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Saving the world from bad sound vs. Making a good record.


Duck King

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I hear all of this talk about mastering to loud and destroying waveforms, but very little about making great records, which most often has nothing to do with sound quality. I just kind of wondered how others looked at the situation. I for one, don't give a damn about anything other than trying to make the best music I can and present it in a way the peeps will find reasonable. What say ye?

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Originally posted by Duck King

I for one, don't give a damn about anything other than trying to make the best music I can and present it in a way the peeps will find reasonable. What say ye?

 

 

I agree with you, but I don't think that sound quality is irrelevant to that. Sometimes bad sound or production can get in the way of or ruin a good performance. Sure there are lo-fi records that are great and sometimes their lo-fi quality even adds to the vibe of the music. But I think a lot of the bad mastering and other problems really do detract from the music and are more reflective of people getting overly enamored with the trendiest new toys, than trying to make great music.

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I've harped on this for some time. "Use the volume knob on the amplifier!" That kind of stuff.

 

I have come to realize that some music is designed for high compression and loudness. But, I believe the current trend is more for overly clipped and hard limited CDS. It usually isn't from the initial mixing process. From others responding to my diatribes, I am gathering there are some honchos at the major labels either offering desirable dollars to the mastering house to squash them out, or withhold those dollars until such is done.

 

I am up for breaking this trend. Count me in. I even wrote up something Craig Anderton was interested not too long ago. Check out his ditty I did for Cool Edit (Audition). It should work about the same for Audacity...

When Commercial CDs Go Wrong (Too Loud)...

 

If the tracks are not clipping, this usually doesn't work. I tried it on the new Duran Duran CD. This process literally stripped the life out of the songs. But, Celine Dion's *One Heart* album recovered very nicely.

 

I welcome others to try this out and offer similar variations for other apps.

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