Metallica - Death Magnetic (perfect FLAC recordings from GH3)

Metallica - Death Magnetic (GH3) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ - Bit-matched digital recordings from Guitar Hero III on an Xbox 360. Lossless FLAC encoding. - The in-game volume was set to 8, the highest clip-free level for these songs. - Why 48 kHz? Because that's what comes out. - There are a few small problems. They were all triple-checked. This is exactly what the game puts out. - Same lengths of silent padding (at the beginning and end of each track) as on the CD. - This is probably as pure and clean as a recording from an Xbox 360 gets :)

udp://tracker.openbittorrent.com:80
udp://open.demonii.com:1337
udp://tracker.coppersurfer.tk:6969
udp://exodus.desync.com:6969

Covak (2008-09-17)

I think Winamp comes with FLAC support these days. If not there are surely plugins. It's a lossless format.

baelon (2008-09-17)

Thanks dude!
48khz is what windows remixes everything to by default, I wouldn't worry about it. If you use kernel streaming or asio for bit-perfect playback, you'll also know how to set your sample rate to 48khz, but I doubt most people will notice or care.
FLAC is Free Lossless Audio Codec. You can get plugins for winamp or itunes, or just use the best player out there, foobar2000, which supports it natively.

Siankovic (2008-09-17)

SWEEEEET!!! Decent quality at last. Now I'll just hope that AC/DC will make a GH version as well....

Daniel_01 (2008-09-17)

Seeders needed!! Thank you.

Covak (2008-09-17)

I guess since it's going slow (sorry, but it is getting there) people are still curious about what, exactly this is. Like, 48 kHz? More quiet than the mp3s? What's up? To try to be clear...
- When you have your 360 set for digital stereo output, it puts out 16-bit, 48 kHz stereo. So that's exactly what was recorded.
- These are quieter than the mp3s, yes. If you turn the game up one more notch Cyanide clips, so these were recorded at the highest game volume that puts out a perfectly clean, non-clipping signal. ReplayGain still wants to turn them down, anyways :)
Personally, I think the best you can get from GH3 is this with a little EQing (I like the highs with a little more life, like on the CD), but I wasn't about to EQ these files (or modify them in any other way). The point of this is to get a perfectly clean, problem-free, lossless rip out for everyone to enjoy.
With my 10-band EQ I've got 8k up 1.5dB and 16k up 2.4dB to get the highs a little more like the CD.

Quite (2008-09-17)

"Not to be disrespectful, but I really don't think > these sound any better than the mp3s I did. I think they actually sound considerably muffled."
On the other hand, the CD version has pretty exaggerated and harsh highs due to the ridiculous compression...

OAKside24 (2008-09-17)

Thanks Covak. Appreciate all the time and headaches it took to get this uploaded. (Will try out some EQ on them, too.)

Covak (2008-09-17)

Crank the beginning of the 'The Unforgiven III' mp3 and listen to that crazy warble in those piano notes. Then try 'That Was Just Your Life' and you can hear a similar problem with the clean guitar intro. Something really wrong there.
The highs in the mp3s are also up *way* higher than on the CD (and they're already pretty high there), which is why these FLACs (and the CD) sound muffled by comparison. They're exactly what comes out of the game, which is a little light on the high frequencies. A little EQing (like I've already recommended if you like the highs on the CD) can do wonders.
I didn't say this is "THE best" version or anything like that. I simply said it's a pure and clean recording. Exactly what the game puts out digitally. Nothing more, nothing less.

serosis (2008-09-17)

Thanks for the upload Covak, will be seeding this one for awhile.
Love the fact that these are just direct digital recordings from GHIII

baelon (2008-09-17)

"Not to be disrespectful, but I really don't think these sound any better than the mp3s I did. I think they actually sound considerably muffled."
Big thanks to both of you.

CashBailey (2008-09-17)

Thank you so much for this.
The difference between this version of the album and that clipped, distorted atrocity I paid good money for on CD is staggering!
As usual, Rick Rubin's production (if you could ever call it that) is very flat and without an ounce of reverb, so the record will always sound a bit too 'close' for my liking. But compared to the constant ear-killing distortion of the CD version this is quite a revelation.
Thanks again.

