I cant understand why studio engineers ectra have to compres the hell out of music, when one of the main points to music are the dynamics but they get lost when you over compress music.
I just recently bought the new foo fighters album "one by one"
and was dissapointed with the sound, if anyone knows the song "all my life" you'll probably notice that the verses which have no drumming in, are louder than the actual chorus which is meant to be the heavy part of the song.
i dont understand this
a lot of cd's recorded in the last few years could sound so much better and impacting if only they had some dynamics to it.
If i wanted it louder i would turn it up lol.
no affence to the foo fighters in any way they could be the victims of a bad recording engineer.
please tell us if you know of a realy good rock album that's been recorded well with not too much compression.
I just recently bought the new foo fighters album "one by one"
and was dissapointed with the sound, if anyone knows the song "all my life" you'll probably notice that the verses which have no drumming in, are louder than the actual chorus which is meant to be the heavy part of the song.
i dont understand this
a lot of cd's recorded in the last few years could sound so much better and impacting if only they had some dynamics to it.
If i wanted it louder i would turn it up lol.
no affence to the foo fighters in any way they could be the victims of a bad recording engineer.
please tell us if you know of a realy good rock album that's been recorded well with not too much compression.
On Hydrogenaudio someone posted a link to some views about this stupid "LOUDNESSRACE" There is a homepage dedicated to it
http://www.loudnessrace.net/
http://www.loudnessrace.net/
One thing I always hated was when a song starts out with a killer guitar solo and then the other instruments come in and the original guitar is muted.
CD sales are driven by people with stock stereos, and on those stereos louder sounds better to them.
The MTV Unplugged CDs don't seem to have very much compression and are excellent recordings.
CD sales are driven by people with stock stereos, and on those stereos louder sounds better to them.
The MTV Unplugged CDs don't seem to have very much compression and are excellent recordings.
I guess so many poeple enjoy that "radio" sound 
Music on Satellite and stuff have always been like that too. The Fast & The Furious is one of the worst DVD's I have with it. You'd think a car movie would have great sound quality...ala Days Of Thunder (especially on LD!
)
Actually alot DVD's...well earlier ones seem to be really compressed, seemed no matter how loud it was it just wan't as engaging as the LD version.
Music on Satellite and stuff have always been like that too. The Fast & The Furious is one of the worst DVD's I have with it. You'd think a car movie would have great sound quality...ala Days Of Thunder (especially on LD!
)Actually alot DVD's...well earlier ones seem to be really compressed, seemed no matter how loud it was it just wan't as engaging as the LD version.
yeah i know exactly what you mean youv'e just reminded me of when your watching a film and then the adverts come on blaring out like mad.
Thanks for the link to that site Wombat by the way
actualy maybee they think the spikes in the sound of a uncompressed cd would blow up a crap stereo so that's why they use compression.
you never know lol
Thanks for the link to that site Wombat by the way
actualy maybee they think the spikes in the sound of a uncompressed cd would blow up a crap stereo so that's why they use compression.
you never know lol
Personally, I think the sequence of forces at work are as follows:
Incidentally, let's not blame inexpensive combo home systems. Even pretty inexpensive ones usually provide a listening experience with a much wider dynamic range than music listening in a car. It's a function of the environment, not the audio system. Boomboxes may not sound particularly detailed and delicate, but they'll let you hear quite a wide dynamic range (maybe 60dB or more) in a quiet home quite clearly. I suspect that inside all but the most luxuriously padded cars, this range will be less than 30dB.
- How do you get the prospective buyer to listen to a new song he's never heard? In the US, it appears the answer is by catching him when he's listening to the car radio, while driving. Americans seem to spend a lot of time in cars. And America is a big market.
- Second: if you want to get the listener's attention while he's driving, you can't indulge in fanciful ideas like wide dynamics. Just give him the drumbeat or guitar or whatever, and hit him with loud sound. That's why probably no one listens to symphony music while driving.... the dynamic range would be too distracting while driving. I've seen one person playing his Blaupunkt car stereo with Beethoven's Fifth, and the stereo would completely mute the audio and fast-forward the tape (it was a cassette) during the softer passages, because it deduced that the signal strength was too low for there to be any musical content in it. That's the world of car audio.
Incidentally, let's not blame inexpensive combo home systems. Even pretty inexpensive ones usually provide a listening experience with a much wider dynamic range than music listening in a car. It's a function of the environment, not the audio system. Boomboxes may not sound particularly detailed and delicate, but they'll let you hear quite a wide dynamic range (maybe 60dB or more) in a quiet home quite clearly. I suspect that inside all but the most luxuriously padded cars, this range will be less than 30dB.
