Here is a discussion with artists and producers about modern music/content delivery. A little dry, but interesting. I was waiting for Harmon to sell me something, but they never did. I expected Mr. Zimmer and Mr. Schep to be well spoken, but who knew Slash and Snoop Dog could wax so eloquent? I am always harping about compression. I'll let the pros say it. (and demonstrate it) http://thedistortionofsound.com/

 

Snoop and Slash are artists, and as such, in order to survive and prosper in their respective worlds of fantasy/creativity must be capable of expressing to others their concepts and dreams. They do not work in a vacuum and have literally been schooled by other highly intelligent "mentors" both in the studio and the world at large. No surprise here.

 

I don't know... [I do ] As soon as I started reading I sensed strange smell in the air... CRAP? Loads of it. Same crap surrounding the hype they made over that Po[r]no player. http://www.ponomusic.com/

Quote: "Compressed music, MP3s and streaming, have diminished the quality and flattened the emotion. Marketing gimmicks and convenience now take the place of excellence."

I call crap, greed and hypocrisy alert! "Marketing gimmicks", huh? Look who's talking!

Audio industry is now, when they cannot make their shit any "louder" than it is and even a deaf person can hear how terrible that sounds, saying that MP3 format has destroyed the audio quality of music when the truth is THEY destroyed it with over-compression and over-limiting and now they want to rectify the situation somewhat, but also make ANOTHER pile of money in the process. The difference in audio quality of uncompressed music and MP3 version of it is almost imperceptible, but when you take some 80s song, when mastering used to be mastering - not butchering audio with limiters, then "master" it the modern way, the difference in audio quality will be significant - for the WORSE. Anybody still left with some grey cells in the head and good ears should be able to recognise that.

Marketing crap. "Let's make more money, leeches!" The audio industry is on a war path against MP3 and they want to sell you FLAC format now and re-mastered albums AGAIN. They want to sell you that overpriced Po[r]no music player, too. *yes* They will not squash the master so much this time around and they say "hear for yourself how FLAC sounds better". It does sound better and I love FLAC, but it doesn't sound better because they used FLAC losslessly compressed audio format, it sounds better because this time they used less compression/limiting to make these new masters! So obvious! What a load of marketing gimmicks!...

You do know the difference between *compressed/lossy audio format* like MP3/Vorbis/ACC, *compressed/lossless audio format* like FLAC/WavPack and *overcompressed/limited music*, do you? They use these terms [compression] on purpose to confuse people who don't understand this. People who fall for this are the same people, I suppose, who do not know the difference between a 64-bit operating system, 64-bit DAW, 64-bit plugins and 64-bit double-precision audio. *yes* Compression and compression is not the same, it depends on what type, for what purpose? It depends on the context. Audio can be compressed dynamically as analog or digital audio and it can be compressed for smaller file/data. Two completely different things!

Knowledge, people... Knowledge is the key. Get informed! Learn! Don't be a stupid, marketing people's puppet. Don't let those greedy music industry leeches play with your mind and take away your hard earned money! Say enough is enough and stuff it music industry leeches!

Cheers!

 

do I hear the difference between an MP3 and a PCM or WAVE when listening on an audiophile quality system or my studio monitors? Yes. Do I hear a difference when a well recorded cymbal is compressed? Yes. Do I know we're comparing two totally different definitions of "compression"? Yes. Do I use MP3s when audiophile quality listening is not practical or for convenience? Yes. I also check my final mixes as MP3 because that's how they will be listened to or downloaded most often. (in the old days we used to copy the trial mix to cassette and listen to that in our automobiles to see how they sounded there. lol) Both are just tools of the trade, but I still avoid both whenever practical. Psycho-acoustic perception is a tricky thing, and even though there are things you cannot hear, those waveforms still push each other around and create peaks and valleys in the harmonics of your listening environment. I probably use a compressor to make a reverb "pump" about as much as I use it for anything. T-Bone Burnett said MP3 format was developed by a bunch of stoned deadheads in silicon valley who wanted an easy way to share their recordings, and musicians and engineers should have gone there with pitchforks and torches. I think he was kidding, sort of. If I listen to Sibelius by the Cleveland Orchestra, or Eric Clapton's "Pilgrim"-the disc sounds better.

 

Add 24bit remasters sold for $40 difference to your list of marketing gimmicks

Example:
Jurassic Park - End Credits - original 1994 version


Jurassic Park - End Credits - 2014 96kHz 24bit tape remaster


It's not that bad, but the original is much cleaner. Climax at 2:04 sounds very rich in 1994 version and dull bass-like in all new shiny 2014 version. Consider that the remaster is being sold for 3 times the original price. Wow

Overall I prefer my music to be in FLAC, instead of wasting time noticing compression artefacts. On my gear, it's no problem to distinguish MP3 from lossless as well as natural from loud. Strange thing though, MP3 gets all the fame and shame, yet no-one speaks of OGG, the vastly superior and free lossy format *yes*