep in mind this are more personal:
 
-The transition from the verse to the first chorus does not work. It does not have flow and feels really forced. On the other hand, the transition from the verse into the second chorus is flawless.
 
-The vocal layering on the second bridge sounds really bad. Same thing happens with the vocal layering on the section after the second chorus. I applaud the audicity to innovate, but I think the mixing does not favor it. It sounds badly recorded and the metrics feel wrong. 
 
 
Don't get me wrong: I really like the song and I am very excited for the new album, but I feel like the band could do so much better in terms of production and engineering. I hope there's a lot of variety in the thirteen songs, just like on Arche; I also hope the final product has a superb production and not an average/mediocre one. 
 
 

I think the terrible sound of almost every Dir en grey release is something most of us agree upon. There doesn't seem to be an appropriate answer for it, and I'm sure it is not budget related. I've always theorized about the band's role as their own producers, having total control of their music. Maybe this affects the recording and mixing engineer's work and we end having weird sounding albums.
 
I do not know how much knowledge about music production the band has, but sometimes I think they like to experiment with the recordings and the results are very hit or miss. One thing for sure: since 'Uroboros', elements like, for example, vocal layering have gotten better. Other elements, are really getting weirder, like the rhythm guitar's hard panning, the loud and clicking bass sound and the mechanic and heavy-triggered drum sound you've already noticed. Sometimes they really work, sometimes (most of the times) they don't.
 
I agree 'Dum Spiro Spero' sounds really amazing: I think it is their best and most modern album production-wise, but the 'deathcore' style sometimes makes the things weird and opaque (just compare how the album version of 'Hageshisa...'' sounds contrasted to the single version). I also love 'Uroboros' production: it really fits the 'acoustic' and weird approach the album has and I think the remixed/remastered edition kills it's mood with the crystal clear production and the ultra-triggered drum sound (the bass drum sounds like a basketball and I really miss the Danny Carey-esque snare sound). 'The Unraveling' also has a similar production to DSS, and I think it is also one of the best sounding ones. What happened with 'Arche' is really a mystery...
 
Regarding previous albums, I think the band's identity crisis could also provide an answer. As you said, 'Gauze' and Macabre' sound pretty good, especially for being their first albums, but 'Kisou' sound really weird (though the 'garage' sound really works in songs like 'Bottom of the Death Valley'. Since their shift to a more 'westernized' sound (especially with 'Six Ugly'), they seem to have been struggling with finding a balanced mixing sound. 'Vulgar' is definitely the one that sounds really thin, and the bass drum sample is truly annoying (but well, I got used to it).
 
'Withering to Death' is maybe their most balanced pre-Uroboros release, sound-wise of course. To me, it sounds really pleasant and 'calm': it is good for the dynamic range, but at the same time it draws back the power of the heaviest songs on the album. Regarding ''The Marrow of a Bone', I kind of like the rawness of it, because it seems to mimic Ross Robinson's style, very fitting for the album's sound.
 
Now, for 'The Insulated World' singles... It seems to be in the same direction as 'Arche'. 'Utafumi' sounds like it was live recorded, with vocals, synths and extra guitars overdubbed later. Reminds me of what a traditional doom metal band would do in studio with producers like Jaime Gomez Arellano, but I think it doesn't work really well for Dir en grey's present style. On the other hand, 'Ningen Wo Kaburu' has a better quality, but still has that weird 'Arche' sound (specially the drums... The tom samples are horrible!!!). The mastering also seems bloated, but I think it's a consequence of the lackluster mixing...
 
 

I think the terrible sound of almost every Dir en grey release is something most of us agree upon. There doesn't seem to be an appropriate answer for it, and I'm sure it is not budget related. I've always theorized about the band's role as their own producers, having total control of their music. Maybe this affects the recording and mixing engineer's work and we end having weird sounding albums.
 
I do not know how much knowledge about music production the band has, but sometimes I think they like to experiment with the recordings and the results are very hit or miss. One thing for sure: since 'Uroboros', elements like, for example, vocal layering have gotten better. Other elements, are really getting weirder, like the rhythm guitar's hard panning, the loud and clicking bass sound and the mechanic and heavy-triggered drum sound you've already noticed. Sometimes they really work, sometimes (most of the times) they don't.
 
I agree 'Dum Spiro Spero' sounds really amazing: I think it is their best and most modern album production-wise, but the 'deathcore' style sometimes makes the things weird and opaque (just compare how the album version of 'Hageshisa...'' sounds contrasted to the single version). I also love 'Uroboros' production: it really fits the 'acoustic' and weird approach the album has and I think the remixed/remastered edition kills it's mood with the crystal clear production and the ultra-triggered drum sound (the bass drum sounds like a basketball and I really miss the Danny Carey-esque snare sound). 'The Unraveling' also has a similar production to DSS, and I think it is also one of the best sounding ones. What happened with 'Arche' is really a mystery...
 
