the GazettE

[orange~ 387]

1 hour ago, Back to the Future said:

 Huh???  i gonna have to check that! Like i said, their works between Dim and The last album are pretty much unfamiliar to me, so i have alooot to catch up. But this is interesting

Electronic stuff are the most apparent in Division I guess.

 

I'm in a good spot because I've found all the phases the gazette has gone through pretty enjoyable. So I'm fine with whatever direction they decide to go for ^^

[Masaki89 10]

What do you guys think of their recent Best Traces Vol 2 ballad release? I am liking the re-recorded tracks, although I will always have a soft spot for the original recordings.

[platy 3018]

I translated the interview on the link in the previous page (wasn't sure where to post it so just copy pasted from the Traces thread)

 

Spoiler

 

Aoi: hmm, how can I explain it... for the first time, we decided to do everything ourselves without a sound engineer.

That's right. This time we worked on the album all the while discussing several things among ourselves, and within the members
there was someone who kept saying it was our duty to take the initiative and do it. It was a big issue.

 

-Who was that person?

 

Aoi: That person over there with the face mask. (Uruha)

 

Uruha: Oh, I was only the person who did the final mixing adjustments. But that was done with everyone together.

 

-Did you have guidance from a conductor?

Uruha: That's right, the conductor would tell us various things...

 

Ruki: Wait, by any chance is that conductor you're talking about me?? But I didn't say a thing!!

 

Uruha: Lies, he talked plenty.

 

Ruki: The one who was unbearable this time was Reita!!

 

-What? Reita too?

 

Uruha: Yes. During my parts, sometimes I'd think "Ah, I wonder if it's good like this?'' and when it was time to check,
when Reita was testing the sound with the headphones he'd have the eyes of a crazy person and wouldn't shut up. I even dreamt about it...
He was like 'Raise this bass' and then "But you raised it too much", then I'd go and fix the sound, next day he'd say "Damn
this is too loud" and I had to go and lower it again.

 

Aoi: But hadn't we learned some time ago that this is no good?

 

Reita: I thought I had learned my lesson back in Madara, but not really (lol)

 

-And what did you do to fix this issue with Reita's bass?

 

Uruha: I stopped saying 'let's do it like this' and left all the responsibility to Reita. If I were to be responsible for his
sounds I'd be too stressed out.

 

Reita: That's why in the final stage of the recording, when I asked Uruha '' What do you think?'' he'd say ''I don't know shit about that''

 

Uruha: I don't know anything about it so do it the way you think it's best and stuff.

 

(Reita also said that after this, it ended up turning into a game where he and Uruha would bicker/play fight. The members said that
after this experience they wouldn't produce another album by themselves, but they'll be more thorough/picky in the next release)

 

-You didn't make a PV for this album?

All: No...

 

Aoi: And where would we find the money for all this?

 

-If you used Reita's savings...

 

Aoi: True!

 

Uruha: If we used his savings we could make a PV for all the songs!

 

Ruki: What a treasure keeper! (Reita)

 

Reita: No way, I don't have anything!

 

All: LOL!

 Uruha reveals that he always borrowed a 12 string acoustic guitar to record SEs
so he decided to just buy one to record the normal songs. Ruki tells him "Why don't you just buy one bruh" so Uruha takes money from his savings and buys it. Afterwards he was comparing his savings to the other members' and he was like "wah, mine went down by a lot"
Aoi feels jealous of Uruha and wanted to buy one of those guitars too. 

 

 

I'm at peace with traces lol. But I'm excited to see what comes next, specially if they're getting a sound engineer. 

Edited March 13, 2017 by Platy

[orange~ 387]

I'm really liking traces 2! It's actually better than I expected. I only really liked handful of the gazette's ballads before, but in this compilation everything works. It's such a chill album to listen and hits my current mood really well. I needed this album right now.

[Back to the Future 5]

why can't they host a music tv show, or online. A youtube channel where they just talk shit... remember when they had this radio show?  that was with ps company right? damn... i just love their banter and shit. 

