Why Modern CD’s Sound So Bad
This video shows you just exactly why modern Compact Discs do not sound as good as CD’s from the 80′s and early 90′s, CD’s made since about 1996 or so are as much as 10 dB louder than Hif-Fi CD’s from the 80′s and 90′s. Why? Well, it’s because the CD mastering engineers use a whole bunch of limiting to make CD’s sound louder. They think louder is better…. Take it from someone who spent 25 years listening to the same crap form program directors and engineers in radio stations, it is not. Louder is just louder and that’s all. I wish they’d turn it down a bit.
Video Rating: 4 / 5
Some 320kbps audio for your discerning auditory tastes.
Video Rating: 4 / 5
February 18th, 2012 at 03:03
Amen, compression is the death of music, watts is cheap & we all have vol knob. If u need CD version try what i do, record from Vinyl to a CD recorder for playback in the car or to preseve the vinyl. cd disks are cheap, while the orginal vinyl ( well kept), keeps going up in value and for the most part sounds better.
February 18th, 2012 at 03:07
@MucusFelidae LOL… Interesting point.
JC
February 18th, 2012 at 03:31
Why Modern CD’s Sound So Bad: This video shows you just exactly why modern Compact Discs do not soun… http://t.co/c60XVcl7 LSMscBZhome
February 18th, 2012 at 04:01
The young generation does no longer like natural audio. Everything must ba as loud as possible, distorted and compressed.
What the young people fear most is – silence.
They simply can’t stand it.
February 18th, 2012 at 04:15
@russellrivera1 Yep.
JC
February 18th, 2012 at 05:01
@kitchenlattice
You obviously have no idea what you’re talking about. >”But no professional sound engineer would boost it so high as to flatten out the peaks. The full dynamic range is there, at higher signal.”< They do it all of the fucking time. Pull a Dave Matthews Band cut off the CD, or cannibal corpse or whatever you listen to, and it will be squashed to shit. All any person with any sense has to do is look at the peaks and valley’s of the Wave file and see there is less dynamic range. FW
February 18th, 2012 at 05:55
this is cofuseing
February 18th, 2012 at 06:10
Kudos for your efforts. I think we need to stress the compression rather than just loudness so people understand that tiny sounds are boosted, making the crash of a bass drum no louder than a whispered vocal. As you know, the unnaturally unvarying level is what’s exhausting not loud music per se. It’s quite beyond me why the biggest source of emotional impact has been discarded so casually. I buy very few CDs now because they’re unlistenable.
February 18th, 2012 at 06:41
Amen, AMEN! I’m so tired of buying CD’s and having them sound like crap.
February 18th, 2012 at 07:17
Loudness Wars is killing music.
February 18th, 2012 at 07:51
Well said sir!
February 18th, 2012 at 08:03
@aaron8862006 Thanks. I try and be fair and let people say what they think but sometimes I gotta jump in.
JC
February 18th, 2012 at 08:03
Dude, you rock. I don’t know if you read these comments, but you handled that kitchenlattice dick really smoothly. Nice video, nice discussion… and I learned something! Thanks!
February 18th, 2012 at 08:41
I have to increase the volume of some of my MP3s but NEVER this loud. I bring the loudest part of the song to near the top but I never go over. I have to do this b/c my Sony Playstation portable gaming system which can play MP3 files has a very weak amp and the audio isn’t loud enough.
February 18th, 2012 at 09:11
@MrDemilord Although that comment was made via my account/name it was not myself whom posted that. I do however somewhat agree with the loudness war is bullshit. It depends on style/genre. Example being Bob Katz mastering Necrophagist’s debut album which is a very weak sounding record versus the genre/style leaders as tech DM is meant to be intense (check it to hear what i mean but in context with similar). To say modern albums are bad/inferior is flawed. ITU-1770 standards wont hold
February 18th, 2012 at 09:13
@kitchenlattice “The full dynamic range is there, at higher signal.”
That would be true if we were talking about normalisation rather than compression. Many well mastered CDs still peak close to 0dB, but aren’t so overcompressed as to hover around that point the entire time. It’s not about wanting less volume. It’s about wanting more VARIATION in volume (dynamic range). That’s what a lot of newer remasters lack.
I’m from Generation Y by the way, so save the agist remarks.
February 18th, 2012 at 09:21
@nekromachine
thats why I never buy remasters.. Though I do like The Beatles remasters
And BTW the new remastered A-HA cd’s aren’t compressed either..
February 18th, 2012 at 09:59
@peartfaldo Yep.
JC
February 18th, 2012 at 10:52
CD’s==listener fatigue. Vinyl===listener heaven;-)
February 18th, 2012 at 11:45
@kitchenlattice LOL… Nope. You don’t get it. This isn’t about music. It’s about audio processing. It doesn’t make any difference whether the CD has Billy Joel or Insane Clown Posse on it. If the sound is overprocessed, it sounds gritty and nasty.
JC
February 18th, 2012 at 12:13
@BadEditPro No reason to be condescending. I understand “what this video is about” just fine. Modern engineers with modern equipment can bring the signal up quite close to 0dB (good, more signal). Some shitty DA converters designed by old people in the phonograph era expect low signal render the waveforms badly and you get distortion on the top end. Bad, sure. But no professional sound engineer would boost it so high as to flatten out the peaks. The full dynamic range is there, at higher signal.
February 18th, 2012 at 12:47
@viktorya1993 put them together. been there, done that.
February 18th, 2012 at 13:22
I believe Brian Molko is an angel. If not, how come he has that heavenly voice??
February 18th, 2012 at 13:35
This song is so sad to me. I love it <3
February 18th, 2012 at 14:19
i love tis song
February 18th, 2012 at 15:05
beautiful..=3
February 18th, 2012 at 16:00
*-* .. see placebo effect en a la vena *-*
debo reconocerlo.. este tema me exita e incita a bailar en un caño xD
y aunque ya lo baile con alguien .. no fue tan hot … pero si sexy *¬* .. uuuy si me acuerdo y lallaala xD
February 18th, 2012 at 16:32
the placebo effect!!!!
February 18th, 2012 at 16:58
Placebo songs are too perfect that I thing they ‘re about 2 mins when they are actually 4 plus
February 18th, 2012 at 17:17
ελλαδαρα…..thumbs up!!
February 18th, 2012 at 18:02
minha música predileta da minha banda favorita.
February 18th, 2012 at 18:53
is good!!!
February 18th, 2012 at 19:14
tu mama
February 18th, 2012 at 19:43
good!!!