"Iain Churches" wrote in message
...

"David Looser" wrote in message
...

We don't know what buyers expect,

I think we do.

Do you? based on what?

because no one has ever asked them.

The fact that people are not aware of the market research
and have not been approached themselves, does not mean
that the research has not been done, and that other people
have not been asked in significant numbers:-)

I notice you included the word "the" in front of market research, as though
there was some, yet you appear not to be aware of any. I think the most
probable reason that none of us have heard of any is that none has ever been
done. Anyway what question would you ask? "Do you like your records loud?",
"do you want all the musical dynamics crushed out of your records?" Market
research is notoriously prone to bias in favour of the result the sponsoring
organisation wants. If the record industry is going to claim that it has
asked the public what it wants in terms of dynamics then I'd want to know
what questions were asked.

Anyway modern audio equipment has gain and to spare. If someone wants their
records loud they only have to turn the volume up.

It may be that there is no published data,

Well none of us are aware of any.

but I strongly
believe that the request for louder CDs has come from
the public.

I'm not sure that the fact that you believe something makes it true.

After all, it would be so much easier, and cheaper for
record companies to make straight 1:1 CD masters as
is done with classical and jazz CDs than spend hours
(and many hundreds of pounds/euros in trying to produce
a louder master.


If a "louder" product is required, then that can be done in the studio
before the master is sent for CD mastering, that is the logical and sane
procedure. With movie soundtracks a magnetic master is sent to the lab for
recording onto the optical film soundtrack. The lab doesn't then re-work the
material to make the film "louder", their responsibility is to make the film
sound like the master, not impose their own artistic judgement on it. Why
should the record industry adopt a different and illogical procedure?

It seems to me to be far more likely that it's the record industry which
is demanding "loudness", rather than the consumers. Maybe the producers and
executives believe, as you do, that the public are demanding it. Since you
are an industry insider yourself perhaps you've just picked up the received
belief from within the industry. Or maybe this obsession with loudness is
just competition between people within the industry to make the loudest
records. Who knows?

It has recently come to light just how irrational the behaviour of the
financial sector can be, why assume greater rationality from the record
industry?

David.