OK, this has been buggin' the shit out of me and could use the opinion of people that know what they're on about - this track by The Derringer Escape Plan - One of Us is the Killer
When it gets to the bridge (at 2.19) , and I'm listening on my headphones, to me it sounds awful. There is distortion, and to me it doesn't sound like a good kind of distortion — I don't think it's on the master fader, maybe everything except the vocals, but I could be wrong.
When I listen to it in my car I can't hear the distortion, it sounds OK.
I've listened to different versions (i.e. different formats from different sources) and it seems to be in all of them.
I think it's kind of there in the chorus (i.e. 1.45) and other parts — I can see the waveform getting a lot more squashed in those sections, but it's definitely most pronounced and audible in the bridge at around 2.19.
To me it sounds like is definitely a some sort of clipping going on. I ask because I don't know whether it was intentional (I assume not) or whether they were trying to make it louder — if it was the latter, is there a way they could have done it better i.e. without the audible distortion?

 

Sounds like an aesthetic choice to me? Arrr hurr I'm descending into madness.

 

I would say it´s the subbass from the kick+bass,
and depending on the audio system, it then distorts.

 

I'm guessing that you are not talking about the guitars completely changing tone at 2:19? Kinda sounds like they added a Boss HM-2 or maybe a cranked RAT.

It also sounds like they are definitely pushing the limiter/limiters too hard, but I'm not hearing any obvious harmonic distortion from that, just pumping.

 

Thanks for the replies, I really appreciate the feedback - sorry for not getting back sooner, have been distracted with assignments and deadlines
Lemmy - I'm not sure about that, I don't think it's the headphones - one is a consumer set and the other studio and they both handle bass pretty well and I can hear it in both - if anything I think its the reverse, that the stereo system in my car, which is just a standard Kia system, is blurring or smearing the sound which is why I can't hear it there.
AJ - yeah, it's not exactly at that initial tone shift, just a few seconds after where there's that choppy staccato downstroke bit (actually that's probably part of it) but I think you're right about the limiters, I think its just doing something to the guitars that I don't like
Anyway, thanks for indulging my microfocus on minutia that's probably not that important in the scheme of things