Why the Sound of Music Sucks Today – Part 3
September 18, 2008
In Part 2 we learned how the loss of dynamic range has helped make music today sound like a bag of butt-holes. Now we’re going to talk about the worst thing to happen to sonic quality since the cassette . . the dreaded MP3!
We all know how the MP3 has helped change the entire music industry. The file size of an MP3 at 128kBit is one/tenth the size of 44.1kHz WAV or AIFF file (CD quality audio). One minute of CD quality audio is about a 10 megabyte size file. The MP3 of the same audio takes up only 1 megabyte. By reducing the file size the MP3 made it easy to send and receive music over the internet and revolutionize the industry.
Why the Sound of Music Sucks Today – Part 2
August 21, 2008
In Part 1 we learned that the loudness of music we hear has an effect on how we perceive the way it sounds. More to the point we learned that a louder song sounds like it has more bass and treble and therefore sounds better on most small stereo systems. So what harm can it do for an engineer make their mix sound louder than someone else when the volume limits are set by the playback format and the listener?
Back when music was delivered on phonograph records there was a limit to how much information could be etched into the disc before it cut across the grove and rendered the disc unplayable. On magnetic tape there was a limit to how much magnetic energy the tape could hold before it became distorted. With digital audio there is a limit on how loud you can go when sampling the sound-wave. That limit in digital audio is called 0 db (zero).
Why the Sound of Music Sucks Today – Part 1
August 7, 2008
We’d like to welcome Aaron Gant as our very first Guest Geek on GeekInspired.com. Aaron is a professional recording engineer and music producer.
Anyone over the age of 30 has been thinking the same thing: Why does this new CD sound like crap when my old copy of Pink Floyd’s “The Wall” still sounds great? Shouldn’t new music sound better?
There are many reasons for the change in audio quality over the last few years but I’ve got a few of my favorites I’ve been wanting to vent about for awhile now.
