Just about the sound: Discussing dynamic range compression
Most recently, we discussed the old high resolution sound. This topic was originally raised by Steve Guttenberg. Sometimes we start from Steve’s assessments in an attempt to find our solutions and answers to questions.
Today we decided to bring the main points from the next material of the expert.
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Steve talks about Steven Wilson's album from MA Recordings and Reference Recordings . He cites it as an example of how good a digital sound can be. But this is rare in the era of the struggle for loudness and compression.
The essence of dynamic range compression is that it reduces the natural ratio between the loudest and quietest sound in a recording. Of course, highly compressed music is not a new trend. Steve cites as an example the 60s Motown albums, Led Zeppelin albums and Wilco and Radiohead albums.
“Compression is applied at all stages of creating music, so part of the dynamic range may have long been lost by the time the mastering engineer performs the last run.
When people say that they like the sound of an audio recording, I think they like music, as if sound and music were inseparable terms. But for myself, I differentiate these concepts.
From a music lover's point of view, the sound can be coarse and damp, but it won't matter to most listeners. ”
On GT quite actively discuss the topic of compression. In one of the materials were analyzed the main types of compression and recommendations for working with this tool.
Steve notes that compression is applied directly during the recording, during the mixing and only later during the mastering. Based on this state of affairs, it is rather difficult to say how the instruments and the vocal part sounded at the very beginning of the process.
With the help of compression, the vocal volume is kept at the desired level throughout the entire song or stands out a little against the background of other sounds. The situation is similar with the tools, but it takes years to understand how to use compression and not to overdo it.
A couple of interesting discussions based on our materials:
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/366371/
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