Seasons of Jason
Finally found scientific proof (and a strong sense of satisfaction) that my ears have been correct: #music objectively sounds worse on streaming platforms than #vinyl.
"The numbers in those boxes represent the measured dynamic range of an album or its individual tracks. DR is short for dynamic range. Lower numbers mean less dynamic range, higher numbers mean higher dynamic range. In terms of audio quality a higher dynamic range generally means better quality.”
Seasons of Jason
@chrishazfun No doubt you're right, and my examples are admittedly selective...but probably a good representation.
chrishazfun
@killyourfm tbh the loudness war has tended to hit all formats through mixing choices, bandcamp flacs probably beat spotify streams by a mile though lol
Seasons of Jason
@gimulnautti I feel like we ultimately have the iPod to blame for the loudness wars. Is that a safe assumption?
gimulnautti
@killyourfm This is a matter of choice though, not a format question per se.
The loudness war really did hurt all of us music-lovers. Recordings are no longer luxury items, but bulk to consume, not even own.
Seasons of Jason
@datenimperator We'll always sacrifice *something* for convenience...
But I'm very curious about your view on "supposedly lower cost" and "ease of use."
Something tells me I'll appreciate your take.,
datenimperator
@killyourfm almost everybody is trading audio quality for unlimited supply, ease of use and supposedly lower cost. Neither of that is actually true, but still...
Seasons of Jason
@DonSimon13 @chrishazfun thank you for so eloquently, explaining what I’ve been wanting to say
Don Simon
@chrishazfun @killyourfm The only difference between Bandcamp FLACs and a spotify stream should be lossless vs lossy encoding. This difference is way harder to hear than actual mastering differences between analog and digital. Even with high end headphones, I can only hear it on very specific tracks like solo piano tracks. Mastering is way more important then encoding.
Seasons of Jason
@pimeys Honest question here, born from some ignorance: Could recording in analog vs digital make any difference here?
J.d.B.
albituga_
@killyourfm nothing beats a vinyl…
Seasons of Jason
@albituga_ ...which is probably why the format has endured for almost 100 years!
Seasons of Jason
@ianmclean @trezzer @gimulnautti
See also: the crime against music that is Foo Fighters' "One By One."
Also, I say this as someone who considers Rick Rubin a sort of spiritual/music advisor and deeply appreciates his work: It's utterly baffling that he let Death Magnetic out the door sounding like it did.
Ian McLean
@trezzer @killyourfm @gimulnautti Just to be devil's advocate here, I don't think more dynamics is always better, though it certainly got bad in the late 00s when the new Metallica and Alice in Chains LPs were brickwalled so badly they were clipping.
I actually find some remasters to be better than the original issues for quite a few albums, in deft hands they can sound quite a lot more lively with a bit of compression, and bring out some subtleties that were lost before. That's as long as you're not just throwing a limiter at it and calling it "remastered" of course.
A case where I really think less dynamics has been good, is when I watch older TV shows or movies. Always fun times when you're putting on an old flick and have to dime the volume because you can't hear what anyone is saying, then the music kicks in and rattles the windows!
Trezzer (aka Helvedeshunden)
@killyourfm @gimulnautti It was wanting to stand out on radio. "Louder = better". Just like commercials would turn it up to 11, you could do the same with music once the cd format was popularized. You generally can't get away with compression to the same extent on vinyl because on a CD you just have 1 and 0 while the needle and the groove need to actually move to the extremes (try looking at a compressed sound wave and imagine having a needle track through a miniature of it).
Seasons of Jason
@albituga_ @pimeys Gives it CHARACTER! :D
albituga_
@pimeys @killyourfm The crackles is what makes the vinyl better :clippy: :computerfairies:
J.d.B.
Seasons of Jason
@thenets FLAC will still sound like crap if it's not mastered and mixed properly...
Luiz Costa
@killyourfm well, "better" is not something objective. Any streaming is "cleaner" than a vinyl, without cracking noises, but they are all based in lossy algorithms. This is true since the old days, with MiniDisk using ATRAC, for example.
The goal of those algorithms is not to "be better" but instead to be indistinguishable for the majority of people and be smaller at the same time. Sometimes a person will have great ears and audio gears, for those, we have FLAC codec.
Seasons of Jason
@thenets Touche!
Luiz Costa
@killyourfm oh, sure. But the codec is perfect for human hearing. Any vinyl will sound like crap too without a good mastering.
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