CD Quality Decreased?

 

Silver Member
Username: W00b

Post Number: 148
Registered: Mar-05
Hey guys, I just wanted to bring something up.. Have you ever listened to an older Metallica CD, and then a newer one? Older megadeth, then newer? Older pantera, then newer? The older seemed to have alot more production quality than the newer.. you can feel the instrumentals better, why is that? are producers getting cheap on us?
 

Silver Member
Username: W00b

Post Number: 149
Registered: Mar-05
just to add to that.. read this over:

http://www.cdfreaks.com/news/10109
 

Silver Member
Username: Illuminator

Post Number: 856
Registered: Apr-05
Definitely. There is no question the tracks have been being mastered improperly. My old Chemical Brothers CD(1997) isn't as "peaked out" as my new Ferry Corsten CD(2005) as another example.

"I loaded up a few songs in a sound editor and seen it for myself"

You have to love bad grammar, heh.
 

Silver Member
Username: W00b

Post Number: 150
Registered: Mar-05
read the sub-review, did you see how the kick-drums were being drowned out and thus not reproduced because the producers decided to make everything louder? i think that is d@mn interresting!

http://www.prorec.com/prorec/articles.nsf/articles/8A133F52D0FD71AB86256C2E005DA F1C
 

Silver Member
Username: Illuminator

Post Number: 858
Registered: Apr-05
Yeah, i've been trying to optimize my system to get more of the kick-drum sound without it being drowned out by everything else. When I used an older CD I had no problem hearing the kick-drums. And in that review the new Rush CD clipped 150 times! That's crazy! If it was normalized correctly it wouldn't have clipped at all! It's sad that they do this...
 

Gold Member
Username: Jonathan_f

GA USA

Post Number: 4239
Registered: May-04
It's not really "clipped", it is simply maxed out. Music is recorded at a 0db full scale reference level. Poorly recorded CDs (rap, some heavy rock, dance, etc.) tend to record with large amounts at the 0db level. It looks like clipping when viewed from a scope, but it is simply two or more consecutive points at it's maximum positive or negative value, it does sound very muddy and distorted, but that is because it doesn't have any range between sounds. Poorly recorded material has very limited dynamic range (headroom) for the sake of getting louder. They use a compressor, which can do two things, reduce the dynamic range of a signal, and keep a signal from going above a certain level. What this will do is make the overall music content louder, but it will also leave less range between them. It means that soft sounds are loud, and loud sounds are loud too. Ever notice how TV commercials seem louder than the program that you're watching? That isn't because of recording level variations, it is because the TV commercial is recorded with little dynamic range so that you can hear everything. On the other side, a well recorded CD will have a lot of dynamic range. There will be lots of headroom, though not as loud overall, transient peaks have much more impact. The all caps example on the link above was a very good example. If you don't like Jazz, Soft rock, some pop, classical, and acoustic forms of music, you're pretty much screwed trying to find a very well recorded CD.
 

Silver Member
Username: Illuminator

Post Number: 866
Registered: Apr-05
Yeah, but it shouldn't clip at all, should it?
 

Gold Member
Username: Jonathan_f

GA USA

Post Number: 4240
Registered: May-04
"Yeah, but it shouldn't clip at all, should it?"

It should only peak at the highest transient levels. Hitting reference level isn't a bad thing if it's natural (in the music). CD Audio was initially created for it's SQ benefits, and 0db reference level is simply intended to be the highest volume level. If it is supposed to be a musical peak, like an extremely impactful kick drum, or a cymbal crash, etc., then it's just fine. Like I said above, it's not true clipping in the sense of DC voltage and excessive distortion, it's simply a limit of dynamic range, as you see on the charts of the link listed. The problem is that recording engineers compress the music so much that there is very little headroom between, say, vocals and that kickdrum. So it is all a flat, loud, boring sound with little emotion to it. It's not harsh or overly distorted, it's just lifeless.
 

Silver Member
Username: Illuminator

Post Number: 869
Registered: Apr-05
"Like I said above, it's not true clipping in the sense of DC voltage and excessive distortion, it's simply a limit of dynamic range, as you see on the charts of the link listed"

Heh heh, yeah, I know what you're talking about. I've been doing some editing in SoundForge v6.0 for a while now. I've been steering away from clipping even though most of the time it's hardly audible. I found it odd that recording labels did the opposite though because I was taught not to let it clip...
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