Less Than

[paul_guyet]

I know what you mean, yesterday when I tried to recall it after only a couple of listens, it was a weird mix of Fur Lined and No Easy Way Out ( ) that kept creeping into my head.

I have been trying to place that fucking synth line since LT dropped. Thank you.

[Toadflax]

I have been trying to place that fucking synth line since LT dropped. Thank you.

Haha, that's amazing.




EDIT: Am I crazy for thinking a NIN makeover of this song might actually sound pretty great?

[simonn]

Does anyone else find the production on this a bit muddy? The Spotify version, meant to be 320 kbs, is still not that great (when compared to the obviously compressed Youtube version). For those with the hi-res files, is their more clarity, or is it still all a bit murky?

Loving the song whatever, just a comment on production.

[Sandy Phimester]

The download sounds better, the Spotify one sounds a bit muddy to me

[witte]

Unfortunately it sounds more like HM than NTAE. Trying way too hard for a pop hit again. Sigh.

still for me the best line in this topic after 4 pages.
next...

[perterje]

Does anyone else find the production on this a bit muddy? The Spotify version, meant to be 320 kbs, is still not that great (when compared to the obviously compressed Youtube version). For those with the hi-res files, is their more clarity, or is it still all a bit murky?

Loving the song whatever, just a comment on production.

Yep, I feel the same. The downloaded flac (24bit/48kHz) sounds like a dubbed mono mix to me. It sounds the same on Google Play Music, so I guess it's intended.

[Madmya]

Good song ay cunts

[chuenthez]

Yep, I feel the same. The downloaded flac (24bit/48kHz) sounds like a dubbed mono mix to me. It sounds the same on Google Play Music, so I guess it's intended.

Not related but the 24bit/48kHz song is actually a 44.1kHz, just like some songs in NTAE (Dear World, I think). Imperceptible, but still.

[Ash512]

It's honestly my favourite NIN song in a long while. This is one of their best singles. Immediate accessibility is not a bad thing.
Writing a good, intelligent, beautiful pop song isnot easy, and he finally found a way to break up the 3 chords progression choruses that pretty much all their singles have had since THTF.

[perterje]

Not related but the 24bit/48kHz song is actually a 44.1kHz, just like some songs in NTAE (Dear World, I think). Imperceptible, but still.

I don't know. I just right-click in Foobar and read the properties

[Jetvet1975]

Maybe I'm hallucinating, but the chorus kind of reminds me of Volcano Girls by Veruca Salt...this song is awesome though!

[Conan The Barbarian]

Haha, that's amazing.




EDIT: Am I crazy for thinking a NIN makeover of this song might actually sound pretty great?

Lololol oh man that's the best. I need a montage.

[Nyx]

I was excited for about 9 seconds of the glitchy intro. But then it started properly and it was nothing he hasn't already done a thousand times. Hopefully the rest is fresher.

[cashpiles (closed)]

Here's the deal, although the lyrics are abysmal and the phrase "are you less than?" sounds super awkward in the chorus, this song still pushed my buttons. It actually pushed me to break out of my comfort zone last night and actually do something I know I want (despite fear and complacency usually holding me back). This song is a "get up off your ass/knees" wake up call in the vein of The Hand That Feeds.

I would have to say that the song is catchy and "pleasant" on the ears, though super generic. but the weakness and awkwardness of the lyrics are a major detractor. This does feel like a throwback to the Tombraider Soundtrack Summer of Deep.

Of course I'm going to give the EP a listen, but my musical inclinations (NINclinations) have shifted a lot over the years, and NIN has gone in certain directions that also don't match up with my musical preferences, and so I'm more wary than excited when a new NIN project is released these days.

One more thing about the lyrics. Welcome Oblivion is of course the title of a htda project... I'm sure Trent knows new "NINitiates" will become curious about the lyrics and/or hear stories about Welcome Oblivion while listening to Less Than, thus being encouraged to check out that album and possibly purchasing it.. marketing within songs.. I suspect this is one of Trent's (N)INtentions.... and if that's the case, that's pretty clever, but dirty at the same time...

[seasonsinthesky]

Not related but the 24bit/48kHz song is actually a 44.1kHz, just like some songs in NTAE (Dear World, I think). Imperceptible, but still.

I think it's related to whatever hardware they are using for drum machines and synths. You can record above 44.1 all you want, but if the drum machine is playing 44.1 samples for every drum and you have no reverb/harmonic generation stuff added, it can't magically create energy above 44.1's Nyquist in the path. Typically, (real) cymbals and noisy synths are the recordings that create the audio above 20kHz that gives us a spectrograph clue of their sample rate reality, and these songs don't seem to have that.

[Toadflax]

Does anyone else find the production on this a bit muddy? The Spotify version, meant to be 320 kbs, is still not that great (when compared to the obviously compressed Youtube version). For those with the hi-res files, is their more clarity, or is it still all a bit murky?

Loving the song whatever, just a comment on production.

Seconding another comment, but yeah, the FLAC download sounds very crisp to me and noticeably different than YouTube, at least. I'm no audiophile, though.

[chuenthez]

I think it's related to whatever hardware they are using for drum machines and synths. You can record above 44.1 all you want, but if the drum machine is playing 44.1 samples for every drum and you have no reverb/harmonic generation stuff added, it can't magically create energy above 44.1's Nyquist in the path. Typically, (real) cymbals and noisy synths are the recordings that create the audio above 20kHz that gives us a spectrograph clue of their sample rate reality, and these songs don't seem to have that.

Thanks for the technical precision, I was actually wondering what would create the 22KHz.
It is just a little bad to make unnecessary bigger files. The Fragile Deviations have the same problem, 96kHz files for nothing more than 22kHz...

