The Rolling Stones - Laugh, I Nearly Died (Dynamic Edit)

This is what I like to call a ‘dynamic edit’ of “Laugh, I Nearly Died” by The Rolling Stones! A Bigger Bang faced a heavy amount of dynamic range compression (not to be confused with data compression, which concerns MP3s and such) in its mastering, which, when used in excess or poorly, can make music fatiguing to listen to over time and cause audible distortion. In this, I attempt to undo that mastering compression and resulting distortion, making the music more dynamic and hopefully, more listenable!

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, should sell 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.

The issue with this is that overuse of dynamic range compression and clipping can make music fatiguing to listen to, and sometimes even audibly distorted. Additionally, clipping, poor compressors, or overuse of compressors can result in artifacts such as hiss or crackle being audible atop the signal. The album has crackly distortion throughout a significant amount of its runtime, including the guitar solo of “Oh No, Not You Again”, the final coda of “Streets of Love”, and throughout the yells of “She Saw Me Coming”.

The question that comes to my mind throughout this release is who is to blame for the distortion atop the release. Jack Joseph Puig mixed tracks 2, 3, 5, 7–11, and 15 of the album, which are the most distorted on the album. Puig also produced and mixed the John Mayer’s especially loud album Heavier Things a few years prior.

However, I don’t think the question of “who’s to blame” is as simple as a rogue engineer going against the wishes of the band to “ruin” this release. Distortion is not limited to this album, with the Giles Martin mix of “Silver Train” from the band’s 2020 Goats Head Soup reissue audibly distorting in a number of places. (That distortion isn’t present over the 1973 Glyn Johns mix of the track.) That 2020 Goats Head Soup remix faces a different set of mixer/mastering engineer credits (Giles Martin/Emily Lazar) compared to the CD release of A Bigger Bang (Dave Sardy, Jack Joseph Puig, and Krish Sharma/Stephen Marcussen). I think it’s fair to an extent to believe that the band either likes or is ambivalent to the distortion across many of their releases.

I attempted to undo the album’s heavy dynamic range compression with a program called “Perfect Declipper”, which can not only affect clipping, but other types of compression found in mastering as well! I was able to improve those elements of “Oh No, Not You Again”, “Streets of Love”, and “She Saw Me Coming” that I noted, and make the album as a whole more dynamic! Through this process, I was able to bring the dynamic range of the album overall from 6 to 13, which hopefully makes it more listenable as well!

It’s important to note that the dynamics are not being restored with the “Perfect Declipper” program that I use, but rather, they are being approximated. While one may not be able to “declip” an album as one would be unable to “unbake a cake”, I find the results here to be a convincible attempt at doing so. Only in the most extreme examples have I heard the program produce odd artifacts that would appear unintended in the album’s mix.

I also want to make clear that dynamic range compression is not an inherently bad thing. It can tighten up performances, add grit, and help remove dynamic outliers that would take you out of the mix. Additionally, mastering engineers are often underneath the implicit and explicit pressures of artists and record labels to master albums loudly, so the results of mastering may not necessarily reflect a mastering engineer’s intentions for how they wanted an album to sound. Also, whether my edits sound better than the original release is up to what the listener thinks!

I produce many more dynamic edits on this channel as well as further descriptions in posts over on Reddit! You can look at this for a full list of the albums I’ve done: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1975IIQ...

If you like my work, consider donating to me on Ko-fi! I prioritize suggestions for $15, but any amount donated is appreciated! https://ko-fi.com/dynamiceditor