What's your definition for the word "brickwalled"?

To me it means the loss of any dynamics. Like if a peak is being squashed it is running into a "brick wall".

 

Truer words have never been spoken

 

We are in perfect agreement here.


But still don't like the current usage of the word, as it pertains to hyper-compression.

 

Do you have an alternative word or phrase you'd like to propose? I'd rather not use "brickwalled".

I don't mind "maximized", but it doesn't have the same colour. It doesn't seem that one word can cover it. Maybe "compressed, leveled and maximized". I don't see this tide turning.

 

well, i think there are likely some on the forum, like anywhere in the general population, who stick to classic rock and generally don't care to enjoy the 90s thru today....

IMHO, this is primarily the fault of nationwide commercialized radio...u have to stick to member supported alternative stations (like WYEP Pittsburgh) to get the good stuff....and the good stuff frequently doesn't have very good fidelity...

and now, back to the OP's topic.....

 

"Peak limiting and/or compression with applied gain" is what it is all about.

But IMO the word "limiting" alone, by its nature, does not adequately describe the possible end result in an immediately understandable way for the majority of listeners.

 

I favor the non-technical term "hyper-compressed", as "limiting" doesn't work for the non-technical types. At least most people here understand the concept of compression, even though some may not know exactly what it does. Also, what lovingthesound said.

 

Not true.! There are lots of uncompressed remastered CD's mastered by others.

or

I don't know what you mean by this. It does not make sense.

or

Wrong again! There are some excellent sounding CD's pressed in countries other than those two you have mentioned.

 

He was just being sarcastic.

 

I'm just giving him a dose of his own medicine.

 

Gotcha!

 

But where was the humour?

 

huh??

 

Don't you follow?

 

some cats know ... but if a cat don't know, a cat don't know.

 

I really liked Music Transonic's CDs on PSF back in the '90s. They were all mastered super in the red, but that was the whole point. Their music had to be mastered that way. I stopped buying Acid Mothers Temple albums a couple of years ago because I just couldn't keep up with their relentless output anymore. I gave up when I walked into the record store for the first time in a month and saw five brand-new Acid Mothers Temple CDs that I had never seen or heard of a few weeks before. And most of their releases sound too similar.

 

yours wasn't funny, dude. though, marginally less funny than the original post.

 

In engineering college decades ago, Doug's definition is what was basically what taught to me. In order to sample the waveform at a specified sampling rate, a filter needs to be used to eliminate all frequencies above the sampling freq (about 22 KHZ for redbook CD). So therefore all frequencies above about 22KHZ get lost in a lowpass filter. However if the slope of the filter is very steep, it actually does damage to the frequencies less than 22KHZ.

I guess the definition has now morphed into something else. The new definition makes sense, as the plotted waveform looks like a big ole brick wall

 

Chris, pardon the correction but I think you meant to add an additional item:

4) a Japan or W. Germany CD that is not the absolute 1st pressing.

because as we know, CD's are the only item in the history of manufacturing that were made 100% perfect on the 1st-initial-maiden-virgin run through assembly line.

 

my definition of brickwalled would be something that sounds that it's going through you not coming at you. whereas well mastered cds give you the impression of filling the room with sound, brickwalled cds just sound like they are coming from one place, like all the instruments are being squeezed into a big mess of sound. i don't think waveforms are necessary to tell you that a cd is brickwalled because your ears will tell you. i get an automatic ache in my left ear, which isn't fun. i had this experience recently listening to the U2 remasters of Boy, October and War. they definitely aren't brickwalled but they made me feel uncomfortable.

 

I recall last year using "brickwall" to refer to waveform limiting and some engineer (can't recall his user name. I think it was in the thread I started on graphically representing brickwalling) took great exception to using the term for anything aside from filtering. At that time, I googled and found the term as used to describe limiting is quite common in pro audio circles but is not restricted to the notion of severe limiting as some on here prefer to use it. I agree with this pro-audio use, that any time a limit is placed on how high a peak can go, it is, conceptually speaking, a brickwall (in that sense, PCM Audio has a built-in brickwall at 0dBFS). We might like to reserve it for the worst cases, but that's entirely subjective and therefore can't be adequately defined.

So my definition is simply that audio is brickwalled if any part of the original waveform has been modified by placing an hard limit on its peaks. Of course in this sense, not all brickwalled audio sounds bad.

 

Call it what it is, a brick wall. No need to be politically correct about it.

 

I'd consider it brickwalled if 2dB or more of the peaks were shaved off, in combination with 2:1 or higher ratio compression - at the mastering stage.


But those are general guidelines. It might take more aggressive processing to BW some tracks than to others.

 

Hard limiting.

 

Brickwalled = unable to turn the music UP.