[eversonpoe]

Does anyone else find the production on this a bit muddy? The Spotify version, meant to be 320 kbs, is still not that great (when compared to the obviously compressed Youtube version). For those with the hi-res files, is their more clarity, or is it still all a bit murky?

Loving the song whatever, just a comment on production.

i assumed that was intentional, it makes it sound a bit lo-fi and retro, which kind of fits with the theme of the video. but i also listened to NTAE again yesterday and noticed that quite a bit of it has a similar sound (where it seems intentionally lo-fi, almost like they ran it through a tape deck to smooth out some of the high-frequencies).

[simonn]

i assumed that was intentional, it makes it sound a bit lo-fi and retro, which kind of fits with the theme of the video. but i also listened to NTAE again yesterday and noticed that quite a bit of it has a similar sound (where it seems intentionally lo-fi, almost like they ran it through a tape deck to smooth out some of the high-frequencies).

Yes, I did wonder whether the intention was to keep the murkiness of (particularly) Burning Bright and She's Gone Away, because The Idea Of You especially sounds really crisp and hi-fi.

[botley]

Thanks for the technical precision, I was actually wondering what would create the 22KHz.
It is just a little bad to make unnecessary bigger files. The Fragile Deviations have the same problem, 96kHz files for nothing more than 22kHz...

Have you read about TR & AR's production workflow? They record and mix 'in the box' running at 48kHz these days, but sometimes when mastering (or re-mastering) a finished product with Tom Baker they will run everything through his analogue gear, then re-capture the result at 96kHz. So that's what they offered.

Connections are fast and hard drives are big. Ultimately, that's the final product, so they maintain its integrity — doesn't matter whether you can see anything above some arbitrary limit on a graph. Sample rate conversion is a destructive process, so they keep things at their native sample rate. Whether you can hear the difference or not depends on your playback gear.

[Clownboat]

I'm not too keen on the track. The buildup is nice, but it's fairly generic to my ears by the usual Nine Inch Nails single standards. It doesn't jump out to me any more than The Hand That Feeds or Discipline did, anyway. I bet it'll be fuckin' fire​ live. These tracks usually have a lot more life in a live setting.

Have you read about TR & AR's production workflow? They record and mix 'in the box' running at 48kHz these days, but sometimes when mastering (or re-mastering) a finished product with Tom Baker they will run everything through his analogue gear, then re-capture the result at 96kHz. So that's what they offered.

I'm curious, where can I read about this?

[botley]

TR talked about it in interviews around 2013 before HM and Welcome Oblivion came out, and again last year with the announcement of the Definitive Edition vinyl remasters. I'm away from a keyboard today, but I'll see if I can dig some of this out later.

[niggo]

While I agree that the song's structure is pretty generic and the mixing kinda flat, I don't get the people who say that we heard stuff like this a thousand times by TR. "It's time for something new". What? Sure, there are a couple of single-friendly songs in his repertoire but that doesn't mean that all of them sound the same?

To me this is something completely new by NIN. It's kinda uplifting, has this "go out an do something" feel to it, while also challenging you to see the things you believed to be true from a new perspective. I haven't heard anything by TR that's thematically anywhere near this song. I love it.

[chuenthez]

Have you read about TR & AR's production workflow? They record and mix 'in the box' running at 48kHz these days, but sometimes when mastering (or re-mastering) a finished product with Tom Baker they will run everything through his analogue gear, then re-capture the result at 96kHz. So that's what they offered.

Connections are fast and hard drives are big. Ultimately, that's the final product, so they maintain its integrity — doesn't matter whether you can see anything above some arbitrary limit on a graph. Sample rate conversion is a destructive process, so they keep things at their native sample rate. Whether you can hear the difference or not depends on your playback gear.

No I have never read about it, so thanks for the explanation. (And of course I am interested in reading it)

[henryeatscereal]

Everytime i listen to it, i like it even more...

[zecho]

Yeah, I think it's a fairly new sound for him, with that retro feel that I can't recall him doing before. Seems like a NIN take on synthwave.

[Detunez]

I liked the song from the very first listen. Its exactly why i listen to nin. It sounds like a refined version of what they / he was attempting to do trough some of the previous albums.

[Detunez]

A belgian magazine about video games featured the new Nin song on their frontpage.

https://www.9lives.be/video/nine-inc...met-videogames

Nine Inch nails has a thing for video games:

Nine Inch Nails, the popular rockband formed around the by now legendary Trent Reznor has a thing with videogames. Nine Inch Nails mastermind Trent reznor his interest in videgames goes beyond a vynil remastering of the quake soundtrack, or the usage of the Kinect when touring. The video for the new single by the band, titled "less than" uses images from the Playstation VR-game polybius. Are there any fans of Nine inch Nails here ? We think it worked.

Polybius is an interesting game, it is part of a legend which states that the FBI used a hypnotizing addictive game to brainwash people back when Arcade machines where still a thing.


Edited post:
Did anybody else notice the whistle like sound starting from 1:66 up to 2:00 in the song ?

[niggo]

Did anybody else notice the whistle like sound starting from 1:66 up to 2:00 in the song ?

Haha, yeah, that's what I thought too, the first time I heard the song. I guess it's a flanger-like effect on his voice, but I could be wrong about this.

[HWB]

I think the song directly references Dear World from NTAE and may be sorta of a follow up.

I was getting a big deja-vu at the beginning of the track and I had no idea why, now I know why.

Dear World,:

Yes, everyone seems to be asleep

Hey look, you didn't even notice
You couldn't even tell
Just when it started happening
Maybe just as well
After all, everything is getting unfamiliar now
Trajectory in decline
And we become obsolete
A frame at a time


Less Than:

Focus?

We didn't even notice

We awake in a place

We can barely recognize, yeah

Hypnosis