Last typewriter factory in the world shuts its doors

[Mike]

On Mon, May 2, 2011 at 11:55 AM, Yanni Chiu <yanni-bJEeYj9oJeDQT0dZR+AlfA at public.gmane.org> wrote:
> On 29/04/11 4:14 PM, Mike wrote:
>>
>> Rampant dynamic range compression has, ironically, made many original
>> vinyl recordings sound much better than the latest CD remasterings,
>> even though the CD still arguably remains superior in many ways.
>
> Does anyone else think that a radio station broadcast often sounds better
> than the CD playing in the CD player (i.e. not CD transferred to MP3)? Is
> this due to the audio engineer fine tuning with the equalizer, or has the CD
> "recording" been intentionally neutered. I've been seeing on the playlist of
> internet radio stations, something like "AAAA (radio edit)" for some songs.
>
FM broadcasters have always used dynamic range compression so that the
fairly noisy process of capturing and demodulating FM signals isn't
too intrusive. Listening to quiet classical passages, for example,
over FM would be mostly noise if they didn't raise their level to a
reasonable margin above the noise floor.

Another consequence of this is that the program appears louder throughout.

Since CDs have a dynamic range of 96dB, much more than FM, this
dynamic range compression is not necessary. Accounting statisticians
and focus groups have told the record companies that "louder is
better", and will sell more units. Sound quality is no longer seen as
a selling point. So the irony is that we now have an extremely
accurate and well-understood digital audio format that is being used
to hold signal mastered no better than for cassette tape.

"Radio Edits" are usually simply shorter, for commercial radio...
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