Errr i have to catch up with some songs so, the ballads, only heard the preview. It was ok.  Now reading that translation, it's somehow understandable the preview sounded like it was all too meticulously calculated and had no hmmm "heart" let's say; maybe they didn't want to make a mistake. they should have a sound engineer. Always. At all times, for all purposes xd

[nekkichi 6043]

18 hours ago, Back to the Future said:

 Huh???  i gonna have to check that! Like i said, their works between Dim and The last album are pretty much unfamiliar to me, so i have alooot to catch up. But this is interesting

they signed with a different label after DIM/before I decay came out, and turned their sound EDM-ish for a couple albums

sometimes it worked out rill good —

but mostly didn't

 

10 hours ago, Back to the Future said:

remember when they had this radio show?  that was with ps company right? damn...

they still have it tho

Edited March 14, 2017 by nekkichi

[nick 10212]

Besides TRACES VOL.2 being a money grab, IMO, they're also paving the way for performing corrected English/alternate lyrics of certain songs live from now on; e.g. Cassis and Taion.

Surprisingly, I ended up enjoying listening to the album more than I thought I would as I never expected much from a best of album. My fav tracks off it are Kare Uta, Guren, Ito, and Taion. Especially Kare Uta, it still remains one of the most beautiful mid-tempo ballads I've ever listened to.

[Aeolus 220]

As soon as I get my paycheck I will be sharing traces 2 hi-res.

If you want to be tagged when I share like this post so I know to tag you

^.^

[Back to the Future 5]

8 hours ago, nekkichi said:

 

they still have it tho

 

Really? is there a place for translations of the show? 

[Masaki89 10]

6 hours ago, nostalgia said:

Besides TRACES VOL.2 being a money grab, IMO, they're also paving the way for performing corrected English/alternate lyrics of certain songs live from now on; e.g. Cassis and Taion.

Surprisingly, I ended up enjoying listening to the album more than I thought I would as I never expected much from a best of album. My fav tracks off it are Kare Uta, Guren, Ito, and Taion. Especially Kare Uta, it still remains one of the most beautiful mid-tempo ballads I've ever listened to.

 

 

I noticed that too with the lyrics! No more "I will walk together" hehehe XD

[Nagisa 131]

6 hours ago, nostalgia said:

Besides TRACES VOL.2 being a money grab, IMO, they're also paving the way for performing corrected English/alternate lyrics of certain songs live from now on; e.g. Cassis and Taion.

This makes me not want to listen to the album even more. I don't see any point in changing old songs.

[heresytrash 250]

2 hours ago, Nagisa said:

This makes me not want to listen to the album even more. I don't see any point in changing old songs.

Uruha [or was it Ruki] said it's fine to enjoy the old songs, but they wanted to try out their new techniques on these and correct some things they felt were wrong with it. It's not for everyone, but honestly I really like the album.

Cassis has always been my favorite ballad, but I liked what they did in the new one. I do enjoy both versions though.

[Aeolus 220]

So I just listened to the first 5 tracks of my Hi-Res Traces2. I gotta say, it sounds much better then what we all have been listening to.

[Nagisa 131]

16 minutes ago, Aeolus said:

So I just listened to the first 5 tracks of my Hi-Res Traces2. I gotta say, it sounds much better then what we all have been listening to.

You mean much better than the original versions? And by Hi-Res do you mean the actual CD or something else?

[Aeolus 220]

@Nagisa I like both versions of all the songs. What I mean is that the Hi-Res copy sounds better than the copy shared by @Mihi.  Do they sound better than the originals? In my opinion yes but thats how I feel.

 

CD and itunes rips are 44.1khz / 16bit, Hi-Res is 44.1-192khz / 24-32 bit (the quality of a vinyl) DVD and Bluray usually have this quality but most Hi-Res is found from online stores such as 7digital, HDTracks, Qobuz, and Mora. Then there are the few exceptions, the releases that come out on Super Audio CD.

You also got your Direct Stream Digital and Master Quality Audio (this one is new) which Tidal is  supposed to be using for their streaming soon.

 

This is what everyone has been listening to a standard 44.1khz/16bit rip

 

 

 

 

And this is what I have 96khz/24bit

 

Edited March 15, 2017 by Aeolus

[nekkichi 6043]

13 hours ago, Back to the Future said:

 

Really? is there a place for translations of the show? 

iirc venomous_cell on facebook is posting bits and pieces of their rants, but I don't really follow gazette fansites anymore

so idk if anyone does full show translations, sorry ://

[Karma’s Hat 3107]

4 hours ago, nekkichi said:

I don't really follow gazette fansites anymore

 

I'm reconsidering having any association with this band every time I browse through their tag on tumblr in search of something. 

