I don't know about the CBS stuff but Vlado Meller has a reputation for squashing music with compressors/limiters. I have a fairly good Tower of Power album done by him (still squashed but not totally destroyed) whilst I have some Red Hot Chilli Peppers stuff where he got heavy handed and KILLED the sound.
Sadly there are many people who like what he does - the squashed sound comes out clearer on a crap boombox or crap car stereo or on on open earphones with an iPod or in a pub (all environments where background noise is likely to be higher and where the dynamics of the playback system is lousy to begin with).
The major labels like it too - the harsh sound catches consumers attention with increased chance of sales - better still consumers tire of the awful sound quite quickly and move on... (just what the labels want...more sales)
I am sure Vlado's style could do a lot for classical - you know - give it a lot more zip - even it all out by getting rid of all those annoying quiet passages and squash those all too nasty crescendos - give the sound some consistency - consistently tonally monotonous of course!
The worst of it now is that most sound engineers follow the likes of Vlado. Today it is not a question of whether it should be mastered HOT (compressed) - that is no longer open debate as it is a GIVEN - of course it shlud be hotter then HOT - what mastering boils down to today is how hot and punchy to make it and still not sound too obviously harsh. You know - can the genius at the console get the dynamic range down to less than 6 db without it sounding awful - that is what the best of the best do today!!! Go figure....
Sadly there are many people who like what he does - the squashed sound comes out clearer on a crap boombox or crap car stereo or on on open earphones with an iPod or in a pub (all environments where background noise is likely to be higher and where the dynamics of the playback system is lousy to begin with).
The major labels like it too - the harsh sound catches consumers attention with increased chance of sales - better still consumers tire of the awful sound quite quickly and move on... (just what the labels want...more sales)
I am sure Vlado's style could do a lot for classical - you know - give it a lot more zip - even it all out by getting rid of all those annoying quiet passages and squash those all too nasty crescendos - give the sound some consistency - consistently tonally monotonous of course!
The worst of it now is that most sound engineers follow the likes of Vlado. Today it is not a question of whether it should be mastered HOT (compressed) - that is no longer open debate as it is a GIVEN - of course it shlud be hotter then HOT - what mastering boils down to today is how hot and punchy to make it and still not sound too obviously harsh. You know - can the genius at the console get the dynamic range down to less than 6 db without it sounding awful - that is what the best of the best do today!!! Go figure....