[MUSIC] Red Hot Chili Peppers - Californication (Bootleg Fan Remaster)

RHCPoninternet | 41 points | Feb 20 2018 12:51:36

[MUSIC] Red Hot Chili Peppers - Californication (Bootleg Fan Remaster) | Megalinks MegaDB [MUSIC] Red Hot Chili Peppers - Californication (Bootleg Fan Remaster)

The unofficial, but far better sounding fan remaster of Californication (Musicbrainz entry of this bootleg). This sounds way better than official releases, mainly because the dynamic range hasn't been reduced to nothing.

From the release:

Red Hot Chili Peppers (1999) Californication [Remastering from rough mixes 2014]

<em> IMPORTANT </em> | Megalinks MegaDB IMPORTANT

These files are NOT brickwalled, but the loudness is pretty low overall, make sure to blast it at full power

<em> IMPORTANT </em> | Megalinks MegaDB IMPORTANT

These are the steps the original 16/44 lossless files went through during mastering:

convert to 24bit/88.2Khz to provide more precise EQ/gain work

De-clipping made in iZotope RX 2 when needed (special declipping done on Get On Top)

EQing made in iZotope RX 2 and Waves plugin in Protools 9

Multiple A/B sessions with different version of EQ until i found the right one for each song

Multiple A/B sessions between songs until i got a homogenized sound throughout the album

I focused on reducing noisefloor via EQ and getting a sense of realness to the drums especially Anthony Kiedis voice sometimes sounds low-fi, but that's part of the mix, since Backing vocals actually sound lively

Widen the stereo a tad with iZotope RX 2 adding left channel to right and right to left which gives a nice wider stereo imaging as well as more ambiance during quiter parts

Multiple listening sessions over the course of 4 weeks on at moderate/high/very high volume (75dB SPL, 85dB SPL, 95dB SPL) :

Audio Technica ATH-M50

AKG Q701

basic iPhone earbuds

Samson Rubicon R8A monitoring speakers with Ribbon tweeters

Pioneer CS-301 3-ways 8" speakers

Cabasse Sampan 311 13 3-ways 13" with "Honeycomb" membrane

Gain adjustment to fit the original CD volume between songs (exactly -11dB compared to the CD)

Resample to 24/44, 16/44 with iZotope RX2

Convert from 16/44 files to 320kbps MP3 and 400kbps m4a using Foobar2000

Tags done in Foobar2000

Upsample to 88.2Khz/24bit > Declip in Izotope RX2 > Widen stereo with Izotope RX2 > EQ in Izotope RX2 and Protools9 Via Waves Plugs > resample/conver to different format > your amazed ears

PW is the name of the sub.

[-] TheGryffyn | 5 points | Feb 20 2018 21:32:21

So the 24bit 88.2khz FLAC is still an upsampling of the original 16/44.1? If so, what's the point of it?

[-] reecord2 | 1 points | Feb 22 2018 19:55:01

I was actually wondering this same thing. Maybe this is a stupid question but I'm guessing they took a full quality rip of the CD, and are retroactively trying to fix the deficiencies in the recording? I applaud the effort and I'm definitely going to listen cause I'm curious, but once a piece of audio is clipped, it's clipped. The only way you could legitimately carry out a project like this is if you had access to the original stems.

-edit- this is what I get for not actually reading the whole post, very interesting https://sites.google.com/site/rhcpsessions/californication-rough-mixes

[-] TheGryffyn | 1 points | Feb 22 2018 21:02:35

Interesting. I wonder how that reference disc got out. In any case, I'm glad it did. This version sounds incredible compared to the standard recording.