if you don't overmodulate your FM, it doesn't need compression. So some engineers, like ours, build the compression into the mixing stage do compensate for doofuses playing metal CDs at +8 DB. That way you only need minimal compression at the FM stage, and if you stay within the engineers recommended level limits your clipping should be almost nil.
So, yes. But FM also starts to roll off at about 15 khz, so most of the improvement you hear would be in the lows and mids.
― sleeve (sleeve), Saturday, 30 December 2006 23:30 (seventeen years ago) link
Music companies are making CDs “louder” than before but that doesn’t mean it’s good. Loud sounds can lead to listener fatique but loud sounds seem catered for the MP3 generation since they work better in a car, on a train, or a busy city.
To achieve a “loud” sound, the dynamic range of the sound/music signal is reduced by way of audio compression. This will cause the human ear-brain mechanism to perceive the overall signal as being louder, when in fact merely the difference between loud and quiet portions of audio has been reduced.
Overall, the sound quality suffers.
LoudnessWar has posted an educational video clip on youtube (click here) that explains succinctly, within two minutes, why being loud doesn’t mean good. Using a clip from Paul McCartney’s Figure Of Eight (1989), LoudnessWar demonstrates how in getting a louder sound, the dynamic range of the song has been sacrificed and the result can be described as “wimpy.” As shown in the above graphic, to achieve a loud sound, the portion in red has to be removed.
Recording engineer Steve Hoffman, who has been waging a Loudness War, alerted his readers to the youtube clip and says: “I want to make sure that all of you watch this short video clip on what digital compression is doing to remastered music. Please, I want EVERYONE here to check this out so we can all have the same frame of reference on this topic. Be sure to turn your sound up to a reasonable volume…”
Steve Hoffman has also offered the analogy below (click here for more):
WHAT DOES BAD DIGITAL COMPRESSION SOUND LIKE?
People ask me this all the time. I usually tell them it sounds “loud” and they ask why that is so bad. So, I worked out this silly analogy for them and I thought I’d share it with you here:
I want you to go stand in front of a glass door or window. Are you there? Now, move closer to the window, concentrating on your face. When your nose just hits the glass, stop moving. On a CD master, this is the “peak” point; the loudest point on the master that you can go without running into gross distortion. The glass prevents you from going any further. It is like a “wall”.
So, your face (at this point) is still basically your face (if I looked at you from the OTHER SIDE OF THE GLASS I would recognize you). Now, let’s pretend that the back of your head is the “quietest” area, and the tip of your nose is the loudest. This is your dynamic range. Just like the dynamics of music in the real world, even the loudest rock & roll. Got it?
OK. Now, push closer to the window and smush your face against the glass. Owww. Hurt? Well, your face is distorting and still it is not breaking the glass (or getting any louder) just distorting. If I were to look at you from the other side of the glass I might not recognize you any more.
This is what happens to music when it is digitally compressed. It’s a sound I hate with a passion. If you think your nose and face hurts, this is what is happening to our favorite music when it is “remastered” for sheer volume.
― daniel seward (bunnybrain), Sunday, 31 December 2006 16:24 (seventeen years ago) link
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