Why is modern music( like house ) more insensitive to intensive processing?

[FredRichards]

Speaking of sound quality, there was an interesting article in the San Francisco Chronicle about MP3.

The author does not fully address all the technical issues, but the one thing that it made me think about is some of the radio I have listened to that has been over-processed, or where MP3s are used for music or liners that are so small that artifacts are heard.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/08/08/DDEJR7KN11.DTL&hw=MP3+Music&sn=002&sc=739

 

[mikl73]

Most of the time, only at the beginning of the song is the processor required to do significant changes, when it adjusts to the spectral balance of the song. That period is critical, after that things are pretty much constant. What I don't like hearing in these moments is a deeper bass on the first few cycles and than shallower later, as the AGC in the bass band increases GR. A good processor (for me) is clever enough to keep the bass depth (volume if you will) constantly deep from the first beat, onwards. Which is kind of contradictory to the need to control bass level and therefore not easy to do (and sound good on other material), but some processors manage better to keep that naturalness and not get in a way of music, than others.


Regards,
Goran Tomas

A perfect example of what Goran is saying in real life was the processing on KKDL 106.7 Dallas. This was during the dance format. The first 3 beats of any song were quite massive then the bass would thin out. It was quite anoying and as best I can remember was this way for the entire life of the format.

 

[kevtronics]

And Frank, I always thought the Raspberries had some sort of multiband thing going on that record, especially on the drums, rather than the whole thing being compressed. It sounds very overdubbed, and you can certainly hear the gain coming up after the first three guitar riffs. Whichever, it most certainly was agressive.

"Go All The Way" was processed with a Roger Mayer wideband limiter, with its release time matched exactly to the tempo of the song. And yet it still has higher peaks than most current music.

Dancing Queen makes the meters stand still.

Maybe you're thinking of "Waterloo"? That was from the early ABBA era when they were trying to give their music the Phil Spector "Wall Of Sound" effect. By the time "Dancing Queen" became a hit, their music was much less smashed-sounding.

And BTW, ABBA's last full album, "The Vistors", has breathtaking dynamic range. It was one of the first albums recorded digitally (1981), and the original 1983 CD release captures its full dynamics. Avoid any "Digitally Remastered" re-releases -- it was already recorded digitally to begin with, so newer releases only add on extra compression and clipping to make it sound more comparable to today's CDs.

 

[mikl73]

Kevin I will be honest I thought you made a typo there but it took 10 seconds to verify your last paragraph is 100% correct. I wonder how many people also didn't know there where cd's pressed where in 1982 and that The Visitors was the first commercial release pressed on cd.

 

[Robert Bass]

What's the three letter mastering code on the album? Is it triple D? AAD? DAD?

R

 

[kevtronics]

What's the three letter mastering code on the album? Is it triple D? AAD? DAD?

I'll check the CD when I get a chance, but since it's from 1983, I think it predates the use of the three-letter codes.

p.s. "DAD" is quite rare, since it means digital recording, analog mixing, and digital mastering. I have only one "DAD" CD, a Celine Dion album from the early '90s.

 

[skippertthomas]

Ahhh... Give me a tubed mic compressor and a DAP and back to hot, but punchy AM...I miss that....

 

[HadYourPhil]

Good call Skipperthomas! Hard to beat a well-squeezed AM!
If you listen to GATW in headphones, it sounds like separate compression with different time constants on each channel.
The obscure "Everlasting Love" version by the Love Affair on Date is one of the most compressed 45's I've heard...
Here at home, I have several Audimaxes and Volumaxes, two DPE's, two Limpanders and a SpectraSonics 610. Compression is my middle name...

 

[skippertthomas]

My audio processing mouth is watering and drooooooling! I dream of those URI Mic Compressors, as well...

 

[HadYourPhil]

Forgot. I also have a pair of LA-4's, and an old Gates tube-type peak limiter that needs a thorough rebuild.