Red Hot Chili Peppers - Californication [2LP VINYL]

Product Information

I'm not sure if it's remastered, etc. At that price and if they are going to have it done at BGM, I'd assume it is a remaster but that is only an assumption. Honestly, it's not enough detail to draw too much conclusion. While I don’t hear the clipping distortion on the vinyl sections of the video, an assumption the video presents, that higher DR values (as determined by a program) means that the vinyl IS more dynamic, is a bit erroneous. The imperfections of vinyl can create the illusion of higher dynamics when in fact it is derived from the same compressed master. This is a great detailing of that concept (made by the same video creator, funnily enough).

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

Vlado Meller mastered this album, and will continue to master all of the band’s digital releases until The Getaway, but returned again for the band’s upcoming album, Unlimited Love. Meller is rather infamous for his digital mastering work, often audibly clipping the albums he works with, and Californication is perhaps his worst example of that. There are certainly ways to make loud and dynamically-compressed masters while avoiding making it sound THIS distorted. The solution is generally to have a quieter master. Even one or two less decibels of loudness would lower the amount of distortion on this album significantly, and it would STILL be considered a loud master. For me Californication is an album which I play along to, and when my brother and I get out the guitars to have a jam, the Chili Peppers staples, "Californiation", "Otherside", "Scar Tissue", "Road Trippin'" and "This Velvet Glove" are what we regularly turn to (usually spliced in with some choice moments from Bloodsugar...). It is a record which, when played correctly by two trained and highly professional musicians such as me and my brother, can have enormous bonding qualities, and I like to think that it has brought we two siblings closer together. As you can hear, the original master is squashed and compressed to a level of unacceptable distortion. The snare is reduced to a hard crunch rather than a crisp snap, and the symbols take on an aggressive edge that is fatiguing on the ear. Worst of all, the slide guitar solo is audibly distorted. Universally Speaking”, by contrast, has an odd, clipping-like hiss over the top of its vocals, but features a waveform that looks like this:

Statistics

Throughout the loudness wars, vinyl releases often avert excessive dynamic range compression and clipping by featuring a different, more dynamic master. 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. Other released versions of Californication—some official, some unofficial—feature different masters and sometimes different mixes of songs. Red Hot Chili Peppers aren’t really known for having great masterings of their albums. 1999’s Californication especially left many consumers scratching their heads from how it sounded, many convinced there was something wrong with the disc itself. Californication and many of the band’s albums since One Hot Minute have been subject to what is known as the loudness war, their music being very heavily clipped or dynamically-compressed (not to be confused with data-compressed, which concerns MP3s and such). I edited this album to fix up its clipping, and I was able to get its dynamic range from 5 to 12! I also edited the b-sides from the “Dani California”, “Tell Me Baby”, and “Snow (Hey Oh)” singles! Anyone know anything about this pressing? https://www.discrepancy-records.com.au/red-hot-chili-peppers-californication-us-2020-issu

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

Left is before, right is after. Both versions are made the same loudness, so you can more easily see the differences. John's guitar technique had deteriorated by this point from not having been tested or exercised in two years, so there are no virtuoso performances like those that we have come to expect from him on this recording, but that is an advantage, I think, as the simplicity of the songs is the key to their genius. Flea's bass playing is simple too, but highly inventive and harmoniously effective. This was a time when the Chili's were playing with each other, delighting in each other's ability, and pushing each other along, which is why this is probably the most satisfying post One Hot Minute record they have yet released. Hell, even Anthony's sex rap nonsense seemed to take on an unusual poignancy for the first time. One Hot Minute, mastered by Stephen Marcussen, is the first Red Hot Chili Peppers album that can be described as a participant of the loudness wars.Regardless, since I’m doing it for every one of these examples, I made the album more dynamic, bringing it from a dynamic range of 6 to 12! 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. Oddly enough, yesterday Bernie wasn't mentioned and today he is. Growing up in America my only access to The Beatles were through the Capital Records releases. It wasn’t until later in life when I started also collecting the original Parlophone pressings that I realized just how poorly the Capital albums were mastered.

Red Hot Chili Peppers – Californication (2020, 180g

This differs from a later pressing that shows two pressing rings and some differences in lacquer cut etchings in runout as Red Hot Chili Peppers - Californication and also a pressing without noticeable rings here: Red Hot Chili Peppers - Californication. Californication” and “Universally Speaking” also feature different mixes than their album counterparts on Greatest Hits, but I already noted and edited them in their respective album sections. In an official aversion of Californication’s clipping, the 2012 vinyl release of the album (as well as the 2020 repress) does not seem to have the clipping distortion of its previous counterparts. This is generally viewed as the best version of the album for that reason. Mixes of “Californication” and “Easily” in these vinyl copies differ slightly from their original release, with the former having organ present in its first verse, and the latter having vocals on its final instrumental passage.

Recommendations

I just finished a comparison among this, the CD (and streaming version), and the famed "Unmastered" version of this album. As others have noted, there are some differences in the mixes between this LP and the CD. The "Unmastered" version is even more different. However, my goal was to find the best sounding version to my ears, regardless of mix elements. You would be better off buying the Cd as it sounds much better and you receive a lyrical booklet which is not contained with the record.

Californication (2012, 180g, Vinyl Red Hot Chili Peppers – Californication (2012, 180g, Vinyl

Zooming in, we see something quite familiar: the diagonal flattened compression like was seen on One Hot Minute and the “Unmastered/Unsequenced” versions of Californication. This LP is a bit better - the vocals are a little more natural, and Flea's bass is a tad bit deeper. It has a slightly more natural feel to it. That's about it really, aside from some light EQ improvement which just could be the difference between my analog rig and my digital rig. The LP just isn't on the same level as something like "Unlimited Love," which sounds truly incredible on vinyl. (Then again, it also sounds decent on CD, as it isn't clipped to death - compressed and limited yes, but listenable!) With less audible distortion on this release compared to Californication, my ears were instead drawn to how much of a mess the band sounds when they have no dynamics to breathe with. The choruses especially sound like a band trying to fit both themselves and their instruments into a telephone booth. Interestingly enough, the vinyl release of this album was also mastered by Vlado Meller, but doesn’t seem to be subject to the clipping of the original release! 5Before 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 use “remaster” in quotation marks because nearly every one of these albums retains the same level of dynamics as their original digital 1 release. Only Blood Sugar Sex Magik has a significant difference, that being that it’s far more dynamically-compressed than before. These 2014 remasters sometimes contain different mixes of songs previously-released, however, and I will note when that’s the case. The Red Hot Chili Peppers are a particularly good example, as their 1991 classic Blood Sugar Sex Magik stands in stark comparison. Here, the dynamics are superb, the mastering compression is mild, and in my opinion, it’s one of the best recordings to come out of the 90s.