Re: [ARSCLIST] Compression (was Re: [ARSCLIST] A fundamental Flaw ...)

[Karl Miller <lyaa071@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Fri, 21 Jan 2005, George Brock-Nannestad wrote:

> I am all in favour of compression when the background noise is high, as in a
> car, where we easily have 70 dB. The radio stations called "Classic FM" do
> this at source, and this I do not complain about. However, their repertoire
> and editing stink.

During many of my years in broadcasting, during my shift, I would turn
down the amount of compression...listeners, believe it or not, would call
saying things like, "the recordings you play sound so much better," etc.
They were not aware of what I was doing, but some of the listeners could
tell the difference. However, no doubt, those in their cars were not
amused.

Also, a story I enjoy telling in my class...I don't remember where I
read this...but...the Vaughn Williams 6th Symphony features that quiet
final movement. As the story goes, the recording engineer boosted the
amplitude so there would be less observable noise on the resulting
disc. The result was that the finale sounded almost as loud as the
rest of the otherwise bombastic piece. Supposedly the composer was not
amused and they redid the recording.

Another frustrating example, the set of broadcast performances issued by
the Boston Symphony...mastering done by our "friends" at EMI. Having some
second generation copies of the broadcast masters, I was disappointed with
the BSO issue. Listening carefully, I could hear changes in the noise
level, suggesting the engineer had done some additional compression to the
already compressed broadcast masters. When I finally got to the engineer,
he responded..."people prefer it that way." From my perspective, very sad.

Karl