DIR EN GREY released their 10th album "The Insulated World" on September 26, 2018

[libertine 125]

1 minute ago, EzraEroguro said:

Where's the breathing room?

Between the release of Arche and The Insulated World.

 

I don't think the CD version is going to be better. Remastered and expanded edition, when?

[geist 227]

Wait, is all this stuff new to you guys? Dir en grey has never had great production. Back in 2008 Kerrang wrote a review of Uroboros and stated that due to the mixing the album lacked "punch".

 

Complaining about loudness reminds me of baby boomers remembering the "good ol' days". This is an album you're supposed to play loud, and under such circumstances it sounds great. Also keep in mind depending on the speakers you're listening to the album with -- yes, even headphones -- you're bound to get a difference experience. At one point last night I listened to a part of the album through one of those bluetooth speakers and the sound quality, of course, was "bad". For some reason the speaker was focusing on Shinya's tom's more than anything. It was really weird; but going back and listening in other formats (nice Sony speakers, studio monitoring headphones, etc.) I think the album sounds "fine".

 

Then again, I generally don't subscribe to this audiophilia stuff because I tend to focus on the compositions more than anything else. and I often listen to really bad quality Aud recordings of bands, so there's that.

Edited September 26, 2018 by geist

[VESSMIER 873]

I wonder why people people assume that the CD would sound better than an ALAC or even a lossy AAC rip. Even if you'd be able to make out any differences, they would be so miniscule it wouldn't change your overall perception of the music.

 

Other than that I have to say that I happen to enjoy the production on the album... sure the dynamic range sucks but it's 2018 and this is an aggressive rock/metal record, what did you expect? It's raw, it's gritty but at no point did I get the feeling that I'm listening to a wall of noise. Even in the more chaotic moments during the first half the instruments retained their distinct textures and presence.

[EzraEroguro 174]

I like what @geist said though --- Dir en grey has always had terrible mixing jobs. Or at least overtly compressed to the point of no return. Ain't their first rodeo.

[Saishu 1589]

You can’t play it loud because it’s already loud. It sounds like it’s naturally cranked up to 10, hence the clipping and distortion. Raising the volume doesn’t make it sound better. Oddly enough, I hear more intricacies when I turn the volume DOWN. We’re not new to this, but sometimes there are cases worse than others. This might be DEG’s worst. 

 

Mind you one of  the reasons why so many recordings are compressed is to accommodate people listening to lossy rips thru shitty earbuds. So yeah, I’m pining for the good ol’ days of music that sounds nice on everything. 

[Kelrya 145]

I love the songs themselves but the production and mixing is bad. I swear on the new version of Ningen Kyo recorded every other sentence with a different microphone and then they copied and pasted them at random volumes all over the place.

[geist 227]

11 minutes ago, Saishu said:

It sounds like it’s naturally cranked up to 10, hence the clipping and distortion.

 

Please elaborate, because "clipping" is "distortion" in a general sense. Are you referring to digital clipping? Because if so, I heard no such cases on the album. Do you have any specific parts you can point to?

[Kelrya 145]

Just now, geist said:

 

Please elaborate, because "clipping" is "distortion" in a general sense. Are you referring to digital clipping? Because if so, I heard no such cases on the album. Do you have any specific parts you can point to?

The vocals on rubbish heap.

[geist 227]

1 minute ago, Kelrya said:

The vocals on rubbish heap.

Sounds less like bad digital clipping and more like an effect is being layered over the vocals -- which the band has done several times before. I don't think that is quite "clipping" in the recording sense, though I could be entirely mistaken, recording input levels is something rather new to me.

[Kelrya 145]

36 minutes ago, EzraEroguro said:

I like what @geist said though --- Dir en grey has always had terrible mixing jobs. Or at least overtly compressed to the point of no return. Ain't their first rodeo.

I thought Arche had great production tbh.

 

Has anyone heard the remakes yet? According to the Japanese thread I’ve been following the 理由 remake has extra lyrics at the end like in the mode of Macabre performance. People are crazy about the Deeper Vileness remake. I’m a little concerned about the 鬼眼 one though since a bunch of people’s reaction was literally just “鬼眼ワロタ” (“I lol’d at Kigan” basically). Apparently it reminds some people of old-school video game music.

Edited September 26, 2018 by Kelrya

[Saishu 1589]

28 minutes ago, geist said:

 

Please elaborate, because "clipping" is "distortion" in a general sense. Are you referring to digital clipping? Because if so, I heard no such cases on the album. Do you have any specific parts you can point to?

My bad, I have no idea why I even brought clipping into this other than I shouldn’t try posting while talking to co-workers. 

 

The album is compressed to hell and it’s not a new thing, but it just seems really bad this time. Aka in particular could have been a lot prettier with a better approach to the mix. Why is the guitar solo so buried? Wouldn’t the dramatic moments be a bit more explosive and emotional if the gentle sections were quieter?

 

Of course the actual songwriting is good, but the mix is not pleasing to my ears. 

