Is this where it all started going wrong?

[seti]

"Ninety-five percent of people listen to music in their car or on a
cheap home stereo; 5 percent may have better systems; and maybe 1
percent have a $20,000 stereo. So if it doesn’t sound good on something
small, what’s the point? You can mix in front of these huge, beautiful,
pristine, $10,000 powered monitors all you want. But no one else has
these monitors, so you’re more likely to end up with a translation
problem.” Chris Lord-Alge

Chris Lord-Alge started using excessive compression in the 80's. Hearing the state of most modern recordings it seems his influence was huge. Personally I miss the 50's 60's and 70's when studios and musicians wanted high quality high fidelity recordings not recordings made for clock radios.

[Hifi jim]

If he is still alive, I say we torture him to his own music on a quality stereo system. Tie him to a chair, volume up only remote glued to one hand, and a bottle of sleeping pills glued to the other. Whatever happened to raising the bar for everybody? That's like Klipsch saying, well not enough people buy quality speakers but a lot more buy clock radios... wait, that's Bose!

[jacksonbart]

He is my neighbor on Pluto

[Mike 585]

The most frustrating part to me is that it seems the consumer could easily and affordably be given either or both full dynamic and compressed versions.

[seti]

The most frustrating part to me is that it seems the consumer could easily and affordably be given either or both full dynamic and compressed versions.

Or just give the compressed version to radio stations.

[Audible Nectar]

If he is still alive, I say we torture him to his own music on a quality stereo system. Tie him to a chair, volume up only remote glued to one hand, and a bottle of sleeping pills glued to the other.

[6]GUANTANAMO[6] - and NO sleeping pills[:@]

[seti]

If he is still alive, I say we torture him to his own music on a quality stereo system. Tie him to a chair, volume up only remote glued to one hand, and a bottle of sleeping pills glued to the other.

GUANTANAMO - and NO sleeping pills

Forced to listen to all his compressed recordings on surround sound Heritage @ 105db.

[IB Slammin]

Sad but true. It is what it is Seti.[:'(]

Some stuff is for the system, some stuff is for the car.

I heard about engineers mixing top 40 hits on 6"x9" ovals in the 60's. (car radio)

tc

[Marvel]

I heard about engineers mixing top 40 hits on
6"x9" ovals in the 60's. (car radio)

They mixed on the studio
monitors AND on the 6 x 9 ovals. Chris Lord-Alge mixed/mixes through a Sony boombox. You can't totally discount some of his hits.

The guys who had to make it work were the ones running the lathes. They had to keep the needle in the groove, so to speak.With CDs, the dynamic range goes way up, but that can be useless in a car. At least in MY car, where the road noise can easily mask the quiet passages.

Bruce

Bruce

[oldtimer]

It's not all wrong. Just the crap. Like any other product, there is still quality to be found and there is a lot of crap.

[seti]

You can't totally discount some of his hits.

No you can't discount the music but excessive compression you can blame him for and the trend he and others like him set in motion. This has nothing to do with the music or talent they were behind. A classic example of a poorly mastered/produced modern CD in this compressed BS method is the Red Hot Chilli Peppers Californication album. Listen to that album then listen to the Peppers album Blood Sugar Sex Magic. Night and day.

I try to listen past poorly produced and mastered recordings but sometimes it is difficult. Hopefully these trends will go away.

[artarama]

I try to listen past poorly produced and mastered recordings but sometimes it is difficult. Hopefully these trends will go away.

I hope the trend go away before the interest or recognition of quality does. Poorly recorded music is an insult to the senses and buying public. I would think it is possible to get a song to sound great on a good system and those 6x9's, just easier to crank out the cheap stuff and call it intentional.

[Fish]

It's also on the artist.It amazes me that any artist(at least a music lover) would allow their work to be molested in such a way.

[seti]

It's also on the artist.It amazes me that any artist(at least a music lover) would allow their work to be molested in such a way.

You are right. The artist has to take an active interest in the quality. Look at Tom Waits or Anja Garbarek. Could you imagine what Tom Waits would do if someone used excessive compression on one of his albums? Yikes. Probably get a Tuba inserted into them.