Good Music doesn't have to sound bad, unfortunately it often does

[boudy]

Ever wonder why alot of music released over the past year or two sounds like crap compared to that from 5 years ago or more? Why listening to an entire CD of music that you otherwise like sometimes makes your brain or ears hurt?

Here's the clearest explanation that I've found to date:

http://spectrum.ieee.org/aug07/5480

Artists and listeners, demand good sound!

Recording/Mastering engineers, stop producing crappy sounding music!

Of course, this insidious practice is how the music industry sucks us in to buying the "Remastered Gold Super Duper Edition" later on to cash in, when they simply could have done it right the first time.

[Reejmon]

that's why I buy vinyl

[don2718]

I prefer wax cylinders.  125 years and still sounds like the original...

[Reejmon]

it is true though.. what is said in that clip

[don2718]

Oh hey, I totally thought you were being sarcastic, but after watching that whole thing, I see what you mean.  I'd assumed that the recording media had little to do with the actual compression or overall loudness levels, but I was wrong.  <gasp>  I was thinking that whatever crappy things they do when mastering can be put on vinyl just as easily, but now it makes a little more sense.

Another thing they said was also true, that the environment in which people listen to music has changed quite a bit.  I used to sit and actually listen to music for hours at a time, preferably through good sound equipment and using headphones.  But I pay less attention to sound quality these days, sadly.  I don't even own any decent stereo equipment any more (damn burglars).  And even when I do listen with headphones, it's on my laptop in a public place where I'm trying to drown out people talking so I can get some work done.  Sad huh?  Not exactly ideal conditions.

So did you get In Rainbows in the $$$ vinyl edition?  I just did the digital download.  It'd be interesting to compare and see if they mastered them differently.

[Reejmon]

yeh I got the vinyl for In Rainbows. Although the speakers through which I play them aren't all that good, you can still hear some difference. The digital download is only 160 kbit though, so you're missing stuff anyway. Too bad that seems to be enough for modern music consumers. I really hope that standard will get alot higher in the future. (It's a bit like digital photography. Those standards completely got lost too in the early days. I think they only just caught up with the quality of anolog photography)

Not the only reason I buy vinyl though. I just like the very big covers ^_^ What a change that must have been when cassette's became popular! Tiny little booklets

[abrocks22]

Vinyl has a greater freq response, so it seems more full, but CDs are more dynamic. The volume range is greater, too bad its always just compressed so no one uses it

[JayL]

I had a long talk to myself about this problem. I discussed a lot with me. There are people out, which do not buy music even on CDs, but rip the music from Youtube videos. When I tell them, that it sounds compledely shite (as the compression artefacts make my head buzzing), they just tell me "Why do you think so? The Quality is very good!" - Good compared to what? To songs out of an AM radio or a cassette, which was played back a few hundert times? Yes! Then it is definitly better! I made a compromise for digital media. If it is possible, I compress contents from a CD with FLAC - if not possible with MP3, VBR 190-320 kbit. This seems the best solution for me nowadays. But I still own a turntable from Dual, expensive and old thingy, and I love listening to music on Vinyl. Most of the Youtube people will grin and say: why don´t you download it as mp3? I could punch their face in for such a bundle of ignorance. The last Vinyl I buyed was "Jazz ist anders" from Die Ärzte, a german punk band. you really can hear the difference. And it DOES matter.