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https://www.itwriting.com/blog/91-the-l ... d-bad.html

This article explains the problem very well. It must be around 15 years old and things have got worse since, where popular music is concerned.

CN211276 wrote: ↑Mon Feb 26, 2024 5:04 pm https://www.itwriting.com/blog/91-the-l ... d-bad.html

This article explains the problem very well. It must be around 15 years old and things have got worse since, where popular music is concerned.

A friend who, in his younger days, ran a recording studio always told me, if you can hear the compression you’re using too much. Using compression on the whole mix is obviously audible so someone is using too much.

Excessive compression is very audible to me and all to common. The most recent example is the Ace Frehely album which came out last week and is completely brickwalled. I read a scathing review from a leading rock critic who described the album as sounding flat and lifeless. He did not use the word compression but it obviously had the same effect on him as me. This need not be the case. The Steve Hackett album which came out a week earlier has decent DR.

The Circus and the Nightwhale by Steve Hackett has a DR of 11. This is not as bad as the DR of 6 on Ace Frehley's Origins, Vol 2. But it's still a rather mediocre and audibly compressed production for an artist that performed on Genesis' Genesis (DR 16).

As for that article, I disagree with the bit where he says: "excessive compression also robs the music of its detail". To my ears, dynamic compression produces the effect of making low level detail easier to hear, because it's louder than it would normally be without the compression. There's less contrast between the quiet fractions of a second and the loud fractions of a second. And that's one of the reasons that music biz recording engineers / producers love their compression machines so much.

With appropriate adjustments to the volume knob in a quiet listening environment, dynamic compression does make music sound flat / boring / lacking in natural breathing in and out / unnatural - especially when played back to back with a less compressed recording.

In a noisy listening environment, such as a car on o motorway, or a factory, dynamic recordings may well have the quieter fractions of a second drowned out by background noise.

And when listening with no adjustment to the volume knob, a compressed recording can sound more "impressive" with the dynamic recording sounding "quiet" or "weak".

Anyone in the music biz that offers dynamically compressed recordings only, with no option for uncompressed versions is my enemy. I hate them for what they do to the music. And I have been reluctant to buy their output for years now.

I love music. My Hifi obsession is all about extracting as much detail (and dynamics) out of the music as possible. But it’s music first.

I love some albums that are compressed to hell, but I reserve these for Bluetooth speakers and car stereos.

Most young people use Bluetooth speakers, I’m not seeing much interest in Hifi in the younger generation, so maybe new music is being designed to sound good on those devices.

I see it as a downward spiral. Dynamic compression used because so few people listen via hi-fi systems. Low interest in buying hi-fi because almost all modern music is so dynamically compressed.

Lindsayt wrote: ↑Tue Feb 27, 2024 9:14 am I see it as a downward spiral. Dynamic compression used because so few people listen via hi-fi systems. Low interest in buying hi-fi because almost all modern music is so dynamically compressed.

This hits the nail on the head and the situation is not going to change. We can only hope that someday masters with good dr will accompany the compressed ones.

When music is heavily compressed I listen at lower volumes and do not play a lot through the hifi. It is usually through my bluetooth or headphones out and about. I do not find that low level detail is lost,through the hi fi in a quiet home environment, when there is wide dynamic range. I just turn up the volume and a lot more excitement is added.

The Bluetooth/Spotify generation are the reason for the Compression - and they accept it as 'normal'.

The only thing that really matters to record companies these days is the number of 'streams'. As highly compressed and bass-heavy pop toonz are what generate the most income, that is what the Airpod-wearers get.

Audiophiles are such an incredibly small minority, their non-profitable demands can be quietly ignored.

Fretless wrote: ↑Tue Feb 27, 2024 10:47 am The Bluetooth/Spotify generation are the reason for the Compression - and they accept it as 'normal'.

Do they ever listen to live music? It is dynamic and this is part of the attraction. No need to go to a concert, just find a street busker.