"Dave Plowman (News)" wrote in message
...
In article ,
Jim Lesurf wrote:
In article ,
tony sayer wrote:


It often has to be so, a lot of radio is listened to under far less
than ideal conditions where a wide dynamic range would be waste and no
bugger would hear it.

To some extent the pop/rock obsession with level compression goes
hand-in-hand with their wish for LOUDNESS. Hearing curves tend to also
compress at high levels. So to a fair extent, banded level compression
has a result similar to winding up the level of less-compressed
pop/rock. Mimics being able to get a higher level from cheap replay
systems.

In some ways a modern equivalent to balancing everything to make the best
of being played on a Dansette or a tiny speaker.

Never quite understood the fashion for making everything as loud as
possible. Does anyone have replay equipment where it is turned up full -
so it would actually be louder?

Simple. But it is not a fashion. People construe
"louder" as "better". I am sure we have all tried the
simple test with two identical amps, from a common
source,one just 2dB louder than the other, switched
to drive the same pair of speakers. Listeners seem
to invariably choose the louder of the two.

The same with CD mastering, (and broadcast?)
The phenomenon is not only to do with peak level.
With pop music, perceived loudness is also achieved
by increasing the average level i.e. compression.
The Durrough meter is a very useful tool in this
process. If applied carefully, and in moderation,
compression works. Sadly even when over-applied,
people still seem to prefer it.

I am very happy that for the music in which I am
most interested, Baroque and early Jazz, the finished
mix master is used for CD production without being
subjected to "mastering enhancement"

I have some very good audio clips (no pun intended!)
of the various stages in mastering, including what is
commonly known as "impact" and "spread", and
multiband compression with EQ.

Some tracks peak at -1dB FS and have a
dynamic of 6dB. But they have been
skillfully processed and sound a lot better than
one would expect. Perhaps this would be a
good topic for a new thread?

Iain