Post by Boomer on May 19, 2020 7:51:45 GMT
A Quality Audio Crisis in the Music Industry
Decapitating your audio can’t be good for an industry highly dependent on sound quality
By Dan Slentz ·
You may have noticed that a lot of new audio coming from record companies and music services sounds
heavily compressed, distorted or clipped. When you look at these audio files as a waveform, you can see
the clipping, especially when comparing it to music from just 10 years ago, whether from the record
company or a service like TM Century.
....
Everyone has their own take on how to process audio that is (to put it plainly) either recorded too hot
and clipped or processed out the wazoo to begin with.
Part of the problem with dealing with audio is not simply the fact that it’s frequently hot and clipped,
but we are intermixing great audio with full dynamics (from older content) to our own studio material
along with newer, highly processed content.
Where do you start and how do you set your processing when your source material is so inconsistent?
If you process for new content, your old stuff could sound lifeless. If you process for old content, your
new material may have no dynamic range (or feel processed out that wazoo).
Decapitating your audio can’t be good for an industry highly dependent on sound quality
By Dan Slentz ·
You may have noticed that a lot of new audio coming from record companies and music services sounds
heavily compressed, distorted or clipped. When you look at these audio files as a waveform, you can see
the clipping, especially when comparing it to music from just 10 years ago, whether from the record
company or a service like TM Century.
....
Everyone has their own take on how to process audio that is (to put it plainly) either recorded too hot
and clipped or processed out the wazoo to begin with.
Part of the problem with dealing with audio is not simply the fact that it’s frequently hot and clipped,
but we are intermixing great audio with full dynamics (from older content) to our own studio material
along with newer, highly processed content.
Where do you start and how do you set your processing when your source material is so inconsistent?
If you process for new content, your old stuff could sound lifeless. If you process for old content, your
new material may have no dynamic range (or feel processed out that wazoo).
radioworld.com/tech-and-gear/a-quality-audio-crisis-in-the-music-industry
I agree, I hear some nasty sound on commercial airwaves especially, and I have to keep the volume down when it's too harsh or ringy. My feeling is that there could be a computerized processor that delays the audio and looks at a section of it in advance, then makes a decision for minimum distortion at the desired loudness, minute by minute.
The problem is that radio didn't set itself up as the standard bearer of high fidelity or state of the art sound from the earliest days of broadcast, and now we're kind of stuck with that legacy. Component stereos and FM car stereo in the 1970s made an attempt at hi-fi in the 1970s, along with CDs coming out in the 1980s, but now it seems we've gone feral on people's ears again, and lack concern for audio quality.
Boomer
