What is the state of classical music CDs in terms of remastering/loudness/etc.

Almost all the discussion here is about popular titles and how the loudness wars have ruined modern mastering.

But what's the status of classical CDs? Are they also subject to these issues?

(I know there's a classical music thread that goes on for days, but that seems to mostly be devoted to what's available, etc....)

 

Yes they have also fallen prey to lousy loud remastering. However, on the whole, I find the percentage of bad masterings is not as high as rock remasterings.

 

No one has done a statistical analysis, but my anecdotal impression is that the quality of digital mastering/remastering is improving with the smaller or historical classical labels and going down with the bigger labels. One thing to bear in mind is that the old time classical labels are now part of music/entertainment conglomerates and so the executives there have no particular institutional memory or pride. Up until recently the bigger problem has been with No Noise/CEDAR type processing of the soundfiles. However, RoseRiverBear is correct that compression (loudness) is starting to make inroads as well. Classical music is such a small percentage of total music sales that it is unlikely the conglomerates will hire people who specialize in that and just as importantly would be allowed to exert production control.

 

interesting seems like there is no escape for any genre, I would have thought classic would be more immune, that stinks.

 

In general, classical has led the way in maintaining decent SQ standards. Look at all the labels specializing in SACD/mch. The majors are sticking with PCM, but the SQ of their new releases is high. I've had a few instances of loud/bright/harsh reissues of older material over the years, but that's very much the exception. If the rest of the recording industry adopted the classical niche's practices, we'd be in far better shape.

 

I'm listening to classical music many years now and I never paid any attention to such issues as loudness war, I just took it for granted that when the music is market pp in the score then it sounds quite and when it marked f or fff it's loud or very loud. But when I begun listening to rock/pop I was really appalled by the loudness levels, in comparison to classical music. So from my experience classical music is mastered very dynamically, both on the small and the major labels. There are some exceptions though, for example some of the vintage recordings (which are praised by audiophiles for some reason) like the "RCA living stereo" or "Mercury living presence" are quite loud and comprassed and very fatiguing to listen to, but maybe it's because of the primitive equipment they were recorded with and not the CD mastering. I also begun noticing that some recent recordings by the major labels like EMI and DG are also begin to sound louder, for example the recent Rattle Bruckner 9. But there's really nothing like the loudness war going on in classical music. When there's a compression or limiting, especially in orchestral recordings, it's immediately noticeable for anybody with a half decent equipment and pair of ears (listen to some internet broadcasts for example). So luckily the classical labels don't go there yet because I would imagine that it's more difficult to fool classical listeners.

About the remasterings themselves I'm less sure, I never did a systematic comparisons between remasterings and original CD/Vinyl, I somehow always assumed that if it's written that it's a remaster then it must sound better. But I remember comparing once the recent remaster of Karajan's Otello with Del Monaco and Tebaldi with the original CD and the remaster sounded simply a disaster, very flat and thin with no bass and shrunk soundstage. So it would be interesting to hear if someone did more comparisons like that of the major remastered series like DG's "originals" EMI's "great recordings of the century" and the other series on DECCA and Philips (and then sometimes they lie about the remasters, for example the recent reissues on the originals of Karajan's Shostakovich 10 or Solti's Rheingold which don't differ at all from the previous issues).

 

Sony has destroyed the Living Stereo brand with heavy squashing the last 3 years.

 

Hi,

http://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threa...em-leontyne-price.200306/page-36#post-7126185

That is in regards to the Beethoven 9th. I later took a chance on 2 others and they were nearly as bad. Sony won't con me out of any more funds.

 

if you do not want loudness, listen to Lute music mainly...)

 

Huh?

 

Is true!

 

Meaning that the chances of loudness wars creeping into releases of lute music (its what I listen to the most) and the such are slim...just trying to inject some humour...

 

I think the example is off point because the lute has very little dynamic range to begin with. One of the loudest LPs I had was with a clavichord. They had close miked it and jacked the gain up so that it could be heard on the weakest system. However, there was very little dynamic compression as a result. You simply had to lower the volume of the preamp to suit. (Of course there might have been some consequence due to distortion in the mics or recording chain but that's a separate matter.)

Unfortunately we have to admit that given the increasing mobile and small playback devices and the often noisy environments where people try to listen, the loudness wars are not likely to abate anytime soon. This leaves aside the well known finding that people think the louder audio system is the better one in any comparison. I know that one of the things that surprises younger people going to a classical music concert for the first time is how audible even softer sounds are.

 

Oh ok then you better dumb it down.

 

Which CD is this so that I can avoid it?

 

Try this one for the Grieg piece, it has also one of the best recordings of the piano concerto IMO

http://www.amazon.com/Grieg-Piano-C...&qid=1383668705&sr=8-3&keywords=grieg+andsnes

 

Classical Clipped!

 

I dunno, I like to play my Ennemond Gualtier CDs at maximum volume.

 

Some of my tech work ended up on Virgin Classics CDs, back in the 90's. The reissue series of Virgin's was not compressed, they all came out before the loudness wars.

 

Thanks for the recommendation of the 1990s Virgin Classics CDs from before the loudness wars.