Daniel_01 (2008-09-18)

In the past, downloaded music, typically 128kbps MP3 encodes, was much lower quality than original CD.
In this case, ironically a Metallica record, downloaded music sounds much better than original CD.
Thank you both Covak and D34DL1N3R. I'm seeding.

Hybrid_Theory (2008-09-18)

Awesome! Way better them the Cd sound! At first, i think it was because of the "192" quality. Later ive listened to the real album. It was the same! So thanks for this!

professorvalley (2008-09-18)

what "small problems" are we talking about here?

Covak (2008-09-18)

Just minor things, like there's still the odd spot of static with a guitar, or the way James says "Luck... runs... out." sounds a little warbled if you listen carefully. They messed with the reverb during that 2 second break in 'All Nightmare Long.' It gets a sharp boost that sounds almost like a clip if you're listen closely with headphones.
Tiny things like that. Maybe "problems" wasn't the right word :)

Godbluffer (2008-09-18)

Apart from the good quality of these FLAC-files it's indeed clear that they need a bit of EQ-ing to really sound good. The first five tracks only need a bit of a hight frequency lift, but the next five tracks additionally are for some reason louder in general and very bass heavy. They need quite a different treatment to shine!

Godbluffer (2008-09-18)

I think I may have come up with a pretty good EQ lay-out on Nero and then burned it to CD. It could at least serve as a marker perhaps. :)
First five tracks:
On the far RIGHT the EQ's are set as follows:
+0.1|+0.4|+0.7|+1.0|+1.3
Last five tracks, same as above PLUS:
On the far LEFT:
-8|-5.5|-3.5|-2.4|-1
That's right, no less than minus EIGHT at the left! I really detected a hefty bass emphasis there.
Anyway, I hope this can be a bit of help. ;)

Godbluffer (2008-09-18)

By the way, you should the last SIX instead of the last FIVE tracks. I personally left out the 2nd version of Suicide & Redemption.

WiHHi (2008-09-18)

so stereo here is same to CD stereo, or swapped?
btw, I like this rip, thanks!

Godbluffer (2008-09-18)

It's same as CD stereo.

Tech-Noir (2008-09-18)

Awesome upload Covak. Looks like I will be able to really enjoy this album.
The overall mix is alot better in my opinion, with drums being softer, and the guitars are allowed to give the songs a more flowing and even character, since the drums aren't constantly in your face and puncturing the sound with overly loud distorted hits.
EQ overall is on the dull side, less bright than the CD release. But the EQ "flow" is very even thanks to the quite raw (ie unprocessed) nature of the sound, and thus a simple EQ treble boost adjustment in WINAMP or the stereo seems to work well, and on all the songs aswell.
But most importantly, this is just so much nicer to listen to. No hyper compressor pumping, no clipping distortion, the hihats are even in sound rather than the constant fluctuation or "fluttering" in presence that occurs when you clip the shit out of the songs like the CD. The "surface" of the songs is smooth and even, and easily enjoyable. The instruments are allowed to breathe on their own, rather than all being squeezed into a too small room and having to fight to be heard.
Awesome upload, really nice. And very recommended over the CD which sounds quite terrible in comparison.

Godbluffer (2008-09-19)

