A pre-"loudness wars" example

[mlsstl]

One topic that has been increasingly discussed the past few years has been the trend toward ever-increasing compression and volume in the new music that is released. While most common in the pop/rock/hip-hop scene, other music genres have not been immune to this disturbing trend.

However, I came across a great example of what music can sound like without all this artificial enhancement and I'd like to share it.

My open reel (a Tandberg 9241X) had not been performing up to par the past few years because the rubber pinch roller and idler wheel had gotten hard and cracked. New parts are basically not available so the machine had been sitting pretty much unused. However, I found a fellow that rebuilds tape recorder rollers (Terry's Rubber Rollers - highly recommended) and he restored mine.

Since then I've been rediscovering all the gems in my open reel collection. However, tape deteriorates over time so I decided to copy my open reel collection to digital for preservation.

One of the items I'd almost forgotten I had was a demo tape recorded by a bluegrass group back in 1976. No album ever came of it and to my knowledge nothing became of the group, but I have a 2nd generation 7 1/2 ips copy of the master. Since there was never an album, copyright shouldn't be an issue.

The original recording has minimal processing. I don't think much more than some peak limiting might have been applied. There is zero compression as applied these days. The recording is not perfect, (being a tape copy of a tape, there is some slight background hiss and the audio production is not polished) but it captures a sense of real life that is quite amazing in some regards. I think the conversion to digital (lossless FLAC format) went well and captures the quality of the open reel.

Anyway, for anyone interested, you can download the songs "Orange Blossom Special" and "John Hardy" from the following web site: http://www.rzootwo.com/music. Be forewarned the files are quite large - 52 MB and 22 MB so you'll definitely want a fast connection if you download them.

Enjoy.

[elapsed]

An excellent read on the loudness war and clipping: http://www.cutestudio.net/data/produ...ping/index.php

[pixelthis]

An excellent read on the loudness war and clipping: http://www.cutestudio.net/data/produ...ping/index.php

This guy is selling his little program. I couldn't tell a real difference between the tracks
he was offering. A lot of this is arguments used by the analog crowd.
BUT a lot of them fail to mention the sometimes 60% CUT in dynamic range nessesary
to fit an album on a record.
The main reason CD sounds LOUD is because of this increased dynamic range.
As for reel to reel, it was great, but if you weren't a recording hobbyist it was hard to find material. But if you wanted something better than a turntable it was the only game in town.
A local store played reel to reel on mcintosh gear, explained how the reason it sounded so much better was the limitations imposed on records just to get one produced.
The only time I heard anything even close to as good was several years later when I heard my first CD.
Btw most of the "clipping" talked about on this link is out of the audible range of human hearing.
The reason most early CD's sounded so bad was that old masters used to press records were used on them, and the lack of dynamic range made them sound flat.
After proper mastering was "mastered" they started to sound better.
One thing, his version of a studio session is sheer fantasy, half the time most musicans arent even on the same continent! They "phone in " their performance and its mastered
together in the studio, mixed and fixed for production.
Music companies have been sending music over the lines for years, pretty much the same process that is killing them now

[mlsstl]

This subject doesn't seem to have generated any interest so I'm only going to leave the files up until tomorrow. Anyone who wants them should grab them this evening.

(This kind of confirms my comment in the "Mutiny" thread that my particular areas of audio pursuit are not very well aligned with the others who frequent these pages. Hardly a big deal but interesting to have reinforced nonetheless.)

[pixelthis]

This subject doesn't seem to have generated any interest so I'm only going to leave the files up until tomorrow. Anyone who wants them should grab them this evening.

(This kind of confirms my comment in the "Mutiny" thread that my particular areas of audio pursuit are not very well aligned with the others who frequent these pages. Hardly a big deal but interesting to have reinforced nonetheless.)

THIS is a bit estoteric for most.
But it also shows why debate is sometimes stifled, since rich areas of debate such as
mishandled mastering are left out

[noddin0ff]

mlsst-

I would be interested but the files were down before I read the thread. Thanks for the thoughtful write up though! If you decide to re-upload I'll check my PM's.