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... POORLY RECORDED SONGS THAT ...

Hello to all...

Was thinking about the songs I luv, that are so poorly recorded that it hurts my ears to listen to them - but because they are so great I just can't help myself 'cause they really moves me:

MEATLOAF: BAT OUTTA HELL

SPRINGSTEIN: ROSELITTA

NICKELBACK: BURN IT DOWN

Can you give me a couple or more, that you think are really great songs and such a disappointment in how they come across recorded (on vinyl, CD, Cassette or whatever...)



justvintagestuff
michaelgreenaudio's avatar
michaelgreenaudio
1,019 posts
 

"I too would like to know how any system can compensate for elements in a bad recording"

The teaching of the "recorded code" has been limited at best when it comes to quality of recordings. I would say we need to fault the teachers of the hobby, whom ever they are. It also seems that when it comes to compression, dynamic range and efficiencies the explanations are not in line with the actual "doing" of the audio chain. Dynamic range is not necessarily a function of recording compression (limiting) and efficiency but somehow has turned into an excuse for poor performance in playback systems. The term "revealing system" has been used as the justification of a system not being able to play a recordings content, when not being able to play any recording is a function of content being or not being in tune. If your system is not "in-tune" with recording content the music will sound "out of tune". It doesn’t matter what is considered good or bad engineering.

Take your "great" sounding recordings to another system and it will sound different (many times majorly different). Why does it sound so different is a function of system tuning. HEA got off track when they went to discrete system component matching. Here’s why, all recordings have a different recorded code and sound different from each other when played on a system with only one setting.

Let's take any recording and play it at any studio or home setting in the world. Now let's take that same recording and play it in any other studio or home setting, guess what, it sounds different. Does that make the recording or system bad? Of course not, it makes every setup different sounding.

michael

n80
2,117 posts
 
michael, I still don't understand. Sorry, I might be being dense here.

But if you take a recording with a compressed dynamic range how can you expand the range beyond what exists on the recording? If it isn't there then it isn't there. To take an extreme example: there have been newer recordings in which the compressed DR has lead to clipping. How can you get back what has been clipped, i.e. not there?


michaelgreenaudio's avatar
michaelgreenaudio
1,019 posts
 

Hi n80

Not dense at all.

"But if you take a recording with a compressed dynamic range how can you expand the range beyond what exists on the recording?"

You can’t. However if your setup is only playing 1/10 of the content there’s a ton of dynamic range your not getting to from the beginning.

What recording are you referring to? I can get the recording and test it for you.

Almost all recordings I test for folks it turns out that their soundstage is limiting the recordings "real space". If the harmonics are shut down on that setting it sounds very compressed until the stage is opened up.

Let me put it this way, your system is a tool, a variable tool.


mg

n80
2,117 posts
 
Two examples:

Newish band called The Struts. Album is Young and Dangerous. Not ’audiophile’ type music. Very pop. The Dynamic Range database, for what its worth, gives its average DR as 5. Minimum track DR is 4. Max track DR is 6.

Alabama Shakes. Sound & Color. Should be appealing to audiophiles (in terms of content). Max DR is on one track and is 9. Album average is 5. Lowest track DR is 3.

(For what its worth, these numbers are from the site referenced above. I do not know what the units of DR are, I make no claim to the reliability of the data, the owner of the site is very much in the fight against DR compression, and he sells an app to measure it. So he’s in it for the money too.)

The bottom line is that even as a new audiophile the effect of such compression is immediately apparent to my untrained ears to the point I can roughly guess the level of compression. Likewise on CDs with DR in the 12-16 range it is clearly and pleasantly apparent.

I can easily understand how you can work with a piece with a broad DR to ’tune’ how it sounds. I just can’t see how I can do anything to ’tune’ what is simply not there and was, in fact, intentionally engineered out. I can see how it can be made better....but hard to imagine how it can be made ’good’ for what that’s worth.

Thanks for your patience.
michaelgreenaudio's avatar
michaelgreenaudio
1,019 posts
 

Hi n80

Not a problem at all, this is what I do.

Those will be easy to reference for me. Let me call my store and see if they have them in stock or if I need to order.

mg

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