More Compression On New CD's

yngwie308 · Post by **yngwie308** » Tue Jul 10, 2007 7:08 pm

I don't buy that many new CD's , but this on Yahoo got my attention

http://tech.yahoo.com/blogs/null/33549

Any thoughts?
yngwie308

45auto · Post by **45auto** » Wed Jul 11, 2007 9:42 am

i've noticed that myself. i'm hearing alot of what i think is "pitch correction" technology too. many vocal tracks especially sound like synthesizers at times, pretty sad. but then again, it makes us "real life" performers all the more valuable!

Necrovore · Post by **Necrovore** » Mon Jul 16, 2007 10:16 pm

Interesting. One thing that I have noticed in the last couple of years is that cd's can only be played so loud now and will distort long before the total output potential of the system can handle.

I actually hate this. I want to be able to play my music very loud at times and at others just as background music.

gutpile · Post by **gutpile** » Mon Jul 16, 2007 10:49 pm

That's pretty interesting... I always though my records sounded crisper... I guess it is a tradeoff between quantity and convenience (iPod/cd's) or quality... I really like the idea of having everything I own in the palm of my hand, but I never thought there was as much sound sacrifice as was demonstrated...

cole · Post by **cole** » Tue Jul 17, 2007 7:43 am

I'll add to this thread by saying that CD quality on the whole is terrible!

16-bit 44.1 Khz A to D conversion comes with a hell of a lot of 'granulation' distortion. Remember that we are sampling the input waveform here so the result is always less than perfect.

Here's something we can all hear on all CD's - listen for the syballance or the s words - the actual ssss parts are distorted to hell and if you pay enough attention you'll never listen to CD's again!

I am personally investing in a good turntable and some expensive vinyl for listening to classic rock albums. You'll get a treat when you hear your favourite old vinyl records again. How sweet they sound next to a CD.

F*ckin' record companies f*cked the music industry completely back in the 80's when they all began conglomerating and are now owned by people who have not a clue about music.

Like when FM radio first entered the airwaves - great songs and barely any filler. Now FM is worse than AM!! We hear the same 20 songs on any given FM station in the US and Canada.

Cole

Necrovore · Post by **Necrovore** » Tue Jul 17, 2007 8:18 pm

+1 on vinyl. I have stopped buying cd's for most of my new metal albums that I listen to. Great thing now is that vinyl s pretty much a collectors industry so the packaging is way better than back in the day. Almost all releases are on 180gram disks as well.

Old vinyl can be bought for pennies on the dollar now.

I even saw a vinyl iron today. A fucking record Iron.... no more warped lp's. How great is that? Expensive as hell (about $2600 usd) but well worth it IMO.

http://www.stoneaudio.co.uk/stoneaudio/ ... oduct=1730

Tuco · Post by **Tuco** » Wed Sep 12, 2007 2:20 pm

Necrovore wrote:Interesting. One thing that I have noticed in the last couple of years is that cd's can only be played so loud now and will distort long before the total output potential of the system can handle.

I actually hate this. I want to be able to play my music very loud at times and at others just as background music.

Absolutely agree. These CDs are also much more fatiguing to the ear. I can't even sit through one whole spin of these overly compressed CDs, even at a very sensible volume. I too am looking to move back to vinyl.

Myopic Void · Post by **Myopic Void** » Fri Sep 14, 2007 1:13 pm

cole wrote:I'll add to this thread by saying that CD quality on the whole is terrible!

16-bit 44.1 Khz A to D conversion comes with a hell of a lot of 'granulation' distortion. Remember that we are sampling the input waveform here so the result is always less than perfect.

Here's something we can all hear on all CD's - listen for the syballance or the s words - the actual ssss parts are distorted to hell and if you pay enough attention you'll never listen to CD's again!

I am personally investing in a good turntable and some expensive vinyl for listening to classic rock albums. You'll get a treat when you hear your favourite old vinyl records again. How sweet they sound next to a CD.

F*ckin' record companies f*cked the music industry completely back in the 80's when they all began conglomerating and are now owned by people who have not a clue about music.

Like when FM radio first entered the airwaves - great songs and barely any filler. Now FM is worse than AM!! We hear the same 20 songs on any given FM station in the US and Canada.

Cole

I just do not understand why we cannot just burn our tracks onto CD at 24bit 88k (the sampling rate I transfer my tracks form the mulitrack reel to reel at) instead of 16/44. When you compare 16bit 44.1k to 24bit 96k it is an obvious difference, not hard to tell at all. I just blows to mix in 24/88k and then have it chopped up for general listening on 16/44 CD. I have hope that this will change soon so I can remix and remaster my bands albums on put them out at 24/88.

Cheers,

Eric

toner · Post by **toner** » Fri Sep 14, 2007 6:13 pm

Myopic Void wrote:I just do not understand why we cannot just burn our tracks onto CD at 24bit 88k (the sampling rate I transfer my tracks form the mulitrack reel to reel at) instead of 16/44...

Consumers rule the market and most of them can't hear the difference anyway, unfortunately. The standard CD specs have long been surpassed but it will take a while for the industry to acknowledge that and make changes. In the end, it's all about the money.

Most current music isn't worth listening to at any sample rate or bit depth, IMO.

basisfunction · Post by **basisfunction** » Fri Sep 14, 2007 8:07 pm

Your records do sound "crisper" , but only on tracks located near the edge of the LP.

There's so many discussions on compression and CD audio on the net but this one is my favorite nutshell versions.

http://www.chicagomasteringservice.com/loudness.html

Myopic Void · Post by **Myopic Void** » Fri Sep 14, 2007 8:38 pm

Most current music isn't worth listening to at any sample rate or bit depth, IMO.

Agreed my friend. I really could care less about most music, film, literature and art post 1980...seriously. Even though I was in high school in the late 80's early 90's I am not sentimental about that era.

Cheers,

Eric