Dunno if I've posted this topic before, but here's some good information for all you music fans who might be wondering why you're not enjoying it like you used to. I bring this up because a few years ago I sat down to a listening bar to check out Rush's "Vapor Trails". Some riffs caught my attention, but I kept skipping to the next song after about 20 seconds. By the end of the album, I realised that I hated it, but couldn't quite understand why. Now I know: http://www.austin360.com/music/content/music/stories/xl/2006/09/28cover.html A reaffirmation: http://music.guardian.co.uk/pop/story/0,,1992465,00.html When it gets to the technical part, here is a picture of what is described... One the left, Bowling For Soup's "High School Never Ends" On the right, Canned Heat's "Let's Work Together" This kind of dynamic extreme will make your iTunes go nuts.
I haven't experienced this yet, and I've bought plenty of new albums lately. Is this mainly in rock music or something?
Pretty much in the rock/pop genres. I doubt it's a problem in R&B or country, since that music is dependant upon sound clarity. I've heard a LOT of rap that has serious compression problems. I'm betting the whole problem started with heavy metal in the 80's --"louder is better". I noticed it recently with C. Aguilera's "Ain't No Other Man" and Gnarles Barkley's "Crazy"...I like both songs, but can't stand hearing them. I should note here that this is also a mistake that I've made myself several times before getting "enlightened". It's easy to get caught up in trying to squeeze as much sound out as you can.
Interesting stuff avvie. I like a lot of music that I listen to on the radio in the car,yet when I play it on the suround sound at home I don't really enjoy listening to a lot of it. The sound I enjoy the most is often from bands that have a lead singer,drums,1 bass & 1 guitar. Stone Temple Pilots,Audioslave,Stereophonics,Chili Peppers etc. I rarely tire of listening to those kind of sounds. It's interesting what was said about Californication because I played it to death. I also play music a little too loud for the Mrs' to be comfortable listening to.
I've noticed with popular hip-hop albums on the stereo. I've actually read about this a few times, and it does appear in almost every music genre where sound needs to appear amplified. So it does actually appear in hiphop/rnb. I tend to like my music fairly loud, but I have noticed that listening to albums on my stereo with the subs on and the volume loud, that I simpily can't sit through many songs I would replay on my computer or iPod. Thanks for posting Avvie.
Right on, Kam. If you didn't follow the closing links, here's the posted graphical representation of the issue: http://recforums.prosoundweb.com/index.php/fa/821/0/ EDIT: fixed link