Eh, is anybody even interested anymore?

treitz3

http://productionadvice.co.uk/category/blog/

I am and it's about damn time.

Tom

EndersShadow

Agreed.

Nightfall

I'd hope anyone that registers for this forum would care.

Fongolio

A glimmer of hope. Interesting vid

BlueFox

Let us hope so. However, if it is won it is because somebody is losing money, not because they suddenly realized it is the right thing to do. Maybe after all the complaining and bad press poor recordings have generated over the last few years people are starting to realize you can make money with quality.

Nightfall

BlueFox wrote: »

Maybe after all the complaining and bad press poor recordings have generated...

Metallica's Death Magnetic alone caused a lot of this. Rick Rubin managed not only to ruin Death Magnetic but also to distort Johnny Cash's Hurt.

F1nut

'Bout time!

tonyb

BlueFox wrote: »

Let us hope so. However, if it is won it is because somebody is losing money, not because they suddenly realized it is the right thing to do. Maybe after all the complaining and bad press poor recordings have generated over the last few years people are starting to realize you can make money with quality.

Cha ching !!

Jhayman

Exactly it's always about the $$

WLDock

BlueFox wrote: »

.... people are starting to realize you can make money with quality.

Interesting point there. Just think, what your average younger gen is willing to pay for music today. Yes, many of them pirate songs...but many will pay for music service, and single song downloads, etc. Then there is the perception that the $300 BEATS headphones are the best sound quality headphones out there.

What if a trendy company or artist, celebrity, etc, could actually push a quality recording, label, music service, headphones, audio equipment, etc.??? I think if done right, true audio quality might be finally marketable to a larger base given what we have seen in the past 10 years or so.

Who would have thought iTunes would get so BIG and the masses would buy $300 headphones? Quality Audio might be the next BIG thing in the digital revolution? Imagine Apple selling high definition audio via itunes and offering iPods with larger drives, etc, etc......then EVERYONE else following suite.....and the rush to offer high quality recordings and playback service and equipment could take off.

tonyb

The problem will be, as I see it anyway, perception. Jazzing up a standard recording hotter so it sounds like a higher rez file doesn't qualify in my book. But the powers at be know they can get twice as much if it's marketed as Hi-Rez. Without any industry standard of what constitutes the definitions, and the marketing of such, it's wide open to take your coin.

gudnoyez

Why not let Steve Wilson from Porcupine Tree do all mastering projects from here on out he did an awesome job on Tull's 40th anniversary edition of Aqualung and every other project he has done.

tonyb

Or the guys from Mapleshade, their redbook recordings will knock you out.

aboroth00

Very cool and informative video.

The only thing is that the Queens of the stone age album is supposed to be LOUD and heavily compressed. The whole album was intended to be "radio" quality emulating a trip from LA to the desert. There was a lot of thought that had gone into that album and the "loudness" in the album was sort of a nod to the loudness wars. I smirk a little bit every time I pop it into the CD player in my car.

4xoddic

eh, what did they say?

We attended a Samantha Fish concert last night @ The Wareham Opera House here in Manhattan, Fire Dept. says 400 capacity (probably 200 in attendance). All seats have been removed since it was an actual theater. I can't imagine a very large "opera" ever happening in the venue.

The opening act was a vocalist & guitarist from A La Mode, a classic Kansas City swing band with a splash of blues, folk, and Latin grooves.

www.ClaytonDelong.com

The decibel level was pretty high from our table ~ 40' back, unobstructed view of the stage & just above where the orchestra pit might have been. Likely 90 dB (I usually play my RTiA9s @ 84 dB IF I'm not in the same room, for ambience.

Then Fish took the stage & the volume went UP, UP, UPPPP! It was visceral, the vibrations that is. Likely, jet engine loud. You could feel the vibration thru your feet & in your chest. The sound level obscured Fish's vocals & guitar. Between the 3rd & 4th #, my wife got up & said she was moving farther back, where her ears didn't hurt. She eventually wound up in the lobby, with sound emanating from the entrances on either side of the concession stand.

A couple #s later, & she returned to tell me where she was. I joined her in the lobby, where I would guess it was > 84 dB, but still obscured. We left after that # . . .

Old foggies, is what my wife called us. I've attended some LOUD concerts over the "_ears," but never anything like that. IF the younger generation needs to "feel" their music to that extent, perhaps its indicative of what "music" recording has served up?

4xoddic

correction: I evidently like to listen to Jeff Beck Live @ Ronnie Scott's blu-ray with C-weighted peaks of 94 dB.

MarkSLR

I am excited for the future!!!

AsSiMiLaTeD

gudnoyez wrote: »

Why not let Steve Wilson from Porcupine Tree do all mastering projects from here on out he did an awesome job on Tull's 40th anniversary edition of Aqualung and every other project he has done.

ah, but even some of the PT releases are a bit hot, seems even the great Steven Wilson is not immune to the loudness wars...

MAD

I for one am very happy.

steveinaz

Very good news. Tired of otherwise excellent material being totally rendered "unlistenable" by poor engineering.

unc2701

About damn time, but expect some bull**** marketing with this. Case in point:
http://www.dr.loudness-war.info/index.php?search_artist=&search_album=hesitation+marks

-The "Standard" version measures 5 on the dynamic range database's scale.
-The "Audiophile" version measures 6 on the dynamic range database's scale.
... That's "Audiophile"???? On a scale of 1 to 20, they cranked it up to a SIX?

Now, maybe there was some technical limitation that, I dunno... wait.... what's that? The vinyl version scores an 11. Vinyl, a medium with less dynamic range, does better. So, in this case, the "audiophile" version was complete and utter bull****. The vinyl is the true audiophile version, and not because of some magical property of vinyl, but because they actually mixed it correctly.

THIS is why I buy vinyl. 9 times out of 10, it's mixed better than the CD. Search for just about any recent album and you'll see the same trend- the vinyl hasn't had the dynamic range crushed.

xsmi

Can any of the recordings where the volumes were "juiced up" and the dynamics lost be saved? Or were they screwed up from the masters?

unc2701

xsmi wrote: »

Can any of the recordings where the volumes were "juiced up" and the dynamics lost be saved? Or were they screwed up from the masters?

_Probably_ for anything recent. Typically a studio is going to record each instrument with the maximum dynamic range, then the mixdown crushed everything. Since drive space has gotten so cheap, you typically keep all the original tracks. So starting around the time Pro Tools gained wide use (2000ish) would be a rough guess for when you'd have a good chance of having unmolested masters.

NOW, this is going to be track-by-track to some degree since sometimes they'll just crank the crap out of everything when doing the recording and what's never there can never be brought back. And there's no guarantee that a studio or label will keep and backup the original tracks.

timk65

I wasn't even aware of this, since I don't listen to pop music all that much. I'm surprised there isn't a professional consortium among audio engineers to deal with issues like this. Some things require regulation.