[VESSMIER 873]

1 hour ago, Saishu said:

This might be DEG’s worst. 

Really? WTD, MOAB and the original UROBOROS sound way worse in my opinion. I think that we shouldn't conflate actual production or mixing quality with how much we like the sound of something. An example would be the cymbal in the end of Downfall you mentioned before - that's not bad mixing, that's just the way this particular cymbal sounds. I don't think it's a production mishap but rather a stylistic choice.

 

I would actually put this somewhere at the top of their most well produced albums (despite the loudness) because it sounds very organic and natural and because there's comparatively little of that production-related corruption or loss of detail and punch in the sound of the individual instruments (as opposed to the muffled mess that is UROBOROS or WTD).

Edited September 26, 2018 by VESSMIER

[Bear 1817]

Original Uroboros sounds really good. It's flawed, but most flaws are flaws that really helps the songs IMO. The re-release with a different mix is pretty much unlistenable.

[Saishu 1589]

The vocals in Utafumi sound like a raw untouched take. 

[Furik 832]

THE BITCH IS ON SPOTIFY. 

BUT WHERE IS ARCHE AND MOAB. 

[Saishu 1589]

Lol why does Tidal have the release date as Oct. 12?

[Kaleidoscope 195]

Only gave it three listens so far, but I must say that I am very positively surprised. Wasn't too hyped after the singles (really liked Ranunculus though), but this is a lot better than Arche to me and maybe even than DSS, at least I find the fun factor a lot higher.

 

Surprised that people are claiming that Kyo lost his range. Yeah, sure, he is past his prime, but the guy is still hitting fifth octave notes like it's nothing and sounds a lot more energetic than on Arche if you ask me. His performance in "Aka" is incredible and sounds super effortless, probably my favourite on the album.

[Seelentau 884]

Probably grabbed from here.

Gan-Shin version will be released on October 19.

[emmny 4139]

so y'all i kinda love this

its different from everything, but i sign up for DEG because every album is a clusterfuck of new shit...I don't really take them that seriously tbh. They used to be my kami band but like, they're messy queens first and foremost and i love them for that. The A&B concept is pretty fun, but listening to B makes me wonder why A wasn't basically that--then i remember all the headbanging fun and im like okay nbd

[LIDL 692]

I am positively sure these new songs would be 1000% better live. They sounds like made to be live songs to me. At least the music does. Kyo better rehearse for the live, man. So he can reach those notes. He is getting better lately so that is a step on the right direction. 

[EvilHippy 142]

I hope they'll play more new songs in Europe, than it was in Japan (Ranunculus, Values of Madness, Keibetsu to Hajimari and Devote My Life)

[blacktooth 227]

Say what you will about Kyo's voice aging, but I'm happy the dude has stopped using so much falsetto and instead uses his head voice to hit the high register. 

[Saishu 1589]

These songs are straight up written with lives in mind. They clearly learned from their mistakes with DSS. 

 

Hell, in some ways TIW sounds like it was just a live recording with some overdubs done in post. The more I listen the more I realize the biggest problem is Shinya’s drums. Not his performance, but the way the sound. It almost sounds like they were being picked up via room mics. 

[blacktooth 227]

2 minutes ago, Saishu said:

It almost sounds like they were being picked up via room mics. 

Better than the MIDI kit sound if you ask me.

[Rosner 35]

Been listening to the album the whole night, and I definitely cannot stand the engineering. The guitars are my main problem: I cannot take how 'broken' and badly compressed they sound. I agree with Saishu: the lower the volume, the better it sounds. Also, geist is right about getting a different experience with each different audio device. Sadly, I listened to it on studio monitors and on professional mixing headphones (no pre-EQ) and it has a lot of problems.

 

I also listened to the album on some low-tier Sennheiser HD 202, which have an acceptable bass boost, and it sounds kinda better. Later, I'm going to listen to it on my cellphone with the worst earbuds I can find: that's the true trial by fire for me. And finally, going to try listening to it on some DT-770 tomorrow!

 

Also, I was so upset about the mixing/mastering that I decided to play with the songs a little. I created more headroom, used some RX6 to cut some reverb and crackle and then 'uncompressed' it and applied a basic mastering chain. I'm REALLY far from an audio engineer, but I think it sounds more bearable, especially the distorted guitars. Also a lot of extra layers like the synths (or violins?!) on 'Zetsuentai' cut better through the mix. I still can't get around how loud the cymbals sound tough. May upload it later, but I still have faith the CD-rip is going to be more bearable.

 

What's just really fun about all this is that a YouTube user named Yurameki uploaded almost every song of the album to the aforementioned site and it all sounds better. Weird thing, considering YouTube tends to compress the audio, sometimes causing a drastic quality loss.

 

But to be honest, aside from the production, I'm enjoying the album more and more with each listen, especially the second half. The last four songs are amongst the best the band has composed in years.

 

 

Edited September 26, 2018 by Rosner
Typos and bad English!