CD Mastering./Re-mastering

[schwenko]

Interesting article; awaiting the comments of Rubellan e.g.

http://www.austin360.com/arts/content/m ... cover.html

[Frau_Blucher]

FASCINATING! [:p]

I have to admit to noting that even my favorite "next wave" stuff is unbearable after a while. There's a sense of sameness to the apparent dynamic range of every song. It does get tiresome and you see it everywhere.

Well not everywhere...British Sea Power for example. [:I] There's a variety in the sound mixing to be found from stuff like their's, Belle & Sebastian, Air, etc. It allows one to actually listen to whole albums whereas brief tune-ins to singles may not be as immediately hooking.

[coop41]

[quote][i]Originally posted by Blir[/i]
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I have to admit to noting that even my favorite "next wave" stuff is unbearable after a while. There's a sense of sameness to the apparent dynamic range of every song. It does get tiresome and you see it everywhere.

[/quote]


See, maybe that Panic! At The Disco CD isn't as bad as you thought![;)]


Great article schwenko, thanks!

[Rubellan]

I've been so irritated by how loud CD's have been getting. It really is at a crucial point. I prefer to hear the full spectrum, not have half of it chopped because someone wanted to make it loud!

There are ways to increase loudness without clipping the files. A simple tool called 'hard limiting' allows you to boost a signal and prevents notes from overshooting the spectrum. It is a form a compression, but it's so minor and completely inaudible if used carefully, and can help balance the stereo signal properly.

The image shown here is the song "Elephant's Graveyard" from last years reissue of The Boomtown Rats CD "Mondo Bongo". All of the CD's in that series have been blown up so loud that many will distort. This CD was the worst. As you can see by the top image, the song has been turned so loud that it is just a distorted rectangle of sound. The image below restores the peaks and reduced the volume by 6 decibals. Even though the file has been minorly repaired to show the way it should appear, the distortion remains.

Not all CD (reissues) are mastered this loudly, but this extreme example shows you what the article discusses.

Scott

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[obs]

[i]There are ways to increase loudness without clipping the files.[/i]

Yeah, it's called getting a more powerful amplifier and matching speakers [:)].

[Frau_Blucher]

From the department of coincidence department, an excellent article just mentioned to me by a friend...

http://www.cdmasteringservices.com/dynamicdeath.htm

And another...

http://www.cdmasteringservices.com/dynamicrange.htm

[schwenko]

Where can I find those sound graphs for my new, remastered "Get the Message-The Best of Electronic" cd? I hope I won't be "disappointed".[:D]

[Rubellan]

Truth be known, a modest amount of clipping can occur before becoming audible. The Boomtown Rats CD is a prime example of WAY over doing it. I've seen quite a few CD's that clip only at loud intervals, and while I don't care for it, I can't hear it. When I master a CD, I intentionally use my hard limiting tool to help even out the file, though far from an audible or negative level. Used carefully, it can offer a certain consistency, though most times it's terribly abused.

[tikibars]

I do CD mastering for a living.

This article is correct that the mastering engineers almost universally do NOT want to ruin perfectly good records this way, but we are forced to by the people eriting our paychecks - the record labels.

Another particularly wretched example is disc 2 of The Best of Fad Gadget. Completely unlistenable, audibly distorted, as well as over compressed.

I wrote an honest review of it on the Mute web site in their reviews section, and they promply removed it...