Amie Winehouse's CD is great musically, as well - surprising R&B/Euro approach for today's times. It's got a lot of "Warm" samples and analog-style sounds.

Unfortunately, in today's insane quest to make everything LOUD, it's all but unlistenable (sonically) after a few tunes, including the hit. The clipping, distortion and gain-maximizing destroys the warm, fuzzy analog sound they went for in the first place. It's sad/funny. My speakers sound like they're blown out (not in a good way) while listening to this.

They got close to what they'd intended: warm analog R&B with distortion (tubes, tape, etc.) giving it a true retro feel. Unfortunately, making it as loud as they did, they inadvertantly crunched the hell out of everything else, making all that warm and fuzzy stuff sound horrible and clipped. (including her voice....god, what I would give to hear that voice of hers WITHOUT the final crunch/compression/maximizing.)

Too bad, really. It's getting like Martians or aliens are making some of today's pop music. They seem to have listened to a couple of 60's-era recordings and THIS is what they think it should sound like now.

Everyone is looking to sell CDs. They want to go back to a time that music was something very special and people would stand in line to get the next album from the super stars similar to what we see when the Apple IPhone or XBox are introduced. They buy good quality analog gear, they record to tape, they use plug-ins that are suppose to give you "that analog" sound. They do everything to try and make things sound really good like the "olde" days.

Their hearts are in the right place BUT then they do something very stupid (IMHO). They take what is beautifully recorded and squash the he!! our of it though a compressor/limiter or clip the A to D converter in an effort to make their music as loud as the next guys.

As a mastering engineer I see this all the time. People want their stuff EXTRA loud and that is when it gets messed up. A good mastering engineer can make music good and loud but when the client wants it to be the "loudest CD out there" (like Califorication by the RHCP) then it gets harder to do and sometimes the results are less than pleasing. We are talking top level mastering engineer messing things up.

Now imagine a band or artist trying to make their own stuff sound "really loud" and you get a lot of distorted over the top crap that is so prevalent today.

I am so tired of hearing material that someone recorded with Protools had no understanding of gain staging or dynamics, has used 32 plug-ins on every track and then has taken this whole mess and tried to use their Behringer Compressor, Limiter, Popcorn maker to try and get the level they want and then bring it all to me so I can "make it sound good and loud"

I has a session where a client brought in a CD by the group MUTEMATH and wanted their stuff to sound like the CD. All I heard on the CD was overdriven distorted tracks that has 0dB of dynamic range and everything was as loud as it could possibly be. Why try and emulate something that is totally crap to listen to. Oh well....I did what I could but my heart was not in it.

I think I will listen to some good acoustic music from the 70's and rest my ears......