Well that's your choice, but I myself prefer to hear all the defects, it's a reflection of the recording limits of the time, the history of the production.
taking their first outing please please me as a starting point, the good news is 1963’s famous 1-day studio wonder hasn’t been infected with the dreaded modern loudness disease but it does suffer from volume related compression/limiting which to these ears is not subtle. of course the point of the remastering was to restore the original mixes without enhancement, but they could have moved away from emi's hard limiting of the vocals and gain riding of the instruments around those vocals. otherwise known as pumping, it's unfortunately audible from the first track to the last, with the wonderful exception of "ask me why," which is essentially free from dynamic range compromise and stands out from the rest because of it. this is a clean album, particularly for its age, but if this first stereo disc is a guide to the set then legitimate questions can be asked about aesthetic and technical choices made over the four year course of the project.
As an amature engineer and audiophile, I hope you guys aren't following the industry trend of compressing the hell out of everything. What I love most about a lot of old recordings is the dynamic range, which sounds BETTER on a good system, or pair of headphones. It has more depth, it puts you more inside the music, it even sounds more live. Just wanted to put in my 2 cents. Mild compression is alright on on some lines, but the levels should be set to hit the peak at it's worse, without the aid of heavy compression. I'm so tired of recordings being trashed by destroying the dynamic range.
borezNov 4, 2009
Well that's your choice, but I myself prefer to hear all the defects, it's a reflection of the recording limits of the time, the history of the production.
jacksprattsNov 4, 2009
taking their first outing please please me as a starting point, the good news is 1963’s famous 1-day studio wonder hasn’t been infected with the dreaded modern loudness disease but it does suffer from volume related compression/limiting which to these ears is not subtle. of course the point of the remastering was to restore the original mixes without enhancement, but they could have moved away from emi's hard limiting of the vocals and gain riding of the instruments around those vocals. otherwise known as pumping, it's unfortunately audible from the first track to the last, with the wonderful exception of "ask me why," which is essentially free from dynamic range compromise and stands out from the rest because of it. this is a clean album, particularly for its age, but if this first stereo disc is a guide to the set then legitimate questions can be asked about aesthetic and technical choices made over the four year course of the project.
jiggawattNov 4, 2009
As an amature engineer and audiophile, I hope you guys aren't following the industry trend of compressing the hell out of everything. What I love most about a lot of old recordings is the dynamic range, which sounds BETTER on a good system, or pair of headphones. It has more depth, it puts you more inside the music, it even sounds more live. Just wanted to put in my 2 cents. Mild compression is alright on on some lines, but the levels should be set to hit the peak at it's worse, without the aid of heavy compression. I'm so tired of recordings being trashed by destroying the dynamic range.
jeriqoNov 4, 2009
Which ones?
jeriqoNov 4, 2009
And for those who don't know, 4dB is quite small.I'm pretty sure McCartney's latest albums have at least 18dB limiting.
borezNov 4, 2009
What are you on about, I answered his question. No... they're not going to brickwall the masters, like it says in the article.
sahaskattaNov 6, 2009
High Res Beatles Album Art:<a class="user" href="http://skattertech.com/2009/09/the-beatles-high-resolution-album-art/" rel="nofollow">http://skattertech.com/2009/09/the-beatles-high-re ...</a>No spam, just one zip of JPEGs, enjoy! :)