Poor mastering / Dynamic range compression

Grrrrr · 26 Oct 2008 at 12:43

WE HAVE AMPLIFIERS TO MAKE OUR MUSIC LOUDER WE DON'T NEED YOU TO SACRIFICE SOUND QUALITY ON OUR BEHALF :mad:

This really really infuriates me, why do producers/sound technicians do it? It's something that's annoyed me for ages, but i've been putting together a mix in Ableton this morning and noticed this:

seriously, it's not even subtle, where are the rest of my sound waves? This is a fairly respected producer as well. Grrrrrrr

(this thread serves no constructive purpose)

THMRK · 26 Oct 2008 at 12:54

Isn't it to make it sound better on the radio?

Grrrrr · 26 Oct 2008 at 13:01

Woody__ said:
Isn't it to make it sound better on the radio?

In some cases yeah but radio stations have their own equipment to do that, there is no need to do it to the original track. I know the reason it's done, because loud music has more instant appeal (which equals more sales) but it's still ****ing annoying

THMRK · 26 Oct 2008 at 13:05

I'll agree with that for sure. It is really annoying.

unclebob123 · 26 Oct 2008 at 13:43

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loudness_war

Robosapien · 26 Oct 2008 at 14:29

*Falls asleep...

Meridian · 26 Oct 2008 at 14:32

It annoys me as well. I first noticed it a few years ago when I realised how much louder my newer CDs were than my older ones. But the volume is still creeping up as unclebob123's post shows - the new Metallica album is just silly.

And Robosapien, it's an important issue if you listen to real music, rather then poor copies like MP3.

M

Robosapien · 26 Oct 2008 at 14:40

'than'. But I guess perfection is hard to achieve.

Meridian · 26 Oct 2008 at 16:01

I'd like to say that it's the way I pronounce the word with my posh accent, but it's a common-or-garden typo: I'm trying to fix a Windows install (the fourth in two days) and I get a bit distracted.

M

"andy" · 26 Oct 2008 at 20:23

is that a 320 from a respectable source too ? shocking