Why music these days is crap: no dynamic range

[Luis G]

I hadn't noticed until a few days ago why newer music didn't feel as good as some old music (aside from the fact that many newer music is in fact crap), and why some re-releases didn't seem to sound as good as it used to. I thought I was mad, but now I know the reason:

Rather than use this new technology to take advantage of it's wide dynamic range, the music industry went in the opposite direction. They decided that louder is better. Suddenly, we found ourselves in a race to see whose CD was the loudest. The only way to make CDs louder was to keep compressing the signal more and more. That's where we are today. Everyone's trying to make their CD sound louder than everyone else's. The term that is used for this process is called, hot. Yes, most of today's music is recorded hot. The net result, noise with a beat.

http://www.proaudiorx.com/dynamicrange.htm

 

[Luis G]

For those wanting to compare:
http://www.loudnessrace.com/victims/examples.htm

 

[SouthernN'Proud]

OK, that's one reason. Here are some more.

1. Nobody plays their own instruments anymore. They just sing and dance.

2. Nobody writes their own songs anymore. Makes it hard to have any feeling in the song.

3. Payola is back. I heard a report last week that every single J-Lo, Ashley Simpson, and a couple others I forgot was bought and paid for.

4. The music business is, always has been, and always will be cyclical. A study of the charts from years ago proves it. We are forcefed what the labels want to sign until an underground develops, then the pendulum swings back in favor of the fans. Then it gets commercialized, and people get tired of it, and another underground will form. When it too gets played out, the labels sneak back in, and it starts all over again. Witness:

Mid-70s fluff (Bread, etc)
AOR (Styx, etc)
Hard rock wave #1 (Ted Nugent, etc)
Disco
Punk
Hard Rock wave #2 (Van Halen etc)
Pop (Madonna, etc)
Hair metal (Motley Crue, etc)
Grunge
Hip hop

5. Economics. People are not buying music right now, so what gets pushed is what radio will accept. That is never good.

6. Technology. People are enamored with Ipods and stuff, so they are buying music a song at a time instead of a CD at a time.

7. It's pretty hard to sell concert tickets to watch lip synching brats like Ashley Simpson twitch around for 90 minutes.



I could go on, but I sense eyes glazing over...

 

[Luis G]

All right, this is done to music at the mastering stage, it doesn't matter if you buy a song or a CD, it will have no dynamic range. And no dynamic range equals no excitement in music, much like looking at a blurry picture.

Years ago, music used to be well mastered so you can grasp the details and feel the instruments or feel the volume increase at some portions of the song, much like "explosions". Right now, that feeling is gone, the music is played at a constant level, no detail in some instruments, no emotion and no explosions.

It gets worse, some albums are being re-mastered and being sold as if they were meant to sound better, they do not.

 

[MrBishop]

Another change which you may want to look into, Luis. The quality of speakers and Amps today as opposed to a few decades ago.

The Ohms have dropped radically on the speakers and the Ohm output on the amps too. Standard output 20 years ago. 2ohms for headphones, 4 for cars and basic stereo and 8 for advanced stereo systems.

The drop in Ohms is often why people accidentally blow their new speakers when they plug them into old Apms.

8ohm amp+ 4ohmSpeaker = BOOM!

Manufacturers found that they could reduce the quality because sound went digital. If you really want to see how bad the new systems are...try plugging an LP into one!

 

[MrBishop]

Also why a decent stereo using eek...vacuum tubes... are such hot products.
Old tech which couldn't reply on digital cleanups and HAD to be good!

 

[SouthernN'Proud]

What Bish said.

Digital mastering has led to a blandness of sound. It's flat. Analog is a wave...not flat. You lose such subtleties as studio ambiance, acoustic tricks commonly used for years to enhance certain elements during recording, stuff like that. Now it's all 1s and 0s. Yip fuckin eee.

 

[Luis G]

What Bish said.

Digital mastering has led to a blandness of sound. It's flat. Analog is a wave...not flat. You lose such subtleties as studio ambiance, acoustic tricks commonly used for years to enhance certain elements during recording, stuff like that. Now it's all 1s and 0s. Yip fuckin eee.

These days CDs are flat but that's because of the mastering process not because of a problem with digital audio. CDs have a SNR of 96dB because of their 16-bit quantizer, DVD-Audio reach 144dB.

