SH Spotlight Why the new "LOUDNESS CRAZE" in digital mastering really robs music of life..

Greetings. I hope you have fun here.

 

BTW, Amy Grant did hype her recent live album as having a "living room" sound quality, yet, it is not an audiophile quality mastering at all. Her "Age To Age" album from 1982 and her "Lead Me On" album from 1988 are more dynamic than her latest albums for the most part, the same with the rest of her classic albums from the late 1970s-mid 1980s. This proves that artists are not necessarily audiophiles and most aren't audiophiles either.

 

Welcome to the Forum, Had. Good to see another Florida member here.

dave in St. Pete

 

Guys check the first post at this very interesting thread

http://recforums.prosoundweb.com/index.php/m/149723/0/?srch=future#msg_149723

 

Interesting point. Funny with all the headlong rush to digitize everything for the sake of perfection, the accepted audio quality is mp3, and video is usually some lossy codec.

And, thanks for the 'welcomes'! As you can see, I actually joined in March of last year, but am just now doing some serious catching up here.

 

I'VE DECIDED THAT IF I POST LIKE THIS, I'LL GET MORE PEOPLE TO READ MY POSTS.



...or not, I suppose.

 

And then...

 

....and we all know, bigger is better....

 

Great comparison Barry!

 

Barry your huge letter 'A' post must be clipped, I can see some artifacts on it.

 

Hi Metoo,

Yes the "A" is clipped but I wanted to "bring out more details".
I'm told this helps with low resolution monitors and video iPods.

I deliberately made the jpeg at low resolution so artifacts would be present.
Don't folks want artifacts?
;-}

Barry
www.soundkeeperrecordings.com
www.barrydiamentaudio.com

 

The "loudness war" in tabloids - who else averts their eyes on the way to the supermarket checkout?

 

In women, yeah.

In music, yeah, but ONLY AT THE SOURCE, not at the transmission level.

 

I am 'importing' this link from the "Compresion/maximizing Corrected by EAC" thread because I feel it is relevant: http://www.resolutionmag.com/pdfs/KNOWHOW/katzpeskypeak.pdf

 

I do. I don't look at that mess.

 

Ummm, artificial enhancement may initially impress, but almost always seems phony when objectively compared, regardless of what the source is trying to transmit.


Cat

 

Not talking about plastic.

Something more organic; preferably widespread.


Oh, and I'm now only talking about women. *moment of silence for the other analogy*

 

How am I supposed to find out where Britney passed out drunk?

 

I don't understand why Stadium Arcadium couldn't be released on CD sounding like Steve's master, as the band and the executives agreed how good it sounds.

 

Why do I imagine that the band and the executives also agreed how good the CD sounded, after it was done?

I'm starting to gravitate to the opinion that the artists may not necessarily be the best judges of sound quality.

So, most here on the forum apparently know what's wrong technically / aesthetically – that was the easy assessment.

The more difficult issue: how to correct it?... and it's gotta be more substantial than 3 dozen members of an audiophile forum irately vowing to boycott CDs.

 

I've made it a habit:Every time i get a CD that is an earbleeder i email the company "this sounds horrible, WAY too loud.I'm not gonna buy again from you".Everytime i get a CD that is not maximized to death i emailed them that "This sounds good!"

 

Have to say Ive already gravitated to this opinion. IMO an artist that can deliver the sonic goods is getting increasingly more rare, but they are out there. Im not sure its as bad with producers, Rick Rubin is certainly one who seems to know the deal. I hear you though, how do you tell the band and music execs to please leave the room when the mastering starts?

I also agree that 3 dozen music geeks boycotting CDs aint gonna get it done, however as a major music geek I started my boycott around 1996, and I dont see it ending any time soon. I do look forward to the shift though, and yet another remastering, this time of everything I refused to buy in the past 10 years or so. That way the music industry gets to do it all over, make more money, AND satisfy us. OK, Ive come back to my senses, must have drifted off while spinning vinyl, sorry about that

 

Many of them either just don't care or have some form of hearing loss.

 

I think that many artists are part of the problem.They want their CD to be "THE LOUDEST!!" no matter what.Even if this means it will be almost unlistenable

 

Dunno about Rick. He seems happy to have some of his best work ruined at the mastering stage. He has the clout to stop it.