Clipping vocals

I got a new pair of BM6a MKIIs for my home studio (moved BM5a to where I edit video). Trying to break the speakers in gently, I was listening to some standard CDs - Bob Dylan. Gordon Lightfoot, Springsteen, some jazz, and a few female singers.

Like almost all of them sound edgy like they clipped the vocals. Guitars are clear, bass is good, strings silky smooth but the vocals are raspy at the top end.

I check the same CDs on the BM5a's and the raspy vocals were essentially the same.

I never listened to commercial CDs in my studio before. It's got me wondering if my ears are going. But I did scrounge some vocals that didn't sound raspy so it must be bad recordings.

Is that typical?

Cheers, and thanks for replies.

Keep in mind that those classic records have been remastered for CD, and unfortunately that process doesn't always end well. You may just be hearing things more clearly than you're used to, making those defects more obvious.

Pick up some titles that are widely used as mastering references. Most of them are older, pre-loudness-war products and can be bought cheaply secondhand. Here's an example (95 cents plus $4 shipping).

bitflipper


Keep in mind that those classic records have been remastered for CD, and unfortunately that process doesn't always end well. You may just be hearing things more clearly than you're used to, making those defects more obvious.

Pick up some titles that are widely used as mastering references. Most of them are older, pre-loudness-war products and can be bought cheaply secondhand. Here's an example (95 cents plus $4 shipping).

Yes, many CDs have issues and the newer remasters are even worse. I had to just on e-bay and find old CD of all my Van Halen (and others), the ones I got a WalMart were remastered crap.  I did my own remaster and they sound great.  If you have remastered ones check the UPC and make sure you aren't just getting the same one. Many e-bay sellers are putting "not remaster" right in the description now so they are on to us. LOL ! ... might see the price go up soon.

If you do have one of each rip both in and look at them with a wav editor, it's really shocking how much clipping there is in the new ones. A good 10% or more of the music is just gone and the rest sounds very bad.

I'm in the process of remastering my entire music collection right now and even the old CDs sometimes need help. Lots of distortion, pops, clicks, tape dropouts, misplaced track IDs, bad fades, all kinds of stuff to fix.