Why New Music Doesn't Sound As Good As It Did

[Feather]

Never mind that today's factory-produced starlets and mini-clones just don't have the practiced chops of the supergroups of yesteryear, pop in a new CD and you might notice that the quality of the music itself—maybe something as simple as a snare drum hit—just doesn't sound as crisp and as clear as you're used to. Why is that?

It's part of the music industry's quest to make music louder and louder, and it's been going on for decades, at least since the birth of the compact disc. Click the link for a nice little video, a mere 2 minutes long, which explains it in detail, with audio cues that you'll be able to hear in crisp detail.

Full Article= http://tech.yahoo.com/blogs/null/33549



Anyone still wondering why the music business is suffering?

I love this statement from the article.

[Potato]

Here's the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Gmex_4hreQ

Interesting comparison.

[Feather]

nice find tater. there is also a link to a video about it at the bottom of the article

[thepuzzler]

That why I love Steve Albini's production so much is one of the few producers who understands dynamic range and that you should always record quietly so it can be played These pics are taken from a track on Blood Sugar Sex Magic.

The first one is from the original pressing, the second picture is the greatest hits re-release.

http://img511.imageshack.us/img511/5808/bssmci0.png

http://img511.imageshack.us/img511/5808/bssmci0.png

Horrible dirty clipping, heathens!

*Runs off to listen to the Pixies*

[meyou123]

Hmmmm.....interesting that you would bring up the way a song is MIXED at the studio that can also affect it's quality. That song sounded HORRIBLE after the re-mix! No wonder the music industry is tanking! They produce music with no apparent skill in said music and then mix it like a two year old! And they want people to pay for that garbage?

But the overall problem with the music industry is that songs and originality in music in general is basically on the decline. Why that is could be anyone's guess....but ask youself....how long has it been since you have heard a band or song that most EVERYONE wants to listen to... like in the 60's 70's or 80's? Not many.

[Boomer The Dog]

The first really clipped album I heard was from Junior-Senior about 5 years ago. Pop music has always used processing and clipping, even if it was only to saturate the magnetic particles on the recording tape.

I know what everybody's getting at though, we should be hearing nearly perfect recordings with the technology we have now, but yet we are being fed digital grunge. I don't actually hear clipping as much as hardcore compression on so many music tracks.

Also, I have to wonder what the effect is when heavily clipped music is encoded to mp3 or other compressions.

[meyou123]

The first really clipped album I heard was from Junior-Senior about 5 years ago. Pop music has always used processing and clipping, even if it was only to saturate the magnetic particles on the recording tape.

I know what everybody's getting at though, we should be hearing nearly perfect recordings with the technology we have now, but yet we are being fed digital grunge. I don't actually hear clipping as much as hardcore compression on so many music tracks.

Also, I have to wonder what the effect is when heavily clipped music is encoded to mp3 or other compressions.

It is not just the mixing though....we SHOULD be hearing some really innovative music and artists as well...but that has not happened either.

[Feather]

It is not just the mixing though....we SHOULD be hearing some really innovative music and artists as well...but that has not happened either.

cant really argue with that statement

[Boomer The Dog]

In earlier times, radio DJs introduced listeners to music, out of their personal taste for
what the audience might like, and they did daring things and took risks, like when punk
rock was coming out and someone dared to play it.

Mixing is only one thing that's right, but if there are many clip-trashed CDs being put out,
it seems like there is a bigger problem, that things have gotten to the point where
someone along the line doesn't care.

It might be a life cycle thing too, just like with lots of ideas, and now CDs aren't so new
and magical any more. DVD players were tough as rocks when they came out, and now
so many of them are $20 plastic toys.

Still, someone said that a new Rush disk was severely clipped. Somehow that doesn't
make sense, and you have to wonder what happened. I'd think that at the end of the
studio process they would burn a disk of the master for the band to listen to and give their
approval on. A band as big as Rush not having the final word on the sound of their own
recording?

I don't have an answer for if the innovation of artists is lower now, because I'm optimistic
that the greatest stuff is out there, it just has to be discovered. The times where all of
your friends listened to the same DJ are over, and now there are thousands of stations.
That could make it harder for listeners to get together and have something in common,
like on the bus to school or whatever.

I'm having the best time of my life listening to all kinds of music because of how available
it is on the net. The net is truly a listener's paradise, and I constantly am finding music
that I like, anything, new or old.

My recent playlist has Associates, Satellite Party, Secret Chiefs 3, Disco Smash 2007,
Beck, Three Dog Night, Manfred Mann, N.E.R.D., Ozric Tentacles, George Clinton, and
more, and to me it's all fun.

[meyou123]

Yeah, Rush is probably corporately "owned" like the rest of the artists are...sadly. And just as sad, might not have a say in the end result.

It also seems that the "life experiences" that made a lot of artists write about what they felt in the past, like James Taylor writing "Fire and rain".. when he had one of his girl friends die in a plane crash and they did not tell him until after a recording session. Or "Ohio" ..about the shootings by national guard troops at kent state university. Those experiences seem to be missing.

But you would THINK with IRAQ going on and Bush and his cronies....you would have all the "experiences" you needed to write a decent song. LOL!