Issue 1: I have noticed that the CD’s in my collection which are older (late 80′s to mid 90′s or so) sound a whole lot better than those recorded more recently.

Issue 2: Popping in an older CD after playing a more recently released one required turning the volume up. Never mind the deafening blast that results when going from playing an older CD to a newer one without adjusting the volume first.

If I had bothered to really think about it I would have realized that the these are actually two effects of the same cause. For an explanation this YouTube video has a clear audio and visual representation of what is happening in the world of music production today. Producers are turning up the volume on tracks to get the loudest sounds possible, but at the expense of the dynamic qualities of the music.

Technorati Tags: music, compression, dynamics

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