[Dixielandjazz] NPR.org - The Loudness Wars: Why Music Sounds Worse

[Jim Kashishian]

>To:  DJML  & Musicians and Jazzfans list
From: Norman Vickers, Jazz Society of Pensacola
>Here's a link to the NPR story feature about changing in recording
techniques, MP3 and "why music sounds worse." I'd be especially interested
in what Jim Kashishian and other experts have to say on this.

I read the story, and it is interesting that for once the differences of
compression & digital compression is explained.  

True, Mp3 compresses the digital audio, and it is not really as good as the
original.  How much that really matters, especially when people are
listening to their music through those little earplugs, is something else.  

Listening to music?  How many people actually "listen" to music, rather than
just have it going in the background.  You can't really listen to music in
your car.  Hopefully, your mind is basically on the road.  That is why I
don't even know how to adjust my radio/Cd player in my two cars.  I listen
to music in my studio, sitting & concentrating.  I try to appreciate the
music itself, and try to understand how well (or poorly) the recording was
made.

Expert...me?  Not really.  I only got into recording myself when I took on
the Spanish dealership of large format recording consoles for music, film
mixing & broadcast studios.  I thought that if I was going to sell these
monsters I should at least know how to use them.  Although I had been in
studios since 1969 on a daily basis as a session musician, then producer,
then sound editor, I never actually mixed or mastered anything until 1992
when I bought my digital console (which cost more than the house I live
in!).  

My console handling career began with a digital console (Neve), so I'm not
really the one to discuss the drawbacks of digital! I love it.  The warmth
of analogue people talk about often tends to be in the fuzzy hum stuff you
hear in the background.  Since that hum disappears in digital..."Oh my God,
there's no warmth!".

Compression?  In the article it is treated as something really nasty.  But,
there are different ways of applying it.  I can make cymbals that are hidden
in an old mix come out with compression.  Or, a piano that is hidden by a
contrabass playing on the same track come alive.  Or, put a low voice out in
the front.  

The proper way of doing these things is to have the original mix on one
fader (any fader channel on my console can be either mono or stereo at the
flip of a switch), and the track that I am working on on another fader.
Then, you do a blind switch back and forth, choosing the best track.
Sometimes, if I got it wrong, the best track is the original!  You work
until you improve the original, or you leave it alone.

The compression mentioned in the article is referring to bringing the
overall level of the music as close to zero as possible.  Anything over zero
on the meter in digital is distortion.  That means you can have the fff
parts at zero, and the ppp at maybe -1.  Stupid, but it works with certain
types of music.  

The practice in most pop & rock music is to have everything sitting right at
zero, where the meters barely even move.  I'm not in favor of that practice.
Nevertheless, there it is!

I would suggest that one shouldn't try to blame the recording practices out
there for the music "sounding worse".  Firstly, the song just has to be a
good one.  Then, from there, the recording process can make it better...or
worse!

Jim