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| From | "Billy G. Spradlin" <bgspradlin@cablelynx.com> |
| Subject | Re: Loud CD's = massive compression |
| Date | Mon, 03 Mar 2003 15:15:04 -0600 |
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>The Elvis #1 Hits double disc package are mastered at 6dB
>down from peak! talk about weak. That's equivalent to a 15-bit recording!!
>Yuck.
I have it too - a lot of RCA's early CD were poorly remastered at too low
of a volume - and many are still on the shelves today (Hall & Oates - Rick
Springfield). A lot of Atlantic CD's from the same era were mastered at a
low volume too.
Still I remember being amazed at how good "Little Sister" sounded on CD
back then, but the rest of that #1 hits compilation suffers from overdone
noise processing where you can hear the processor "breathe" as it attacks
the high end. I started buying import CD's because I bought Epic's "Hollies
Greatest Hits" in 1987 and was dismayed at how lousy it sounded (tape drop
outs all over the place) - Stan at Yesterday Discs in Wichita told me to
get a 20 song EMI import instead which sounded excellent and I started
buying UK CD's of British artists instead.
The worst remastering job I heard on a favorite album was MCA's Mamas &
Papas "Deliver" CD - which sounded like they used a 20th generation master
tape, all midrange and hiss. Another one I hated was Atlantic's job on
ABBA's "Super Trouper" CD (now long gone off the shelves) - you can hear
tape print-through before each song and during low volumes.
> I am not a fan of the latest wave of over-compressed CD re-releases.
>For one, it smashes down those nice peaks to be level with everything else,
>then it brings up those soft subtle sounds like a nice guitar picking, finger
>slips etc. to an almost annoying level. If you compare ELO's remastered CD's
>to the older late 80-'s releases.......
With ELO I'd pick the remastered CD's over the old ones - There was some
strange buzzing in the background on the original "Face The Music" CD, and
"Time" had a strange 2 second gap before the start of "Hold On Tight" and
no liner notes. Early versions of "Face the Music" also used the wrong
master tape - they used the one for the radio release LP which had all the
segues removed. I heard its a collectable CD today.
Billy
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