[reminiscing2004 617]

Sorry to derail the gazetto thread, but I couldn't leave this unattended.

 

8 hours ago, Aeolus said:

@Nagisa I like both versions of all the songs. What I mean is that the Hi-Res copy sounds better than the copy shared by @Mihi. 

. . .

>"CD and itunes rips are 44.1khz / 16bit"

Yes, a lossless rip from a CD will be 44.1/16. However, while an mp3 does have a sample rate of 44.1k, it doesn't even function in the domain of "bit depth" in the traditional sense. "MP3's store the sound as amplitude over frequency, whereas a normal WAV has it as amplitude over time. The two are not directly comparable. In reality, most MP3's have a variable bit depth which often goes as low as 1 or 2 bits of ACCURACY, but with a much larger RANGE."

The logos behind mp3 and any lossy file type designed to compress information as transparently as possible is using variable rates to omit inessential information. Even a 320kps CBR mp3 still can't be viewed as constant in the same way a PCM file would.

"Additionally, as frames are not limited to a fixed size in bits, parts of the audio signal with complex sounds can use bytes from preceding frames, in essence giving all MP3:s variable bit rate."

 

 

>"Hi-Res is 44.1-192khz / 24-32 bit (the quality of a vinyl)"

 

I'm shocked that you would compare vinyl to a high fidelity digital audio file, let alone consider them equivalent. Vinyl is an ANALOG medium and doesn't have a bit depth or sample rate. I'll add the SNR of vinyl is quite poor (50db) in comparison to 16 bit (96db SNR) and 24 bit (144db SNR) digital audio, notwithstanding all of the other quality issues with vinyl.

 

>"This is what everyone has been listening to a standard 44.1khz/16bit rip -- And this is what I have 96khz/24bit"

 

Spectrograms are helpful to get a visual representation as confirmation for one's suspicions when listening to a poor rip. They are often used to demonstrate transcodes, because low bit rate mp3's have a harsh cut on the high end. It can make a 128kbps mp3 stick out like a sore thumb within a moment of listening, because you're missing quite noticeable information in the 16-20khz range, the very edge of the audible spectrum.

 

Speaking of which, I've sat in a large room full of people who were tested with a sine sweep to determine the edge of their hearing. They were all under the age of 25, so if any of their super-high end response was significantly missing, it was likely the result of hearing damage or genetics. The earliest point at which someone couldn't hear the tone was 15khz. Most of the room lost track of the sound around 17.5khz and only a select few people could hear just past 18khz, admitting it was very faint. By 19khz, no one could detect it. The human range of hearing does not surpass 20khz – common knowledge.

 

The first image of Himi's 256kbps / 44.1khz mp3 rip displays signal cutting off at 22khz, well beyond the edge of our hearing. Nice! The spectrogram of your hi-res files reaches all the way to nearly 50khz... Now, I have no problem with people preferring lossless formats for archival purposes and desires to preserve the original material in source quality, but acting like all that shit above 20khz is making your files sound better is foolish. Furthermore, all of that information above 20k is ridiculously quiet, most of it around -100db, at the loudest -80db. Even if you could hypothetically hear past 20k, the spectrogram is already telling you its irrelevant. Listen at your normal listening level and see if you can hear something playing back at -80db. Give it a try!

 

Speaking generally about the never-ending arguments surrounding lossless formats, there is a minute, though audible on correct systems, difference between a 44.1khz 16 bit lossless file and an efficiently encoded 320kbps mp3. Albeit, this is a difference at least 90% of people are unable to detect in a blind test. Furthermore, a difference between 48khz and 44.1khz is perceptible on state of the art equipment, though even less people than the latter are capable of noticing. The difference between 16 bit and 24 bit will never be perceptible, especially when listening to modern metal music where the master level is peaking at ~ -0.1dbfs at all times anyway. The only difference there is dynamic range, so you'll only be noticing it on the fade in from silence on the first sound of a song and the fade out from silence at the end, assuming you can hear quieter than -96db to really enjoy that 144db dynamic range of 24bit audio. (Remember what I said about -80db?)

