Loud

[jeff-worrell.livejournal.com]

"Red Hot Chili Peppers’ Californication, branded 'unlistenable' by studio experts"

(insert obvious joke in comments)

More seriously, is this degree of compression something you notice when listening to new CDs? I had noticed that you need to set the volume control at a much lower level than you do with older CDs. But, rather naively, I assumed modern 'remastering' tended to broaden the dynamic range rather than narrow it.

Maybe it is only rock records that are mastered in the way this article complains about.

Comments

[koganbot]

Yeah, I was just about to link this myself, an excellent piece. That said, I don't know that compression is hurting my enjoyment of music; probably hurts music if it's a demand (that all records must sound like this); otherwise, like anything else, whether it's good or bad depends on how it's used. The ones who know how to work within its constraints do well, those who don't (Iggy Pop on his terrible terrible terrible remix of Raw Power, for instance), or who really need the wide dynamics, screw up.

[koganbot]

That is, Nick's piece is the one that's excellent.