Where did the dynamic range go?
Reply #3 – 2006-11-28 16:37:49
The question is how to estimate its historical and cultural progress (as well as existance) when we dont have access to the original mix. Well as you'll see here there is a lot of comparison between multiple generations of the same recording. Whether it's a newer CD remaster or a LP -> digital conversion compared to the official CD release. Though we do not have access to the original studio tapes we can quite easily in many cases see the damage done over ~10+ years as the label re-releases an album. For a practical instance I had to buy the new version of Blue Oyster Cult's first album for the demo tapes from their previous band, Soft White Underbelly. However the album itself being much much more compressed than the original what I did was rip just the bonus tracks and apply album gain independently of my earlier rip from the regular/original CD version. To me that was a better route than listening to the newish mastering of songs that just didn't sound right to me as I expected them to sound. Another, one of Ministry's songs "Just One Fix" has a "12" Edit" version (from the LP single) as well as a differently named version (but the exact same song) on the CD single. However as I discovered the box set contains the 12" Edit and could tell with EAC's wav editor that it was not clipped as badly as the CD version. What clipping was left, I assume was probably there straight from the studio due to the nature of the music. Once again, it replaced the squashed track in my playlist. In those cases the difference was enough for me to hear, and enough that it made the newer/louder version unpleasant in comparison.
"Have you ever been with a woman? It's like death. You moan, you scream and then you start to beg for mercy, for salvation"