Nicolas
Group: Members
Posts: 208
Joined: Sep. 2005 |
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Posted: May 03 2007, 06:55 |
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| Quote | | In general, I enjoy live performances more than studio albums. I hate studio engineers that kills recordings by using compressors and stuff. |
You have recording engineers and mastering engineers. The recording engneer makes sure that everything is recorded nicely, and -if he's good- leaves quite some headroom (that makes the job easier for mastering engineers and leaves as much information as possible). Not that he doesn't use compressors or expanders (or de-essers, what have you); you simply HAVE to for some instruments. But you can use them such that it doesn't hurt the recording at all. That's what a good recording engineer does.
Mastering engineers take the recording and make a master. One for vinyl, one for CD, one for radios, etc. Each of them has their own specific requirements. (sound good in mono for radio, smart processing of low end dynamics for vinyl, etc) Normally these people know their job. But then there's someone who orders them -at gunpoint- to make the CD louder. Louder. LOUDER. Black Eyed Peas are louder than this. MAKE IT LOUDER!!! And that's where the compression kicks in too much, dynamics are lost and (digital) clipping introduced.
For live recordings, apparently there is less need to have an overly "hot" CD as it isn't played on radios or in pubs right behind the louder Black Eyed Peas (sorry guys, just naming a random group, no offense  ) studio album. That way, the atmosphere -indeed, the DYNAMICS- of the live recording are kept.
Just listen to the Peppers: Californication. Next to the same album, the "unmastered" version (which might be a vinyl master actually). You immediately hear the result of sprankling a mastering engineer with fuel and telling him to make it louder while holding a match in your hand.
That's also a reason why vinyl records sometimes sound better: simply because the master engineer, who in essence has a more difficult job when making a vinyl master than a cd master- wasn't forced to make it too loud. And because of the inherent difficulties of CD mastering, the mastering engineer pays more attention to getting the best he can out of the master. Combine these two factors, and you have a better master, even though in essence it has more limitations than a cd master. The CD is an excellent medium, and if mastering engineers weren't told their closest relatives were kidnapped until that meter read +6 dB all the time, it would indeed sound excellent. This is what you hear on a "well recorded cd". It isn't recorded that much better than other CD's, it's MASTERED better.
That's why HDCD and SACD are a bit silly IMO: why don't they start with mastering regular CD's in a sensible way. HDCD and SACD are technically superior indeed. But the biggest gain in quality is at the moment due to sensible and detailed mastering (just like why vinyl records tend to sound good).
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LOL!!! I feel as if I'm often floating far above the clouds heheheeheeeee!!! That's without Puff the Magic Dragon or any other magickal herbs. Guess I just have a natural exuberance 
, that spills out all over the place.
