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Who's with me?

I was just listening to a $2.00 record store find I purchased around 1 year ago. It so happened that the power was out while I was there, but by chance I purchased among others, Rush s/t lp. After I arrived back at the homestead, I realized it was a early pressing,(A1).

Fast forward to today. While listening and really enjoying this lp, I thought that wouldn't it be great if modern lps sounded this good!

No sign of compression, (Did we even know compression existed back then?) Dynamics in spades, soundstage: very, very good. Bass, yes!

So, what may I ask is lacking now? That is the quest we must all participate in. Doing our best to make record companies/labels realize that 'sound quality' equals record sales/satisfied customers. We all win!
128x128slaw
lowrider57's avatar
lowrider57
5,417 posts
 
You're right, Onhwy61. There was always some compression used in the mixing process, but with today's recordings the final master gets additional compression onto a digital file; and various compression rates according to it's final medium...cd, sacd, downloads, vinyl.

And yes, I agree there was a lot more noise and distortion in those older recordings.
csontos
1,311 posts
 
To put it another way, lack of exclusivity and competition. They know you guys are going to buy their stuff.
onhwy61's avatar
onhwy61
5,218 posts
 
Lowrider57, don't confuse data compression (mp3s) with audio compressors/limiters. Go to the end of this article and listen to some samples of audio compression on a drum loop.
rx8man's avatar
rx8man
1,481 posts
 
It's no wonder we have a hard enough time getting our systems to sound live and musical, dealing with all the settings/variances between every single recording.
lowrider57's avatar
lowrider57
5,417 posts
 
Onhwy61, that's an interesting article but I've used compressor/limiters when I was an audio engineer, so I guess your point is that compression is used to shape the sound in the mix.
My point was that an overly compressed data file can ruin an audiophile listening experience.
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