I am not sure what exactly you are asking?
So in my effort to make the "subtle" details, in both
Music, and Movies,more audible, I needed to provide additional drivers, to deliver more "clearly" the parts in the Recording that are very low level.
No longer do I question what the lyrics are on any song,
or what was whispered in a movie, it is CLEAR!
Yes, if your system can re-create a "Piano", to have the
same Big, full sound of a full size Piano, than you are
well on your way, to some good sounds.
Trombone,Bass Clarinet, are a couple other instruments,
that I listen for "realism".
The overall point of this is that there's still no free lunch. The reason CDs were quieter in the past was that it took a while for it to occur to people to try to hijack the volume knob from listeners. People spent a long time mixing their music to sound just the way they wanted it. Typically, they didn't want someone to take that music and make radical or drastic changes to it after hearing it only a handful of times in a mastering session. The job of the mastering engineer was just to balance out any inconsistencies and transfer it to the delivery medium.
In this age, we all do tend to listen to music in much noisier environments and generally, perhaps, pay less attention to the music we hear. In such an environment, it is tempting to try to make your music "shout-out" the loudest. However, the only way to blast into people's ears louder than the last song is to introduce sonic sacrifices to your original mixes to achieve this goal. Much of today's modern music can certainly jump out at you from even the tinniest of computer speakers, but often doesn't stand up to any serious scrutiny on a good full-range playback system. And it's often chock full of pumping compression, distortion and other ear-fatiguing artifacts. Highly compressed or limited music with no dynamic range is physically difficult to listen to for any length of time. This "hearing fatigue" doesn't present itself as obviously aching muscles, like other forms of physical fatigue, so it's not obvious to the listener that he or she is being affected. But if you ever wonder why you don't like modern music as much as older recordings, or why you don't like to listen to it for long periods of time (much less over the years), this physical and mental hearing fatigue is a big part of the reason.
Hypercompressed material does not sound louder on the air. It sounds more distorted, making the radio sound broken in the most extreme cases. It sounds small, busy, and flat. It does not feel good to the listener when turned up, so he or she hears it as background music. Hypercompression, when combined with major-market levels of broadcast processing, sucks the drama and life from music. In more extreme cases, it sounds overtly distorted and is likely to cause tuneouts by adults, particularly women.
These can have all of the equalization, slow compression, and other effects that producers and mastering engineers use artistically to achieve a desired sound. What these radio mixes should not have is fast digital limiting and clipping. Leave the short-term envelopes unsquashed. Let the broadcast processor do its work. The result will be just as loud on-air as hypercompressed material, but will have far more punch, clarity, and life.
Just my humble opinion.
All very credible points.
Love My Music!
So in my effort to make the "subtle" details, in both
Music, and Movies,more audible, I needed to provide additional drivers, to deliver more "clearly" the parts in the Recording that are very low level.
No longer do I question what the lyrics are on any song,
or what was whispered in a movie, it is CLEAR!
Yes, if your system can re-create a "Piano", to have the
same Big, full sound of a full size Piano, than you are
well on your way, to some good sounds.
Trombone,Bass Clarinet, are a couple other instruments,
that I listen for "realism".
The overall point of this is that there's still no free lunch. The reason CDs were quieter in the past was that it took a while for it to occur to people to try to hijack the volume knob from listeners. People spent a long time mixing their music to sound just the way they wanted it. Typically, they didn't want someone to take that music and make radical or drastic changes to it after hearing it only a handful of times in a mastering session. The job of the mastering engineer was just to balance out any inconsistencies and transfer it to the delivery medium.
In this age, we all do tend to listen to music in much noisier environments and generally, perhaps, pay less attention to the music we hear. In such an environment, it is tempting to try to make your music "shout-out" the loudest. However, the only way to blast into people's ears louder than the last song is to introduce sonic sacrifices to your original mixes to achieve this goal. Much of today's modern music can certainly jump out at you from even the tinniest of computer speakers, but often doesn't stand up to any serious scrutiny on a good full-range playback system. And it's often chock full of pumping compression, distortion and other ear-fatiguing artifacts. Highly compressed or limited music with no dynamic range is physically difficult to listen to for any length of time. This "hearing fatigue" doesn't present itself as obviously aching muscles, like other forms of physical fatigue, so it's not obvious to the listener that he or she is being affected. But if you ever wonder why you don't like modern music as much as older recordings, or why you don't like to listen to it for long periods of time (much less over the years), this physical and mental hearing fatigue is a big part of the reason.
Hypercompressed material does not sound louder on the air. It sounds more distorted, making the radio sound broken in the most extreme cases. It sounds small, busy, and flat. It does not feel good to the listener when turned up, so he or she hears it as background music. Hypercompression, when combined with major-market levels of broadcast processing, sucks the drama and life from music. In more extreme cases, it sounds overtly distorted and is likely to cause tuneouts by adults, particularly women.
These can have all of the equalization, slow compression, and other effects that producers and mastering engineers use artistically to achieve a desired sound. What these radio mixes should not have is fast digital limiting and clipping. Leave the short-term envelopes unsquashed. Let the broadcast processor do its work. The result will be just as loud on-air as hypercompressed material, but will have far more punch, clarity, and life.
Just my humble opinion.
All very credible points.
Love My Music!