Red Hot Chili Peppers - Californication [2LP VINYL]

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Red Hot Chili Peppers aren’t really known for having great masterings of their albums. 1999’s Californication especially left many consumers scratching their heads from how it sounded, many convinced there was something wrong with the disc itself. Californication and many of the band’s albums since One Hot Minute have been subject to what is known as the loudness war, their music being very heavily clipped or dynamically-compressed (not to be confused with data-compressed, which concerns MP3s and such). Original is written as '0 9362-47386-1 9' and the numbers in the middle are below the gaps left by the shorter bars. Finally, we have the picture disc. What you’ll notice right away is an increase in underlying surface noise. Picture discs are renowned for their added surface noise as a byproduct of how they’re made. In terms of the master, I’d say this was the same master as the original, sadly, as the distortion on the guitar solo is still very clear. Interestingly, though, the overall volume is lower than the original. What Does a LOUDNESS WAR Master Look Like?

Red Hot Chili Peppers – Californication (1999, Vinyl) - Discogs Red Hot Chili Peppers – Californication (1999, Vinyl) - Discogs

Maybe as time goes on they will add more to the info. Would be a tremendous release if done properly! B2 Californication 5:21. D2 Purple Stain 4:13. A2 Parallel Universe 4:30. D1 Savior 4:52. C4 This Velvet Glove 3:45. C3 I Like Dirt 2:38. C2 Emit Remmus 4:00.Lyrics and credits sheet has the original 1999 layout and does not report any info about the remaster process.

Californication - 2LP (Walmart Red Hot Chili Peppers - Californication - 2LP (Walmart

During my music technology studies, I clearly remember my university lecturer talking about both records and how he’d gone from being a huge fan of the band in the early 90s to woefully disappointed by the release of 1999s Californication. 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, sells 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. Vlado Meller mastered this album, and will continue to master all of the band’s digital releases until The Getaway, but returned again for the band’s upcoming album, Unlimited Love. Meller is rather infamous for his digital mastering work, often audibly clipping the albums he works with, and Californication is perhaps his worst example of that. There are certainly ways to make loud and dynamically-compressed masters while avoiding making it sound THIS distorted. The solution is generally to have a quieter master. Even one or two less decibels of loudness would lower the amount of distortion on this album significantly, and it would STILL be considered a loud master. I could lie with the shit sound, but I must have cleaned the record 10 times and my needle thinking I was crazy.This is a zoomed-in version of the song “Parallel Universe” from the “Unmastered/Unsequenced” CD-R. Notice how the peaks are flattened, but not horizontal. Horizontal flattening would imply the signal was clipped. It suffers from the same inconsistency as all their albums do - nobody would have missed songs like "Purple Stain" or "Right On Time" - but this is the closest they've come to a solid, consistent listen. The Red Hot Chili Peppers are a particularly good example, as their 1991 classic Blood Sugar Sex Magik stands in stark comparison. Here, the dynamics are superb, the mastering compression is mild, and in my opinion, it’s one of the best recordings to come out of the 90s.

Californication by Red Hot Chili Peppers ( Vinyl, Oct-2012

These are sections of “Hurt” by Johnny Cash, “The Blister Exists” by Slipknot, and “The Day That Never Comes” by Metallica, respectively. Californication” and “Universally Speaking” also feature different mixes than their album counterparts on Greatest Hits, but I already noted and edited them in their respective album sections. In an official aversion of Californication’s clipping, the 2012 vinyl release of the album (as well as the 2020 repress) does not seem to have the clipping distortion of its previous counterparts. This is generally viewed as the best version of the album for that reason. Mixes of “Californication” and “Easily” in these vinyl copies differ slightly from their original release, with the former having organ present in its first verse, and the latter having vocals on its final instrumental passage.Vinyl, as a format, has often provided some sanctuary from the loudness war over the last couple of decades. Music that’s overcompressed doesn’t translate well to vinyl. That, and it takes considerable time and skill to master and cut a vinyl record properly. By purchasing music on vinyl, you significantly increase your chances of someone with considerable skill being behind the mastering process. A similar-looking compression was also applied to One Hot Minute a few years prior. I would argue that use of it complemented the messy aesthetic of One Hot Minute's production. The production on Californication is far more basic and straightforward though, so creating relentless distortion through compression or clipping doesn’t really fit, in my opinion.