Amazon MP3 found dynamically compressed
2012-09-18 01:57:59
I'm not sure if this is normal practice but I thought it strange enough to post my little finding. Amazon.com has a digital download available of a new (old) album by the Chameleons UK, Script of the Bridge, 2012 Remaster. Here. The disc version is only available in the UK, I believe, but being a huge fan I had it shipped across the pond. In the meantime, I also bought the Amazon MP3's to tide me over. Anyway, to get to the point, they were touting this as a better remaster than the recent 25th anniversary edition and to be less "loud". I used the foobar dynamic range analyzer to compare the two and I was surprised to find no substantial difference between the new 2012 Remaster Amazon MP3's and my old anniversary edition (lossless rip). Well, I didn't make too much of it since I had the actual CD arriving soon. Cut to this afternoon, I get the new 2012 Remaster CD and do my usual FLAC rip with dbpoweramp. Just out of curiosity, I run the dynamic analyzer in foobar and I get significantly different values, so I'm not sure what's happening here. Here's the Amazon MP3 results:foobar2000 1.1.11 / Dynamic Range Meter 1.1.1 log date: 2012-09-17 17:13:25 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Analyzed: The Chameleons UK / Script Of The Bridge (Remaster 2012) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- DR Peak RMS Duration Track -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- DR9 0.00 dB -10.72 dB 4:07 01-Don't Fall DR9 0.00 dB -11.11 dB 3:58 02-Here Today DR9 0.00 dB -12.61 dB 5:17 03-Monkeyland DR9 0.00 dB -10.51 dB 6:51 04-Second Skin DR8 0.00 dB -9.90 dB 3:58 05-Up The Down Escalator DR9 -0.09 dB -11.02 dB 4:16 06-Less Than Human DR10 0.00 dB -12.66 dB 5:12 07-Pleasure And Pain DR8 -0.05 dB -10.41 dB 3:33 08-Thursdays Child DR9 -0.01 dB -10.88 dB 3:35 09-As High As You Can Go DR9 -0.06 dB -11.35 dB 5:43 10-A Person Isn't Safe Anywhere These Days DR9 0.00 dB -11.49 dB 4:17 11-Paper Tigers DR10 0.00 dB -12.40 dB 6:41 12-View From A Hill -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Number of tracks: 12 Official DR value: DR9 Samplerate: 44100 Hz Channels: 2 Bitrate: 257 kbps Codec: MP3 ================================================================================ Here's the lossless rip:foobar2000 1.1.11 / Dynamic Range Meter 1.1.1 log date: 2012-09-17 17:12:17 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Analyzed: The Chameleons UK / Script of the Bridge (2012 Remaster) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- DR Peak RMS Duration Track -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- DR11 -0.64 dB -13.87 dB 4:07 01-Don't Fall DR11 -2.02 dB -15.67 dB 3:58 02-Here Today DR12 -1.25 dB -17.14 dB 5:17 03-Monkeyland DR11 -1.06 dB -15.01 dB 6:51 04-Second Skin DR11 -0.49 dB -14.34 dB 3:58 05-Up the Down Escalator DR12 -0.10 dB -15.49 dB 4:16 06-Less Than Human DR13 -1.24 dB -17.19 dB 5:12 07-Pleasure and Pain DR11 -1.42 dB -14.85 dB 3:33 08-Thursday's Child DR13 -0.69 dB -15.33 dB 3:35 09-As High as You Can Go DR12 -1.39 dB -15.87 dB 5:43 10-A Person Isn't Safe Anywhere These Days DR12 -1.63 dB -16.01 dB 4:17 11-Paper Tigers DR13 -0.74 dB -16.95 dB 6:41 12-View from a Hill -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Number of tracks: 12 Official DR value: DR12 Samplerate: 44100 Hz Channels: 2 Bits per sample: 16 Bitrate: 728 kbps Codec: FLAC ================================================================================ I'm not experienced with any other audio tools so I have not ran any other tests. I have also not done any ABX's but would like to when I get the chance. My concern isn't so much about sound quality as it is about my finding--why would the Amazon MP3's be so different? My own VBR V0 encodes of the lossless didn't dynamically compress the lossless at all, so I'm wondering if there was some kind of DSP used in the preparation of the Amazon MP3's?? There were only 1000 discs made of the new 2012 remaster, so I don't think I'm confusing the source. I would expect the Amazon MP3 to match my own encodes in this case right?