Well, I can say that in a car audio situation, compression does make sense. Who's going to hear the quiet passages over tire hum? And no one would want dynamic peaks to distract them from driving. But at home, I really hate the compression. It takes all the life and emotion away from the music, especially electronic, where the peaks can be VERY loud if recorded properly. When I record anything, I never compress the sound for that same reason. Therefore, Daft Punk is an embarassment to the industry.
-peace
-peace
For today's disposable mainstream pop heavy compression might be a good thing since it is listened to mainly on cheap gear and car audio, where hevy compression helps to overcome SPL limitations.
It is the producers and the performers who dictate how a recording should sound and not the engineer (unfortunately).
I was attending an AES meeting last week where an engineer from a famous recording studio said, that one has to deliver the quality that the customer is asking for (neither better nor worse) in order to make ends meet.
And yes, in his opinion the majority of the best recordings were made before the introduction of the CD. But he also mentioned the gut feeling that the request for quality might increase in the near future, so he will be allowed (!) to deliver the sound quality that his high-resolution gear is capable of to the enduser one fine day.
Regards
Charles
It is the producers and the performers who dictate how a recording should sound and not the engineer (unfortunately).
I was attending an AES meeting last week where an engineer from a famous recording studio said, that one has to deliver the quality that the customer is asking for (neither better nor worse) in order to make ends meet.
And yes, in his opinion the majority of the best recordings were made before the introduction of the CD. But he also mentioned the gut feeling that the request for quality might increase in the near future, so he will be allowed (!) to deliver the sound quality that his high-resolution gear is capable of to the enduser one fine day.
Regards
Charles
In an ideal world, the simple answer to all of this would be to put the compression hardware in the playback unit. That way, a car stereo could be set up to give max compression (like the way some stereos use a signal from the speedo to raise the volume when the car is being driven fast), and home receivers can switch it off.
I believe DAB radio has this ability, but knowing what radio stations are like in the UK, they probably compress at source anyway
I'm sure someone will confirm/deny, but I also recall that AC3 has dynamic range markers of some sort in the datastream, so that compression can be performed without horrible "pumping" effects.
Arnie
I believe DAB radio has this ability, but knowing what radio stations are like in the UK, they probably compress at source anyway
I'm sure someone will confirm/deny, but I also recall that AC3 has dynamic range markers of some sort in the datastream, so that compression can be performed without horrible "pumping" effects.
Arnie
Well, we paid hours on local sound studio to record drum tracks, and we got back this garbage from the ”enginer”:
no comment...
An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.
no comment...
thnks for informing me that AC3 has dynamic range markers scince i will be recording my album using ac3
exelent idea arniel but i wish they did build compressers into car radios ectra..
Hopefully the future looks bright fore music recording hopefully
StratoFan that sucks man
You know that old saying if you want something done properly try to do it yourself only you know how it should sound if it's your songs..
of course you might have to learn sum stuff but it would pay off in the end..
by the way im a stratofan but i only have a epiphone gbson copy.
exelent idea arniel but i wish they did build compressers into car radios ectra..
Hopefully the future looks bright fore music recording hopefully
StratoFan that sucks man
You know that old saying if you want something done properly try to do it yourself only you know how it should sound if it's your songs..
of course you might have to learn sum stuff but it would pay off in the end..
by the way im a stratofan but i only have a epiphone gbson copy.
Rixsta said:
Yes, you all right, but to record drum tracks is not easy like to record guitars or keyboards. Lot of good quality microphones, good acoustic environment required, and enginer who not absolute stupid.
By the way, I have Yamaha strato copy, but this is not the best for me. I will change my Yamaha strat to some real rock guitar like LTD or something else. My nick mean I like fin band called Stratovarius
not Stratocaster 
Iv'e got to admit i didn't think of drums. doh
mainly because the songs i record i use loops and samples for drums.
Stratocaster. lol
i use a delta 1010 soundcard to record my stuff and try not to use too much compression.
i miss having a whammy/tremlo on my guitar cant do that deep purple stuff without it.
Stratovarius sound like prog rock just a wild guess though
i will check out Stratovarius you can hear one of my songs if you wish just click on the www. below
ps: do you have a link to one of your song hope you dont think im being nosey. lol
mainly because the songs i record i use loops and samples for drums.
Stratocaster. lol
i use a delta 1010 soundcard to record my stuff and try not to use too much compression.
i miss having a whammy/tremlo on my guitar cant do that deep purple stuff without it.
Stratovarius sound like prog rock just a wild guess though
i will check out Stratovarius you can hear one of my songs if you wish just click on the www. below
ps: do you have a link to one of your song hope you dont think im being nosey. lol
thought this page on digido.com by engineer Bob Katz might be relevant - it's an 'honor roll' of pop cd's with good sound. i think someone else posted this link here recently, or maybe on another audio forum...
clicky clicky
/andrew
clicky clicky
/andrew
- Status
- This old topic is closed. If you want to reopen this topic, contact a moderator using the "Report Post" button.