"David Looser" wrote in message
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"Iain Churches" wrote in message
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"David Looser" wrote in message
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It reminds me a lot of Iain's justification for the CD version of a dual
LP/CD release having a lot more dynamic compression than the LP on the
grounds that they are for "different markets".


Jim's claim that the people involved in CD mastering are
"witless" and "incompetent" just does not stand up, because
the same CD facilities are turning out impeccable uncompressed
classical and jazz CDs together with heavily compressed pop
material.

I would be interested to know, David, what you personally
think the explanation is for this, if not to meet the demands
of the consumer.


CD mastering people are subject to the whims of the record companies, not
those of the consumers. No one (certainly not the record companies) has
ever asked consumers how much compression they want, nor have they had the
courage to try marketing heavily and lightly compressed versions of the
same material in parallel CD or download versions (i.e.. both versions on
the same medium).

So my explanation is that it's the record companies, in a competitive race
for "loudness", who are demanding heavy compression, rather than the
consumers.

Whilst out-and-out pop music has always used heavy compression, those
aren't the sort of records that exist in LP/CD parallel issues. There is
no reason, other than a cynical marketing ploy, for the CD versions of
those to use higher compression than is used for the LP.


There was the interesting example of that heavy-metal track (can't remember
the name) which was included in the "Guitar Hero" game. Because the version
of the track included in the game was provided before the CD mastering was
performed it had less compression than the CD version ended up with. It lead
to the bizarre phenomenon of heavy-metal fans complaining about excessive
compression.

That seems to me to indicate very clearly that the heavy compression often
applied to CDs is *not* due to the demands of consumers.

David.