use of compression in recorded music

mattlynch

hi all,
so its time for the rant of a man who doesn't get out enough!
i just purchased the latest album from Gomez, 'whatever's on your mind' , it comes nicely packaged ,pressed on white 180g vinyl with a free download code so you can have it on your portable too, nice touch and one that's getting more common,
 so i get it home and pop it on the gramophone and wound it up and hey presto, it has virtually no 'loudness contrast between the loudest and quietest parts of the music ,
this is a real issue i have noticed on more and more music these days, it seems to be the case IMO that the music industry is making music for the ipod generation who are actually the ones that are least likely to pay for their music collection and the guy who really cares about sound quality and invests his money in actually purchasing the music they want, are being well and truly stuffed,
i still hunt out older recordings and find they are a real breath of fresh air by comparison , Isaac Hayes lps on the stax label for instance are incredible, older blue note stuff too is wonderful, i would like to hear from others who have noticed this and also others who dont notice the effect,
not sure what can be done about it , just had to vent my frustration,
i would like to start another new thread for chews members to post titles that they have found give good dynamic contrast and are relatively free from the dreaded compressive nightmare.,
all the best folks,
Matt

uglymusic

I buy very little mainstream music, and don't come up against bad recording practices very much.

I think the issue is not so much the age of the recording, but the 'commerciality'. Indeed, my favourite recordings tend to be modern ones on labels such as ECM and AUM Fidelity. These are specialist labels, but aren't audiophile ones. 

mattlynch

hi Dave,
 yeah i have noticed that with jazz and classical etc , MFSL is another label that tries to get the original masters and re-cuts the recording to give better quality ,at almost double the cost i may add!!
my taste is very eclectic and i just feel that the younger generation that represent the mainstream for the most part are being denied a very important part of the joy of recorded music , a lot of the music i heard as a kid grabbed my attention because of dynamics and the involvement it brings and wonder what the future of recorded music will be when the youth of today are being raised on a musical diet of dynamic-less drivel, i know i sound a bit like this guy,
now, i dont believe you wanna do it like that!

but i cant help wonder how long it will be until we have to pay extra for any music in an uncompressed format,
anyway I'm off to wash my pale blue crimplene stay-press slacks

Alan

I have a couple of MFSL discs, and I can't put my finger on it exactly, but something is not quite right with the bass imo. A decent 'standard' recording is far preferable I think - start that thread Matt & I;ll try to think of some titles.

Kind of like a '5 reference recordings every music loving audiophile should hear' or '5 demo fave discs' theme.