Lousy Sound on Pearl Jam Avocado CD

Yielded wrote:

Excessive compression is a massive problem in today's music industry. Many artists and mixing engineers don't like it. unfortunately they don't make the final decision in the majority of cases. The question is, who is going to dare take the first step 'backwards'?

Nowadays it's common practice for mastering engineers to make music as loud as possible. The thing is, radio stations squash the shit out of the music as well to make the music they play seem louder than other stations' music. In some cases you might be looking at a 100:1 compression ratio when music eventually gets played on the radio.


Some good articles which provide food for thought:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2008/jan/10/digitalmusic

http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/17777619/the_death_of_high_fidelity

That second article was great. I'm now listening to 'Modern Times' and understand why it sounds better than anything else - analog sound brings the music directly from the studio to your stereo. It's more 'live' sounding and carries more emotion than a flat compressed/remastered digital signal.

Remastered motown music is a great example. Listen to the original 'dock of the bay' by Otis Redding and then listen to the remaster. The 'clarity and punch' of the classic motown beat is completely lost in the remaster! It actually makes me angry that modern recording techniques take the soul out of music and people don't even know it.