Not an actual recommendation, but an interesting article on the Foo Fighters' lastest release and the possible turnaround in the "loudness war".
http://productionadvice.co.uk/foo-fighters-dynamics/
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Not an actual recommendation, but an interesting article on the Foo Fighters' lastest release and the possible turnaround in the "loudness war".
http://productionadvice.co.uk/foo-fighters-dynamics/
Great article. The dynamics highlighted were prevalent in my youth but seem to have been lost in the last 10+ years.
My view is that the temptation to "crank and compress" is born from earbuds and small speakers where dynamics can be lost and the listener left disappointed.
I don't hear this as much in classical and jazz, and find myself increasingly attracted to those genres, perhaps for this very reason.
I'm sure this is not new music to anyone on this thread, but the digital downloads of Radiohead's OK Computer "OKNOTOK" remaster just became available at http://www.oknotok.co.uk/ with physical editions out in July.
Currently playing the 24-bit WAVs - the album sounds sensational on my Sierra 2s & L12!
The "crank and compress" tendency has been around for a bit, but I think it became much worse with digital and increasingly smaller playback systems. I was an audio engineer, mainly in mastering, during the late 1980s to early 90s. In short I was told that if something I mastered was notably quieter during radio play than the commercial that followed it we'd lose a client. I always kept a solid dynamic range as much as possible (I was mainly a jazz musician as well, so I had a love for dynamics), but many others did not. (Edit: But even then I didn't expect the absurd heights the crank and compress methods would eventually reach).
I agree that classical and jazz haven't suffered nearly as much.
You're welcome. Kenny Barron has been around for some time, and is one of the jazz piano greats. You may like Book of Intuition with his trio as well.
If you'd like a couple other more recent jazz piano albums check out Brad Mehldau Trio's Blues and Ballads and Fred Hersch Trio's Sunday Night at the Vanguard.
Not a recommendation, but in honor of Walter Becker, I've been playing some Steely Dan this morning on the Sierra-2's/Rythmik...sounding fabulous.