Red Hot Chili Peppers - Californication [2LP VINYL]

Product Information

I think this release has been bastardized over the years and that originally was a first pressing but manufactured at a different facility. My copy has the double rings like so many Warner Bros pressings of the time but has these matrices: While the 2014 digital remaster of Californication has as much rampant clipping as the original release, it features a slightly different mix of “Savior”, one with “all in the hand” vocals during its outro. (I couldn’t find a posting of this mix on YouTube, so this is the passage in question on my “dynamic edit” of the release.) Since the bad old days of the late 90s and 2000s, things have eased off a little. Some balance restored in recent years, partly because the industry recognized there is a problem, but also because of changing listening habits. Another unofficial version of the album was an “Unmastered/Unsequenced” version that was leaked in 2011. Despite what its title may imply, this release faced a ton of compression on its signal, resulting in distortion comparable to the original retail release.

Red Hot Chili Peppers – Californication (2020, 180g Red Hot Chili Peppers – Californication (2020, 180g

The practice of applying excess compression to boost the overall perceived volume artificially progressed exponentially throughout the 90s. By the time we reached the decade’s end, there were several notable examples where even non-audiophile listeners began to notice quality issues. Perhaps most famously, Red Hot Chili Peppers “Californication” and Metallica’s “Death Magnetic Magnetic” were among some of the worst offenders.These are sections of “Hurt” by Johnny Cash, “The Blister Exists” by Slipknot, and “The Day That Never Comes” by Metallica, respectively. 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.

Red Hot Chili Peppers – Californication (1999, Vinyl) - Discogs Red Hot Chili Peppers – Californication (1999, Vinyl) - Discogs

Vinyl, as a format, has often provided some sanctuary from the loudness war over the last couple of decades. Music that’s overcompressed doesn’t translate well to vinyl. That, and it takes considerable time and skill to master and cut a vinyl record properly. By purchasing music on vinyl, you significantly increase your chances of someone with considerable skill being behind the mastering process. Lyrics and credits sheet has the original 1999 layout and does not report any info about the remaster process. 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!) 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.The band’s Greatest Hits album contains a number of songs from Californication, (specifically “Parallel Universe”, “Scar Tissue”, “Otherside”, “Californication”, and “Road Trippin’”) and they have a bit higher dynamic range than their retail counterparts, and notably less distortion. Even “Californication”, which is 0.7dB quieter on Greatest Hits, has a lot less hiss than its previous release. (It should be noted though, that the Greatest Hits mix of “Californication” has organ in its first verse and runs through the first chorus twice.) The CD and 24-bit version streaming on major platforms were easily the worst the bunch. Everything just sounds terrible.Anthony's vocals clip audibly and frequently. It is shrill beyond belief, and still headache inducing even 23 years later. During my music technology studies, I clearly remember my university lecturer talking about both records and how he’d gone from being a huge fan of the band in the early 90s to woefully disappointed by the release of 1999s Californication. I find this pressing a bit of a mystery. I bought this album within a month of it coming out but my copy does not look like this and I have never seen an Optimal pressing, which looks like this. There is usually a ridge on the spindle hole and then the circle where the Gema/Biem box is but this pressing does not have that tiny ridge right by the spindle hole. My copy actually looks like this copy: Some consumers turned to the vinyl copy in the hope of salvation but were sorely disappointed to find it was the same “squashed” mix as the original CD, just pressed to vinyl. It wasn’t until 2012 that the record finally received a proper remaster, specifically for vinyl, when Chris Bellman at Bernie Grundman Mastering was tasked with cutting the record for a 180g re-pressing.

Red Hot Chili Peppers – Californication (2022, Yellow, Vinyl

While all previous Chili Peppers projects have been highly spirited, Californication dares to be spiritual and epiphanal..." - rollingstone.com, Greg Tate, June 24, 1999

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. i removed "get on top" and "emmit remmus"....and i added under the bridge,aeroplane,and my friends... Living Colour Time’s Up-I had the original CD and it sounded like a really good production with plenty of power. I recently bought a single album version Epic 466920 1 that is anaemic and limp compared to the CD.It also is very quiet perhaps because both sides are very long.I wonder if compression has contributed to make this vinyl sound so bad.There is a double album pressing that might be much better sounding. 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! 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!

After downloading the remastered Californication, I wanted to After downloading the remastered Californication, I wanted to

Describing these albums as “victims of the loudness war” is correct insofar that dynamic range compression and clipping have audibly distorted the sound of the band and made them fatiguing to listen to, but it doesn’t really seem as if this compression and clipping is for the purposes of “adhering to the loudness war”. Given that Rubin has used dirty-sounding compression for records other than By the Way, I find it likely that he just flat-out likes how that compression sounds, and his continued use of Vlado Meller as a mastering engineer makes me doubt that he isn’t acutely aware of Meller’s tendency to clip the recordings he works with. 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. Vote up content that is on-topic, within the rules/guidelines, and will likely stay relevant long-term. 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. The mastering process of a vinyl record can make or break the overall sound quality. The mix engineer can get everything right, from the initial microphone technique to the final mix, but if the mastering quality is poor, the record will fall at the final hurdle.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! 5 What this album needs is a complete remix from top to bottom, just imagine how good it could have sounded. Sadly I doubt we will ever know.