Quoting someone from hydrogenaudio:

There is no doubt that LPs can sound fabulous, in some respects subjectively nicer than CD, and so some "audiophiles" think this must be because LPs are more accurate, and have greater resolution than CDs. They're not, and they don't.

A perfect LP pressed on heavy duty virgin vinyl played back on the finest turntable in the world can manage about 75dB of dynamic range (on a good day with a following wind). That equates to about 12.5 bits. 16 bits of word depth is more than enough.

 

[SouthernN'Proud]

That's kinda why I said digital mastering...

 

[Gonz]

Nobody plays their own instruments anymore. They just sing and dance.

No more need be said.

 

[Luis G]

That's kinda why I said digital mastering...

I was addressing Bish post too.

Digital audio is not the problem, Digital mastering is not the problem, it can sound GREAT. The problem is the BAD digital mastering we're witnessing, and it is a real shame.

Some say that studios are intentionally making CDs sound like crap, just so you can feel the notorious quality gap between CDs and DVD-Audio or SACD.

 

[Inkara1]

Another change which you may want to look into, Luis. The quality of speakers and Amps today as opposed to a few decades ago.

The Ohms have dropped radically on the speakers and the Ohm output on the amps too. Standard output 20 years ago. 2ohms for headphones, 4 for cars and basic stereo and 8 for advanced stereo systems.

The drop in Ohms is often why people accidentally blow their new speakers when they plug them into old Apms.

8ohm amp+ 4ohmSpeaker = BOOM!

Manufacturers found that they could reduce the quality because sound went digital. If you really want to see how bad the new systems are...try plugging an LP into one!

An amplifier can't output ohms. Ohms are a measure of resistance. Amplifier outputs are typically measured in watts. The higher the number of ohms, the greater the resistance. Most consumer-level speakers these days are 8 ohms, while higher-end speakers are often 4 ohms. Most receivers can handle a single pair of 4-ohm speakers or two pairs of 8-ohm speakers (which presents a 4-ohm load to the amplifier), or are labeled if they can't. It's all about heat. Too low a resistance means too much current flows and things heat up.

As for trying to listen to a turntable on a new amp... try listening to one on an old amp when plugged into the "tape" input. Same problem, right? It's because magnatic cartridges have a low output level, and require a pre-amp. On a "phono" input, the pre-amp is built in and plugging in a tape deck or CD player will overload it. Newer receivers often eschew athat because turntables aren't as common as they used to be, allowing them to save the cost of including it with minimal bitching from the public. Some turntables have a pre-amp built in to compensate for this, and a separate pre-amp is available for purchase as well.

 

[chcr]

Heh. I watched Jim Messina do twenty minutes the other night on why the Loggins and Messina re-releases from the mid-nineties were crap. The upshot was that they originally spent more time in the studio mastering the mixes than they did on the songs. The re-releases were remixed by people who didn't have any understanding of how or why they were mixed the way they were in the first place.

Edit: Note that they have reacquired all the masters and are re-re-releasing the music with the original mixes.

Nowadays, some clown comes along and gains a minimal understanding of sound technology and thinks he's a producer. No one bothers to learn the craft anymore. This is why the most popular radio stations are classic rock and the most popular touring acts are from twenty or more years ago. It used to be art.

 

[SouthernN'Proud]

Nowadays, some clown comes along and gains a minimal understanding of sound technology and thinks he's a producer. No one bothers to learn the craft anymore...It used to be art.

*note to self...return after whoring some karma*

At one point in my life, I wanted to become a producer. I studied sound informally for a long time, played with sound boards every chance I got, ran boards for free for some friend who started bands (bad bands no less), anything I could think of to get my hands on audio equipment. My first off-the-farm job was as a DJ at the local radio station. I haunted their little production room, learning by trial and error.

I listened critically to music, trying to catch the nuances that the different producers used. I quickly learned that Ted Templeman (Van Halen) is a complete blithering idiot, but that Mutt Lange may be a genius.

I majored for awhile in Recording Industry Management in college, and kept it as a minor. I learned a ton more that way.

Machines will never surpass the human ear when it comes to making something sound right.

 

[Gonz]

Mutt Lange IS a genius

Sorry, that needed correction