ear fatigue when listening to certain albums

[mystixboi]

ear fatigue when listening to certain albums

Does this happen to you? When listening to certain albums, my ears get tired... for example, the latest albums from Metallica and Alter Bridge. They are pretty cool albums(esp Alter Bridge) but my ears get so tired after 4 or 5 songs.

I don't even have the volume too loud when listening.

But I can listen to Appetite For Destruction in entirety without ear fatigue.

Does this happen to you?

Is it because the mastering so so damn hot?

 

[ProgFree]

Yes, too much compression/limiting at mastering stage. At times one can get that feeling even with excessive compression on individual instruments. Sad that the idiotic volume war is here to stay. Spotify, youtube etc add an additional limiter stage to the music there. So it gets even worse when played through such platforms. The tiredness comes from the lack of headroom, ours ears/brain just cannot deal with that on an easy way.

 

[romanianreaper]

One album that was the worst for that was Megadeth "So Far, So Good, So What". That thing will rip your eardrums.

 

[Valtyr]

Yeah, Rush - Vapor Trails had some great tunes but the album sounds harsh, I can't listen to more than a few songs at a time.

 

[spanny]

The last 2 Metallica albums come to mind. Lots of good music but over-compressed, very hard to listen to all the way through (not because of the song quality).

 

[Kevin11]

Yeah, Rush - Vapor Trails had some great tunes but the album sounds harsh, I can't listen to more than a few songs at a time.

On the off chance you don't know this already, they officially released a remastered version that sounds MUCH better. Almost like listening to a completely different album.

 

[Terex]

Yeah, Alter Bridge.

Saw them live two days ago and everything was fine there! Maybe indeed the frequencies of overcompressing

 

[tfridgen]

Baroness - Purple is almost to the point of being unlistenable to me now. Sucks cause the songs are so good

 

[SBlue]

ear fatigue when listening to certain albums

Does this happen to you? When listening to certain albums, my ears get tired... for example, the latest albums from Metallica and Alter Bridge. They are pretty cool albums(esp Alter Bridge) but my ears get so tired after 4 or 5 songs.

I don't even have the volume too loud when listening.

But I can listen to Appetite For Destruction in entirety without ear fatigue.

Does this happen to you?

Is it because the mastering so so damn hot?

I might have some kind of hearing problem, because I never had ear fatigue by listening to any album that is over compressed or louder than the other albums. And I py my bills and live my life by recording, mixing and mastering music.
I think some albuns sucks, but not because of compression, or volume, but because it's recorded, mixed or mastered poorly, or done this way by choice.
Never heard anyone complaining about the first five queen records, where they over compressed even the studio AC!!!!
I cannot spend over three months without listening to some albums that most say they are "too compressed". Specially the ones done by Rick Rubin, like the ones he done with RHCP, Johnny Cash, SOAD...
But that's just me.

 

[JackBootedThug]

would the 440hz frequency have anything to do with it? supposed to have an underlying negative effect on the human psyche. Whereas 432 is supposed to be the opposite? then again-i'm very sick and over medicated so just ignore me....

 

[bog70]

"Brickwalling"

A limiter is used to remove "transient" peaks in the music so that the overall volume can increase, at the sacrifice of dynamics. Quiet gets loud, but loud stays at the same volume because it has no room to increase in volume, thus ruining the subtle dynamics that used to exist (that music needs to sound natural or at least bearable). And from the constant "loudness", it leads to listening fatigue.

 

[JakeAC5253]

would the 440hz frequency have anything to do with it? supposed to have an underlying negative effect on the human psyche. Whereas 432 is supposed to be the opposite? then again-i'm very sick and over medicated so just ignore me....

No I've heard of this as well. Pretty interesting concept. I wrote and recorded a bunch of songs in 432Hz and they still sucked though.

 

[CEG85]

Depends on the album.
I get ear fatigue when mixing songs for too long.

 

[fek]

Baroness - Purple is almost to the point of being unlistenable to me now. Sucks cause the songs are so good

+1.

 

[gtr31]

Some of the Nicklback stuff
High upper mids in guitars and massive compression
James Lugo mixed a song for us a while back on skype
And he said I can make the track loud just not f*****
Nickleback loud

 

[slyym]

Its the ear piercing frequencies being too loud from limiting and staying too loud for the duration of the song. I get headaches from it. Especially from earbuds.

 

[Ventura]

would the 440hz frequency have anything to do with it? supposed to have an underlying negative effect on the human psyche. Whereas 432 is supposed to be the opposite? then again-i'm very sick and over medicated so just ignore me....

 

[crwnedblasphemy]

This album i got months back....i gave it two spins, couldn't take the mix. Super high mid crazy that makes it intolerable