Complaints that music is too loud on CDs are not uncommon these days, because at the mixing or mastering stage of an album the music is all too often compressed hard and pushed into the red in order to get the hardest hitting noise possible, which in turn drowns out many of the subtleties and nuances in the recordings. Audiophiles often point this out, normally citing it as a key reason for continuing to buy vinyl, which has to be mastered at quieter levels. But it's not comparisons to any vinyl release that have got people complaining about the sound quality of Metallica's new CD. It's the 'Guitar Hero' version of the album that is making fans realise the weaknesses of the CD version. As previously reported, Metallica released their new album, 'Death Magnetic', on the popular video game on the same day as the more traditional release. And now people are saying that the 'Guitar Hero' version sounds way better.
One fan even went so far as to write to Ted Jensen at Sterling Sound, who mastered the album, to complain. Jensen replied, saying: "I'm certainly sympathetic to your reaction, I get to slam my head against that brick wall every day. In this case the mixes were already brick walled before they arrived at my place. Suffice it to say I would never be pushed to overdrive things as far as they are here. Believe me I'm not proud to be associated with this one, and we can only hope that some good will come from this in some form of backlash against volume above all else".