Let's mobilise to get the technical mastering issue (buzzing noises) of 1989 (Taylor's Version) fixed
EDIT 2 11/6: It has been attempted to be fixed in the master at source level. Most, if not all streaming services now have the new version. It's not perfect but I guess this is as good as we're getting. A massive thankyou to every single person who upvoted, commented, Tweeted, or shared this post with the people who needed to see it. You helped this happen. I can finally listen to this album in peace.
Proof:
As some of us know, the master for 1989 TV is what some people would refer to as 'broken' at a technical level.
There is something Randy Merrill missed when mastering the album in many of the 'core' tracks (vault tracks are unaffected).
The problem is buzzing/electrical noise audible, mostly on vocals but not always just vocals. It's at 15.7kHz and it represented by a line on a spectrogram. You may not be able to hear it as not everyone can hear frequencies that high, but it is certainly there and there's nothing you can do to fix it on your end (besides edit every track yourself but then you're compromising other sounds at the same frequency). It is in every digital and CD version of the album (I have yet to listen to the vinyl but that has a different mastering process so I'm not sure it'll be on that).
I'm not asking her team to recall CDs as that would be a massive waste considering how many are out there, but I am asking her team to get this fixed and replace it everywhere digital.
You can help signal boost this by upvoting this thread or saving the below image and tweeting it at Taylor Nation on Twitter/X, asking for the master to be fixed for the album, or both. The image is a 30 second zoom of Clean TV but is not the only track effected.
Lana Del Rey has had a similar problem crop up in her recent releases, and they fixed it on streaming and digital sales within 24 hours. We're well past that with 1989 TV, and I don't think it'll ever be fixed if we don't push the issue.
This is in the interest of everyone. Just because you can't hear it, doesn't mean it's not a problem. It's record breaking for some of us who can. It should never have made it past QA with this issue. An honest mistake, but one that should have been caught well before it was released.
I want to stress again, it's not just Clean with this issue. Style is bad, All You Had To Do Was Stay is bad. New Romantics has a clicking artifact in the intro of the song too. Other songs have the issue too, but they're the worst ones.
It's just a shame because I think for the most part, the TV is a sonic upgrade on the original, but this technical mistake ruins it completely.
Thanks for your time.
EDIT: I have done spectrograms looking for the specific problem in the 15kHz range for every single song now.
- Welcome to New York (has the problem but not as bad as others)
- Blank Space (immune completely)
- Style (has the problem bad, very audible in the quiet sections of the song)
- Out of the Woods (outro has vocal buzzing)
- All You Had to Do Was Stay (has the problem but not quite as bad as the worst ones)
- Shake It Off (pretty sure it's there but I can barely see it in analysis, and I can't hear it, this one gets a pass)
- I Wish You Would (immune completely)
- Bad Blood (has the problem, audible in the verses mostly)
- Wildest Dreams (immune completely)
- How You Get the Girl (has the problem, quieter sections audible)
- This Love (immune completely)
- I Know Places (has the problem, bad in verses, not so bad chorus)
- Clean (has the problem the worst of all the songs)
- Wonderland (has the problem)
- You Are in Love (has the problem is a select few moments)
- New Romantics (has the problem)
- Slut! (immune completely)
- Say Don't Go (immune completely)
- Now That We Don't Talk (immune completely)
- Suburban Legends (immune completely)
- Is It Over Now? (immune completely)
- Bad Blood (feat. Kendrick Lamar) (has the problem on Taylor's vocals only, not too bad)