@ william_murderface
I use Nero version 7, which contains a 20-band equalizer that can be found by using the "Burn audio CD" function. You have to drag the flac-files into the box that appears there, upon which the tracks are analyzed and added to the tracklist for burning (make sure the flac plugin for Nero is installed, downloadable from nero.com).
Now you select alle the files and click on "properties" on the right, then choose the tab "filters"; at the bottom the box "equalizer" must then be ticked. Now the equalizer is visible.
With FAR LEFT and FAR RIGHT I meant the equalizer bands on those sides.
On the far left they are 22, 31, 44, 62, and 88 Hz, whereas on the far right they are 4, 5.6, 8, 11.3, and 16 kHz.
I cannot tell you if Audacity would actually do a better job, but one thing's certain. You can set the equalizer FAR less accurately there. I EQ-ed several CD's with it that sound very statisfactory to my ears, so I guess that's what counts. :)
As for the 48 kHz flac-files, I encountered no problems and could simply burn the CD.
PS: I made another EQ of the files, leaving the first five files untouched. It sounds a bit darker, and slightly less defined, but the naturalness of the timbre of especially the drums seems to point out that this was how it actually was recorded.
I still am convinced that tracks 6 to 11 have too much of lower bass emphasis, which I think demands correction. The settings are still the ones I said in the instructions above, but upon listening to the whole thing, I felt that track 10 had an even more pronounced emphasis, making it still sound too muffled. For that track alone I now used the settings -10, -7, -4.2, -2.5, and -1 on the first five bands of the equalizer, and just as the first five tracks NO adjustments in the upper EQ bands.
I hope this answers your questions, and I wish you lots of listening enjoyment!

Godbluffer (2008-09-19)

"I EQ-ed several CD's with it that sound very statisfactory to my ears, so I guess that's what counts. "
I meant to say that for the Nero equalizer. :)

Godbluffer (2008-09-19)

Also important is that there's no guarantee that those same settings would yield the same results on another equalizer . My experience is that no equalizer is quite the same!

Bloodw (2008-09-19)

This release,despite the small problems, with the lossy encoded seperate instrumental and voice tracks, mixed in realtime on a 199usd console, has the best sound of any Metallica album to date. That includes various audiophile remaster and gold CD's. Yes, even the black album sounds compressed compared to this, even though The Black Album is a little clearer.
You should not use any EQ at all. Just crank this baby all the way up. The downside is that it requires a better stereo than average to come really alive, so in that respect it could just use just a tiny bit of compression. (but I will always prefer no or minimal compression personally)
Just image how this would sound like if mixed from the original high definition tracks by, say, Chesky Records or someone along those lines :)
If you want to convert this to 44100hz for burning onto CD, then I would recommend using DBpoweramp Reference as it has a high quality resampler (the non-reference versions has a simpler one, and I guess the one included in Nero is also simpler). I have also listened to another torrent of lossless version from xbox which is already 44100hz, and is just a tad higher (maybe the volume is at 10 instead of 8?) and this clearly sound better. Also D34DL1N3R mp3 version which is taken from the PS3 analog output is very crappy compared to this, despite what he says.
There is one version that we haven't seen, and that is the PS3 version, recorded from the optical output, at a master volume that doesn't clip, but I suspect the difference would be miniscule.

Bloodw (2008-09-19)

I meant that "this" one, this torrent that you are watching right now, is the best one there is.

Lulz_At_You (2008-09-19)

great quality, thanks for ripping and uploading it

sveterv (2008-09-19)

WHOAH! Totally different listening experience, this sounds GREAT! Why the fuck music can't be mastered that way today?!? All the instruments have their own sounding, maybe vocal shouldn't be equalized, maybe it's a mic that they used not eq, who knows. THANX for this upload, Metallica should thank GH3 team for doing a thing that could not do Metallica producer. Well, probably GH3 team didn't do anything special, they just didn't screwed a thing by raising volume of the tracks too idiotically high level. That's the secret of great sounding record "-20dB fs RMS", that should be a standard!

klarsen91 (2008-09-20)

Thanks alot for the great upload Covak! The sound quality is simply in a different world compared to the official cd. I really hope that we've hit the bottom in the "loudness war" with this one, and that record companies (and bands?) will learn their lesson.
By the way: What's up with the two versions of "Suicide & redemption"? I haven't really learned the songs good enough to note any differences. Compared to the cd version, the lack of fading in the beginning and end is obviously different, but is there anything else?

GonadTheBallbarian (2008-09-20)

@ klarsen91
On the two Suicide and Redemption tracks, check the guitar solos starting at 6:25. One track has James Hetfield playing the solo and the other has Kirk Hammet playing the solo. Very different.

