Polyphia - BE NOT AFRAID (Dynamic Edit)

This is what I like to call a ‘dynamic edit’ of Be Not Afraid by Polyphia! This album faced an extraordinary amount of dynamic range compression (not to be confused with data compression, which concerns MP3s and such) in its release, which, has made the music incredibly distorted, especially when a kick or bass boom hits. In this, I attempt to undo that heavy compression and resulting distortion, making the music more dynamic and hopefully, more listenable! For those not in the know, the Loudness War is a phenomenon beginning in the mid-90s onward, in which music was mastered louder and louder, with the underlying reasoning being that louder music sounds better, and thus, should sell better. As with any medium, however, there is a peak loudness a signal can reach, so dynamic range compression (which makes the louder parts of the signal quieter while keeping the quiet parts the same loudness) and sometimes even clipping (attempting to make a signal louder than maximum loudness) were used to make music as loud as possible. The issue with this is that overuse of dynamic range compression and clipping can make music fatiguing to listen to, and sometimes even audibly distorted. Additionally, clipping, poor compressors, or overuse of compressors can result in artifacts such as hiss or crackle being audible atop the signal. I attempted to undo the album’s heavy dynamic range compression with a program called “Perfect Declipper”, which can not only affect clipping, but other types of compression found in mastering as well! Through this process, sections like the start of “WITH EYES TO SEE” and the final minute of “POWER IN THE BLOOD” are not only less distorted, but the different elements of the mix in the songs are much more discernable. On the whole, I was able to bring the dynamic range of the album overall from 1 to 12, which should make it a great deal easier to listen to as well! You can see how a few of my edits for the album look here: Left is before, right is after. Both are made the same loudness, so you can more easily see the differences between them. It’s important to note that the dynamics are not being restored with the “Perfect Declipper” program that I use, but rather, they are being approximated. While one may not be able to “declip” an album as one would be unable to “unbake a cake”, I find the results here to be a convincing attempt at doing so. Only in the most extreme examples have I heard the program produce odd artifacts that would appear unintended in the album’s mix. I also want to make clear that dynamic range compression is not an inherently bad thing. It can tighten up performances, add grit, and help remove dynamic outliers that would take you out of the mix. Additionally, mastering engineers are often underneath the implicit and explicit pressures of artists and record labels to master albums loudly, so the results of mastering may not necessarily reflect a mastering engineer’s intentions for how they wanted an album to sound. Also, whether my edits sound better than the original release is up to what the listener thinks! 0:00 - LET THERE BE LIGHT 4:51 - WITH EYES TO SEE 8:56 - SCREWTAPE 11:30 - POWER IN THE BLOOD 15:09 - THEY KNOW NOT WHAT THEY DO 19:06 - MARK OF THE BEAST 23:35 - CAN YOU FEEL IT 26:39 - NEAR DEATH 28:51 - J-BOMB 33:01 - DENY THE FLESH 38:12 - DEVIL GET BEHIND ME 41:16 - FEAR GOD