Those who know me know that for some time to come bothering with these issues. English what was called the "loudness wars" that are omnipresent in all media. The easiest example hand there is the TV programming and loud pops that occur when going to commercial break. How many people are accustomed to having the remote in hand and be up and down the volume during these (sharp) transicions?
recently appeared in the Argentine site Rolling Stone an article titled "Why the music today sounds bad? ." English would say this is an understatement least and of course there are more pressing issues, such as the question: how was the decade of 2000 exceeded the appalling poor quality 80's music? As ever, popular music seems to have a depletion of talent and a constant recycling of proven formulas. The stars are the producers, either behind the latest Latin dance, the romance of fashion or teen grupete the moment.
But that's another story. While the article RS is a bit simplistic, it helps to have a snapshot overview of a basic question that is not easy to explain to people who do not know much about musical processes (or have particularly investigated the effect of listening musical). Let's review some concepts there discharges, for the sake of the lady and gentleman:
" years ago that we are victims of war do not see, but if we pay attention can be heard every time we play your iPod or computer audio. Since the early 1990's, is being developed in the music industry called "loudness war" (war of the volume), a trend that is increasing the volume with which recordings are made. Thus, each disc is released and strident sounds more powerful than before, as part of an arms race of sound. But what means more stronger and better sound quality listening experience? (...) the main reasons seem tied to changes in music consumption habits: today, mixing and mastering of the discs are thinking about the songs no longer enjoyed in hi-fi, but in the case, MP3 players, cell phones and computers, and external noise in areas such as road or public transport. The objective in the studio, then went from wanting to be felt, having to be heard.
" Increase the volume pressure means reducing the dynamic range of recordings (the difference or distance between the high and low frequencies of sound), which eliminates all the nuances of audio, that which makes distinguishing between" soft "and" sharp ".
" While the" loudness war "has been decades in the industry, its relevance occurred with the release of the album Death Magnetic, Metallica . After comparing both the audio CD and the songs included in version Guitar Hero game, a group of fans discovered that some saturation of the disk peaks were not available in the game, as they had a mix with a lot less compression. The band is called silence, while his supporters gathered more than 20,000 signatures to request that the album was remixed, the request was unsuccessful. On the sidewalk opposite, Guns N 'Roses released its long-awaited album Chinese Democracy with a mix that favors the dynamic range. "
worth mentioning that the album Metallica has the dubious distinction of being named the album" mastered worst in history ".
The following example, with 2 tracks from the album Stadium Arcadium Red Hot Chili Peppers is sadly notable even for the clueless:
" factors are not only technology and music education to explain the saturation of the current sound, perhaps this has to precede the commercial reasons.
In North America and Europe, which produces the most popular music channel par excellence is the distribution of digital songs. People buy music via the web or from your mobile phone shops and services such as Amazon, Spotify, Ovi Music and, in particular, iTunes, which accounts for 70% of digital music sales in the U.S. and is the retail number one of the market, surpassing even the physical chains such as Walmart. The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI, for its acronym in English), the value of the digital segment increased 1,000% in the last six years. Today there are over 400 music services zeros and ones in the world and 29% of the income of record labels from the virtual channel.
But as the CD was the commercial support for music "physics" of yesteryear, this business seems to standardized digital distribution of MP3 files (an audio compression method with "loss" of the original sound) to a average bit rate of 192Kbps, which creates files in a sound quality similar to that of the compact disc (although far from optimal.) Increase
audio fidelity of the songs means using uncompressed formats, for example, WAV or FLAC, which create better files but also larger, which alter an entire business equation: the more "weight", more storage, more networks, more bandwidth and require more time selling music. In short: change the audio quality is to change a business, therefore, is there a relationship between cost, technical and commercial music today that sounds like it sounds?
"For the record, the economy is in front of the passion for making music. It has long been transformed into very large companies who play it safe, shoots Bergallo, adding:" It is beyond the MP3 because standards are difficult to change. That format was installed when the download was slow and limited capacity, but today you can download at speed. In five years, we will not be talking about MP3 as we know it. There are a lot of music that can not stand to be heard as well, but since it does not happen with most pop and rock then it seems that it's not worth changing
(...) Will users be willing to pay more for files high-fidelity? "I do not think the audio quality is the main challenge of the music today. What most music lovers are looking for easier access to music," he told CNN Shawn Lyden, chief operating officer of Sony Network, a company that just released U.S. pay streaming service Music Unlimited. .
Finally, an example of remaster debatable. The 2009 version does the body that was absent in 1987 but lost the clarity of the previous version. There will be advocates of both.
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