Do you dislike the mastering of ARTPOP?

[Ursula Buffay 73]

Why do people always say that when they pick fights with people who know their sh*t lmfao

Why do Little Managers get so frustrated when others quote them on their opinions?! Let's not derail this please. Good night sis.

[SEX MUFFIN 63]

I just wish Swine didn't sound as flat! It's such a good song, but the iTunes festival version with the live instruments sounds so good! Nice and flowy and seems to have much more depth 

[Mister Gaga 21,887]

ARTPOP sounds perfect

[XoXoJoanneGaga 629]

The mixing/mastering is screwed up on virtually the entire album. Not surprising since the whole thing was a rush job that was heing handled by multiple parties.

It's a shame cause I think it had potential to be some of her best sounding work. It still sounds better than the majority of Born This Way

 

@OP thanks for posting the Applause leak, I've been looking for it for ages. It does sound better than the final, which is one of the better mixed tracks on the album to boot lol. Too bad it doesn't have the finished bridge..

[XoXoJoanneGaga 629]

The production on Bad Romance is mushy and the mastering is average at best. Running the song through a spectrometer shows that most of the frequencies abover 20 kHz have been cut off. That basically renders the song to a meager 256kpbs mp3 quality in lossless format

The general public does not care for mastering/production. If they did, half of the current Top 10 in the USA would be flopping

You're right, but that's not the same issue being discussed re:ARTPOP, mixing =/= mastering. Bad Romance's "mushy" production is the style in which the song was produced, the less-than-great mastering renders it muddier than it should sound at times (mainly the verses) but the song is still properly mixed. The levels in most of the songs on ARTPOP are off, the stems are buried and processed and the sounds don't come through properly, this also applies to her vocals which aren't properly mixed into many of the tracks. This is a much greater issue than faulty mastering. The only song I can think of on the album that has none of these issues off top of my head is Do What U Want.

[Supersonic 49,376]

You're right, but that's not the same issue being discussed re:ARTPOP, mixing =/= mastering. Bad Romance's "mushy" production is the style in which the song was produced, the less-than-great mastering renders it muddier than it should sound at times (mainly the verses) but the song is still properly mixed. The levels in most of the songs on ARTPOP are off, the stems are buried and processed and the sounds don't come through properly, this also applies to her vocals which aren't properly mixed into many of the tracks. This is a much greater issue than faulty mastering. The only song I can think of on the album that has none of these issues off top of my head is Do What U Want.

Tbh, I think ARTPOP sounds just about right, the only song that was off for me was Do What U Want which you praised

[XoXoJoanneGaga 629]

Tbh, I think ARTPOP sounds just about right, the only song that was off for me was Do What U Want which you praised

Interesting lol, what did you find off about it?

Actually I do think the song gets messy during the later choruses with all the layered shouting vocals that aren't that well mixed together, it starts to enter "generic radio track" territory there, but aside from that I would say everything sounds right.

Also since we were talking about the mastering on Bad Romance I would recommend getting the 2014 remastered version on iTunes/Apple Music, sounds considerably better.

[Supersonic 49,376]

Interesting lol, what did you find off about it?

Actually I do think the song gets messy during the later choruses with all the layered shouting vocals that aren't that well mixed together, it starts to enter "generic radio track" territory there, but aside from that I would say everything sounds right.

Also since we were talking about the mastering on Bad Romance I would recommend getting the 2014 remastered version on iTunes/Apple Music, sounds considerably better.

I don't like like how the bass drum sounds in Do What U Want, I feel like it's a sample of an 808 drum that has been Bass Boosted multiple times in Audacity. DJWS tried to fix it in the X-Tina Remix but it still sounds somewhat off for me even there. Also I feel like the production doesn't have that three-dimensional feeling. It can't really put my finger on it. It's like a wall instead of a relief of production/sounds to me

[XoXoJoanneGaga 629]

I don't like like how the bass drum sounds in Do What U Want, I feel like it's a sample of an 808 drum that has been Bass Boosted multiple times in Audacity. DJWS tried to fix it in the X-Tina Remix but it still sounds somewhat off for me even there. Also I feel like the production doesn't have that three-dimensional feeling. It can't really put my finger on it. It's like a wall instead of a relief of production/sounds to me

Well I think most of Gaga's music is brickwalled tbh, it started to a lesser extent on TFM and reached it's peak on BTW. With Do What U Want the individual elements are at least well isolated and have clarity (up until the end of the song), I agree that the 808 is weak but that's a production issue. The song doesn't sound nearly as rough and wall-like to me as something like MANiCURE or Mary Jane Holland.

[elijahfan 23,558]

Yes, I've had these thoughts too... Undoubtedly with Aura, but also with other tracks compared to the way she performed them live. I feel like it was mastered in order to sound safer than it was originally supposed to be.

[Lee 62]

Meh i think Aura leak was better than the studio version. Personally think if some production was made a little edgier and more memorable, like in Sexxx dreams when she shout 'Help me here' if it was a ut rawer and more defined (and in other places) then that song would be so much better. I think ARTPOPs production is Gagas best however they just needed a little bit of risk put into it and it would be on a whole new level of awesome.