Red Hot Chili Peppers - Californication [2LP VINYL]

Product Information

Before I start, I want to note that there are 2014 “remasters” of every album by the group from Blood Sugar Sex Magik to Stadium Arcadium. I know we have been discussing this in the a RHCP thread but I thought it might be appropriate to start a new thread for those not following that one and to bring attention to this particular album title.

Different Mastering, Same Record - Californication Mastering Different Mastering, Same Record - Californication Mastering

I edited this album to attempt to fix up its clipping, and I was able to get its dynamic range from 4 to 13! I just finished a comparison among the 2012 version (which is identical to the version here, save for the labels), the CD (and streaming version), and the famed "Unmastered" version of this album.The question I then ask myself is this: If this odd use of compression isn’t simply to make track louder, does Rubin use it because he thinks it’s powerful, perhaps like how “And We Danced” by The Hooters sounded? Also, I've seen Elusive Disc list Bernie Grundman as the mastering engineer as recently as the One Hot Minute reissue and then it was pulled down. The instrumentation is finally given the room to finally bounce around without hogging up each other’s sonic space.

Californication - Reissue - Cut by Bernie Grundman | Steve Californication - Reissue - Cut by Bernie Grundman | Steve

Different to 2012 version as has coloured labels matching cover art, the text on the front cover is translucent so you can see the art through the text, and the web addresses have been removed from the bottom of rear cover. Still, I still hear clipping hiss throughout the album, such as on the guitars here on “Monarchy of Roses” or on the vocals here on “Meet Me on the Corner”. By the end of the nineties, their funk-metal what-have-you was incredibly played out and they were getting a little old to be maintaining the party-animal, clothed-in-only-a-single-sock image. I am definitely one who prefers more dynamic mixes and masters, for the most part, but I found the compression on One Hot Minute to still have a sense of nuance that could make it forgivable, if not desirable. Both are rather infamous for the distortion they have created or pushed for in multiple records, and that’s why I assert that they are most likely the reason for the band’s loudness during this period.The practice of applying excess compression to boost the overall perceived volume artificially progressed exponentially throughout the 90s. All versions of Californication officially released in 1999 (as well as the 2019 picture disc release and 2014 digital remaster), however, seem as though they have the same ridiculous clipping.

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

I plan on editing the rest of Unlimited Love to make it more dynamic when it comes out on the 1st of next month, but for now, I edited “Black Summer” and “Poster Child”, bringing their dynamic ranges to 12 and 13, respectively!Reddit and its partners use cookies and similar technologies to provide you with a better experience. Throughout the loudness wars, vinyl releases often avert excessive dynamic range compression and clipping by featuring a different, more dynamic master. s Californication especially left many consumers scratching their heads from how it sounded, many convinced there was something wrong with the disc itself. AT-LP120 needs to track on the heavier side to not skip like a gram more since anti-skate don't really work on those tables.