Regarding previous albums, I think the band's identity crisis could also provide an answer. As you said, 'Gauze' and Macabre' sound pretty good, especially for being their first albums, but 'Kisou' sound really weird (though the 'garage' sound really works in songs like 'Bottom of the Death Valley'. Since their shift to a more 'westernized' sound (especially with 'Six Ugly'), they seem to have been struggling with finding a balanced mixing sound. 'Vulgar' is definitely the one that sounds really thin, and the bass drum sample is truly annoying (but well, I got used to it).
 
'Withering to Death' is maybe their most balanced pre-Uroboros release, sound-wise of course. To me, it sounds really pleasant and 'calm': it is good for the dynamic range, but at the same time it draws back the power of the heaviest songs on the album. Regarding ''The Marrow of a Bone', I kind of like the rawness of it, because it seems to mimic Ross Robinson's style, very fitting for the album's sound.
 
Now, for 'The Insulated World' singles... It seems to be in the same direction as 'Arche'. 'Utafumi' sounds like it was live recorded, with vocals, synths and extra guitars overdubbed later. Reminds me of what a traditional doom metal band would do in studio with producers like Jaime Gomez Arellano, but I think it doesn't work really well for Dir en grey's present style. On the other hand, 'Ningen Wo Kaburu' has a better quality, but still has that weird 'Arche' sound (specially the drums... The tom samples are horrible!!!). The mastering also seems bloated, but I think it's a consequence of the lackluster mixing...
 
 

I think the terrible sound of almost every Dir en grey release is something most of us agree upon. There doesn't seem to be an appropriate answer for it, and I'm sure it is not budget related. I've always theorized about the band's role as their own producers, having total control of their music. Maybe this affects the recording and mixing engineer's work and we end having weird sounding albums.
 
I do not know how much knowledge about music production the band has, but sometimes I think they like to experiment with the recordings and the results are very hit or miss. One thing for sure: since 'Uroboros', elements like, for example, vocal layering have gotten better. Other elements, are really getting weirder, like the rhythm guitar's hard panning, the loud and clicking bass sound and the mechanic and heavy-triggered drum sound you've already noticed. Sometimes they really work, sometimes (most of the times) they don't.
 
I agree 'Dum Spiro Spero' sounds really amazing: I think it is their best and most modern album production-wise, but the 'deathcore' style sometimes makes the things weird and opaque (just compare how the album version of 'Hageshisa...'' sounds contrasted to the single version). I also love 'Uroboros' production: it really fits the 'acoustic' and weird approach the album has and I think the remixed/remastered edition kills it's mood with the crystal clear production and the ultra-triggered drum sound (the bass drum sounds like a basketball and I really miss the Danny Carey-esque snare sound). 'The Unraveling' also has a similar production to DSS, and I think it is also one of the best sounding ones. What happened with 'Arche' is really a mystery...
 
Regarding previous albums, I think the band's identity crisis could also provide an answer. As you said, 'Gauze' and Macabre' sound pretty good, especially for being their first albums, but 'Kisou' sound really weird (though the 'garage' sound really works in songs like 'Bottom of the Death Valley'. Since their shift to a more 'westernized' sound (especially with 'Six Ugly'), they seem to have been struggling with finding a balanced mixing sound. 'Vulgar' is definitely the one that sounds really thin, and the bass drum sample is truly annoying (but well, I got used to it).
 
'Withering to Death' is maybe their most balanced pre-Uroboros release, sound-wise of course. To me, it sounds really pleasant and 'calm': it is good for the dynamic range, but at the same time it draws back the power of the heaviest songs on the album. Regarding ''The Marrow of a Bone', I kind of like the rawness of it, because it seems to mimic Ross Robinson's style, very fitting for the album's sound.
 
Now, for 'The Insulated World' singles... It seems to be in the same direction as 'Arche'. 'Utafumi' sounds like it was live recorded, with vocals, synths and extra guitars overdubbed later. Reminds me of what a traditional doom metal band would do in studio with producers like Jaime Gomez Arellano, but I think it doesn't work really well for Dir en grey's present style. On the other hand, 'Ningen Wo Kaburu' has a better quality, but still has that weird 'Arche' sound (specially the drums... The tom samples are horrible!!!). The mastering also seems bloated, but I think it's a consequence of the lackluster mixing...