 

With this in mind, while I do believe qualms between an mp3 and a CD quality rip are valid, believing that 24bit (let alone fucking 32 bit floating point [???]) or 96khz sample rate audio is perceptibly superior to a 44.1/48khz 16 bit file is bullshit. In addition to training my own ear, I've read numerous books on audio mastering and have had this very conversation with a number of veteran recording and mixing engineers (20+ years in the business) who have all told me a similar conclusion: Even on monitoring equipment the cost of your yearly income, what your missing beyond a 48k 16bit wav is null. There are technical reasons that some top-top-top of the line studios record at hard disk annihilatingly high sample rates and 32 bit, but they are in regards to the complexities of the record production process and their benefits are reaped even in a final master that's been reduced to a 44.1/16 standard – however, that is a discussion for another day.

 

I don't think you actually understand what you're fretting over and I think you're perpetuating an obsession with higher numbers being better, despite things not being that straightforward. Take this tool as an example of such possibilities, that bit depth, for instance, can be reduced with transparent playback. I want to stress that audio quality is only as good as the quality of its recording and the quality of its post-processing – and of course the performance! A poorly mixed or mastered record with an unnatural sounding frequency response will sound just as shit to me in 96/24 as it will in a 128kbps mp3. And of course vice versa, a beautifully engineered record's sheer SLAM value can't even be held back by a shitty mp3 – though I'd prefer a flac if I had the luxury

 

Finally, if anyone here is able to listen to the first 15 seconds of this newly re-recorded 絲 Ito and believe it sounds better than the original, I'm convinced your lying to yourself. Doesn't matter how high fidelity I hear it, there is no comparison – it is like night and day.

 

 

[Karma’s Hat 3107]

26 minutes ago, reminiscing2004 said:

Finally, if anyone here is able to listen to the first 15 seconds of this newly re-recorded 絲 Ito and believe it sounds better than the original, I'm convinced your lying to yourself.

 

New Ito was dare I say the worst thing about this whole debacle. It's been completely knackered into piss-stained grey pulp and I sincerely hope this is not the version they're going to play live. 

[Aeolus 220]

@reminiscing2004 

never said anything about mp3 haha.

And yes, depending on the vinyl they are the same. Some examples: The Internet's Ego Death is only 48khz just like the Hi-Res release. Another is Frank Ocean's Blonde that shit is just the fucking cd quality pressed onto vinyl, so yes i will consider them equal, Hell even japan released Led Zeppelin IV in 192khz/32bit my vinyl doesn't have that quality.

 

I'm not saying i can here 50khz, all I said was that I can hear a noticeable difference between the itunes store quality and Hi-Res, it's no longer a wall of sound as some have called it.

 

I can say I like this version of 絲, I'm not much of a fan of pre-NIL. (*gasp* I'm gonna get a lot of hate for this huh?)

[Naaaaani 1173]

1 hour ago, Aeolus said:

fucking cd quality pressed onto vinyl

 

1 hour ago, Aeolus said:

192khz/32bit my vinyl doesn't have that quality

Man, you just need to RTFM to understand the truth what @reminiscing2004 tries to say. Vinyl is an analogue media, it doesn't have all these bits and sampling.

[Aeolus 220]

@Naaaaanii do understand, that was an example that not all vinyl are true analog but digital recordings just pressed onto vinyl. When it's a low quality digital recording analog isn't gonna do shit.

 

anyways back to gazette, has anyone thought that instead of just a cash grab maybe they released traces as a contractual agreement with SONY? Maybe they fulfilled their contract with this and wanted to start new and sign with another label and come back with something better.

Edited March 15, 2017 by Aeolus

[Nagisa 131]

I'm not really familiar with the different audio formats but are you saying that the CD version is actually worse than some of the digital versions that are released? Is there a difference between listening to a physical CD and a lossless rip? @AeolusThat is an interesting theory. It does feel like a cash grab to me, but the reason I'm not buying it is there's no new music. If they had even one new track I would have purchased it.

[YuyoDrift 1540]

4 minutes ago, Nagisa said:

I'm not really familiar with the different audio formats but are you saying that the CD version is actually worse than some of the digital versions that are released? Is there a difference between listening to a physical CD and a lossless rip? @AeolusThat is an interesting theory. It does feel like a cash grab to me, but the reason I'm not buying it is there's no new music. If they had even one new track I would have purchased it.

 

ALL BEST OF's are cash grabs.

Can't fool me.

 

Feel free to read my posting in this thread.

 

[Flame-X 441]

I see this particular release more than a cash grab because the band has spent actual effort  by rerecording all the songs which most other bands lack doing whenever a compilation album is released. So I'll give Gazette props for that regard.