Haibane Renmei soundtrack Hanenone - distorsion?

I bought the Pioneer US release and to my dismay I find that on track 3 "Toga" the drums distorts in the left channel. You'd be deaf not to notice it. Very distracting. Surely it's not supposed to sound like this? Anyone else?

I've tried 3 different players and it sounds the same.

Me not happy. [img]/images/graemlins/cry00000.gif[/img]

[KomoriKiri]

Well, I just did a quick comparison between the US and Japanese releases, and they sound the same to me. I do notice, listening to an mp3 rip right afterwards, that it sounds worse in mp3 (which is really only to be expected, of course). So unless there's some kind of manufacturing problem with whatever batch you got, that was probably the way it was originally recorded.

Wraith
"Music expresses that which cannot be put into words and that which cannot remain silent."
-- Victor Hugo

So you are saying you notice nothing wrong? The thing is it's so bad I first thought my left speaker was busted. I've listened to the sample provided by cdjapan but I hear not the same sound.

Would you care to listen to this windows media copy and compare? It's a crashing sound in the left channel, like a cracked woofer or something.

Edit: removed link

[KomoriKiri]

Weird. Your WMA version is harsher than my mp3 version, or the CD versions I have. The same sounds are on the original CDs, but your copy brings it out a lot more for some reason.

I went and checked out the samples on CD Japan, and you're right about there being a big difference. Almost like they've got completely different mixer settings.

Wraith
Do not look into laser with remaining eye

[catsspat]

[ QUOTE ]
Wraith said:
I went and checked out the samples on CD Japan, and you're right about there being a big difference. Almost like they've got completely different mixer settings.


[/ QUOTE ]

First of all, I just checked the DVD where this BGM is used (first appearance of Toga), and it's just like the CD.

I checked out WMA version at Neowing site and yes, it has virtually none of the distorted drum sound, BUT, I played around with compressing the wav file I ripped from the CD just now. At really low bit rates, which I'm sure Neowing is using, it tends to get lost because the distorted(?) drum sound has a lot of high-frequency content.

As far as whether it's intended to be like that or not, is hard to say. Artists can be odd bunch [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]

I don't happen to have any audio editing software installed on any of my machines at the moment. Somebody might want to check to see if it's clipping.

Update: I just checked. It's not clipping or doing anything strange like that. Considering it sounds the same on DVD as on CD, I'd hazard to guess that it was intended to be that way. While doing this, I discovered another nice open-source software, Audacity.

By the way, it's "distortion," not "distorsion."

--rich

Thanks for the input guys. Sure is weird, but at least I am satisfied there's nothing wrong with the CD. I didn't remember the DVD sounding that way but when I checked it myself it does indeed sound the same. It's not as noticeable, but it's there allright. [ QUOTE ]
By the way, it's "distortion," not "distorsion."

[/ QUOTE ] Ah, I used Swedish spelling. Some words are the same, but for a letter or two.


Update: I'm now positive it's supposed to sound like it does. The same "cracked drum" is used on track 7 "Silent Wonderland". It's played softer so it doesn't stand out as much, but if you listen carefully you'll notice it.