cliveb wrote: > I suspect there's some kind of auto-catalytic network in operation > here. Producers ask for things to be loud, so mastering engineers > oblige. Radio listeners like what they hear, so they buy the CDs. > Mastering engineers notice that compressed stuff is what people seem to > want, so they start to apply it as a matter of course. Soon, everyone > involved (except for us audiophiles, whose opinion Does.Not.Count) just > assumes that CDs are supposed to be like that. The quality of CD > mastering is drifting towards the abyss simply because "that's the way > things are".
It's even started creeping into DVDs. Most DVDs are mastered at a very reasonable level, to allow lots of dynamic range for explosions and such in the action bits. As a result, the volume knob on my DVD player tends to sit at a pretty high level most of the time. I own one DVD that happens to be mastered at CD levels -- and it's a kids DVD, so whenever I put it on for my daughter, if I forget to turn down the volume, there's inevitably tears. :/ It's a They Might Be Giant's DVD -- my guess is that it was mastered by the same engineer that does their CDs, and he just used the levels he was familiar with. - Marc _______________________________________________ discuss mailing list [email protected] http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
