Why New Music Doesn't Sound As Good As It Did
 

Never mind that today's factory-produced starlets and mini-clones just don't have the practiced chops of the supergroups of yesteryear, pop in a new CD and you might notice that the quality of the music itself?maybe something as simple as a snare drum hit?just doesn't sound as crisp and as clear as you're used to. Why is that?

It's part of the music industry's quest to make music louder and louder, and it's been going on for decades, at least since the birth of the compact disc. Click the link for a nice little video, a mere 2 minutes long, which explains it in detail, with audio cues that you'll be able to hear in crisp detail.

The key to the problem is that, in making the soft parts of a track louder (in the process making the entire track loud), you lose detail in the song: The difference between what's supposed to be loud and what's supposed to be soft becomes less and less. The result is that, sure, the soft parts of a song are nice and loud, but big noises like drum beats become muffled and fuzzy. But consumers often subconsciously equate loudness with quality, and thus, record producers pump up the volume. Anything to make a buck.

The bigger problem is that this is all unnecessary. Stereo equipment is more powerful today than ever, and last time I checked, every piece of music hardware had a volume knob.

Don't take my word for it: Pop in the first CD you bought and play it at the same volume level as the most recent one you bought. You might be shocked by what you hear.

Anyone still wondering why the music business is suffering?

http://tech.yahoo.com/blogs/null/33549

you ovbiously dont listen to good music

ASSumptions.

:1orglaugh:1orglaugh:1orglaugh:thumbsup

Most new music sucks because originality is gone. People in the business saw what works and are continually pumping bullshit out in an attempt to get more money. I'm not gonna say all new music sucks, because there is still good stuff coming out. A lot of it though, straight up cookie cutter bullshit.

Its the same as movies IMO. Producers try to appeal to the masses, and forget about the quality. I am sometimes shocked at what some people consider a great movie or album. Quality has gone downhill fast.

I can't stand that hippity hop darky muzac

I think most people saw that when I was posted on digg. One point the article missed was that the music industry sucks and has for about the last 10 years.

When anything becomes only about the money, it tends to suck.

Indeed.

When the businesses start 'remaking' everything from music, movies, to tv shows. There seems to be a severe lack of creativity to say the least.

:disgust

chck out pinkl floyds older albums. The tracks flowed together as if it were one long song. That was before bands made singles, that were intended to sell individually and be made into videos for MTV or other such chanells.

its the same as in porn, everyone is trying to get fast money for less work as possible, so originality is not important, better is copy and paste something that works at the moment and spam it all around. but there are always good new things to listen or where to go ;)

I like old music and new music, its all recycled anyways. the music industry is has always been evil and money hungry but thats what I like about music these days, the indie labels are starting to get some big success while the majors are going down hill.

Bands were making singles long before Pink Floyd came along.



I actually agree with Brother Bilo:Those classic rock bands from the 60's and 70's (and into the 80's and 90's with some) are unequaled, their tunes pure GOLD. That music is to be cherished, and more an more people are starting to realize it. Classic rock has never been more popular.


Let me stand next to your fire...

I know they were making singles. But they werent making them soley for video play purpose like today. That was my point.

if you think music sucks now it is because you are listening to the radio or MTv. Ask to see your fav radio station for a list of PAID songs. You will be amazed.

Agreed.

However, just like mainstream music industry, and porn's complaints of today versus 97... Margin's are down because you have 1000's of copy cats all chasing the same fish. So sales slump.

:2 cents:

Sorry, that wasn't clear in your first post. Now it is.

I've never been a fan of music videos anyway. The kind of tunes I listen to tend to conjur up images in your mind without having some idiot videographer telling you what the song is supposed to mean. Each song tells a story, and only people with zero imagination require an accompanying video to see it.

That's my opinion anyway.

The greed of the music business is baffling.

Especially when you consider their proposals from rate hikes on online radio, to charging mainstream radio.

:disgust

If you asked me two years ago if there was any new music worth listening to I'd say "hell no". However, for the past two years I've been using a nifty little piece of music software that streams music all day long for free, and every now and then when I find something I like I can buy the song for less than a buck. I'm finding all kinds of original stuff these days.

The music industry over all - meaning the production companies - sucks these days because their industry changed over night and they failed to notice. They've been fucking us for ages now - and told us to repurchase our entire music collection on CD. Instead now.... We don't need to physically buy a CD; We can download it. What should have been a wonderful thing for them - the lack of having to create a physical product other than a computer file - has destroyed them.

I just watched a news report on this last night; It was rather interesting.

Yeah, I"m a Floyd fan myself.... But you know what? I don't want twenty-five minutes of Floyd.... I want to listen to a song and then move on. I never understood trying to tell a big story on an album - that's what movies are for.

Agreed.

Years of old thinking, and good ole corporate greed has forced a lot of changes with shifted the balance, or value, to be beneficial to the consumer instead of the record companies.

:)

You might get a kick out of this tune:

MC Lars - Download This Song - Torrent Link

Compression is nothing new. In fact, much of the "classic" music used as an example is way more compressed than anything on a CD. Old style 33 rpm records (and cassette tapes) just couldn't handle the dynamic range that real music presents.

When CDs came out, artists went out of their way to use all of the dynamic range. Pull out your copy of NIN's Downward Spiral, and you will see dynamic range. The volume levels over that disc is impressive.

However, the sad reality is that almost all FM radio, television, and even sat radio compresses the heck out of music. In FM, it is done to offer a more consistant sound and to extend the broadcast range of the signal (and to keep the sound balanced between higher and lower frequencies). TV has the same issue, also using the same method for transmission.

MP3s, especially crappy rips do nothing to help the issue. Many people listen to ripped CDs on their Ipods that have been sampled at fairly low rates, giving poor dynamic range and reduced high frequency response. You need to sample at least twice the highest frequence you will want to sample to hear it properly, and even then you lose - 4 times is pretty much the standard (96khz, which means 4 times 24khz). Many end users sample small to get the smallest files possible, not realizing the effects of undersampling. Most of the music traded on P2P networks and such has been ripped, compressed in the process, and had all it's dynamic range squeezed out by poorer quality software decoding schemes.

Compressing the sound as you put it on a CD does nothing more than bring the sound on a CD in line with what the consumer hears on the radio, on TV, at the movies, and on their ripped MP3s.

Nothing shocking.

Regina Spektor - check her out

MTV killed real music

There are many nice bands and singers today, awesome songs as well, but you never hear most of them.)

yeah like kasabian, arctic monkeys, the libertines (they split up though) etc etc