GonadTheBallbarian (2008-09-20)

That's why one is labeled with a J.H. and the other is labeled with a K.H..

klarsen91 (2008-09-20)

Yes, the solos are very different. And they're both different from the official cd, which includes both solos, although somewhat shorter versions.
This is actually bugging me a bit now, since I want to burn a cd. I can't fit both versions on one cd, and I don't really want to listen to (more or less) the same song twice... And I guess it is impossible to mix the two versions together? (The fact that I'm even considering this, based on a rip from a game, says quite a bit about the original cd...)

lynott49 (2008-09-21)

Hi!
THANKS A 1000times.
I have the real CD and it sounds like shit.
I think everything is perfect with this version, I hear the real bass playing by Rob the first time, I hear melodies on the guitars and dynamics I never heard before!
Why Ulrich/Hetfield plus Rubin so stupid??
lynott49

KenRobert (2008-09-21)

Thank you very much. This sounds so much better then the CD.
But how did you rip this? There are many songs from both GH3 and RB that sounds better in the game than the original CD. Please help.

poipoipoi (2008-09-21)

album art:

NeverTheSame (2008-10-02)

klarsen91: Simple, cut out Unforgiven III. What a crock of garbage that track is.

alphabeta666 (2008-11-17)

This really sounds better than the original CD. The info said that it is a recordings from Guitar Hero III on an Xbox 360... Does it mean that Im listening to someone playing the game..?

r-u-nutz (2009-01-29)

Excellent torrent! Great sound quality!
SOOO much better than the overblown "official" CD version! This makes Metallica's best album in 15+ years sound the way it should've in the first place.
Many thanks, Covak!

username9900123 (2010-04-17)

HOLY FREAKING SHIT!!!
I bought the retail cd the day it came out, and I've listened to it a thousand times.... Suicide&Redemption has NEVER sounded this FREAKING AWESOME!!!!
not even thru listening to the first track i clicked on, and i can tell you:
great green-goat fucking hell, this is W.A.Y. better than the cd!!!!
THANK YOU A THOUSAND TIMES OVER COVAK!!!!
(btw, the difference was noticeable immediately)
(p.s.s. - I just got the to 6:55 mark in the JH S&R and I almost flipped out! this is the shittttttttt!!!!)

username9900123 (2010-04-17)

could someone post instructions for converting this to mp3 so i can put it on my mp3 player? (doesnt support flac)

username9900123 (2010-04-22)

convert using dbpoweramp; can also increase volume w/o sacrificing quality

ipowlinda (2011-02-04)

hey just wanted to say thanks for the upload, big metallica fan here, what I do notice is that the volume does seem low, I adjusted each songs volume in itunes to max, then I turn the volume in y receiver a bit higher and BAM! no more bleeding ears! even at higher volumes! everything does sound a bit more clearer! Btw the tracks are Apple Lossless I used XLD on my MAC from FLAC to Apple Lossless
POw

ipowlinda (2011-02-04)

BTW im still seeding so grab it while u can

thenarddog (2011-04-29)

Please seed. I reallllly wanna hear this and it's dead :(.

geraldfrench (2011-10-09)

bad sound....:(

Toneymoon (2011-11-22)

Thank you, Covak! Only listening to your rip I realized, that Death Magnetic is very good album! Now I love it! But I have some questions:
1) Did you have to play the game (using joystick or some manipulator, simulating guitar) during the ripping, or everythig is original?
2) Can you just grab the original sound files from the game cd?

slackgit (2012-01-14)

I can't understand why Moderus etc are remastering the GH3 release when the GH3 mastering is so good anyway. For me this is the definitive version :)

ksio_amaral3 (2012-05-24)

Thanks God(and Covak) there is this rip available to download,because the retail version really suffers from severe clipping,distortion and poor dynamic range.It's a Rick Rubin's trend to make records sound like shit.
THanks for the torrent,Covak,gonna seed till I reach 100% share ratio!

filthy3825 (2015-08-23)

Thank you.