How to play a CD - A easy guide.

[The_Burg]

Early CD, pre mid 90's

1: Open case
2: Put in CD and play.

Modern CD:

1: RIP to WAV
2: Reduce overall level by 10db using Audacity
3: Run the Nyquist de-clip plugin
4: Export back to WAV
5: Burn back to CD
6: Play the thing at last.

And they wonder we don't buy CD's anymore.
It takes around 3 hours work to make the CD useable.
(Though i skip 5 & 6 and stream to my Squeezebox).

Any of you clever folks have a automated method of doing this rather than track by track?

[ShadownINja]

Are you saying the recording levels were wrong? Surely this should be a complaint to the publisher?

[Funk]

They're all poor, it's the new 'standard'. I've given up and sold my Naim system now as most modern CDs sound rubbish on it.

[ShadownINja]

Bloody typical. And they complain about people downloading such things? Improve quality, reduce price. Easy.

[The_Burg]

ShadownINja said:

Are you saying the recording levels were wrong? Surely this should be a complaint to the publisher?

Have a search for 'The loudness war' loads of stuff out there.
It's record companies that f@ck it all up.

[Nolar Dog]

It doesnt't bother me enough to care.

I still just shove them in and press play. The quality is more than sufficient for my needs.

[MitchT]

The_Burg said:

ShadownINja said:

Are you saying the recording levels were wrong? Surely this should be a complaint to the publisher?

Have a search for 'The loudness war' loads of stuff out there.
It's record companies that f@ck it all up.

+1

[Asterix]

MitchT said:

The_Burg said:

ShadownINja said:

Are you saying the recording levels were wrong? Surely this should be a complaint to the publisher?

Have a search for 'The loudness war' loads of stuff out there.
It's record companies that f@ck it all up.

+1

+2

Drives me nuts how the push and clip everything.

When we mastered our stuff, we had to tell the engineer to stop what he'd normaly do and think back to the 70's and the dynamics they achieved.

Still wasn't exactly how we wanted it.

Why do modern records also insist in having the bass overwhelming everything else?

[ShadownINja]

That doesn't make sense. I thought people recorded things at a balanced setting because they have monitors rather than home speakers.

I just had a thought. Maybe it's the music you lot listen to that's just rubbish.

Just googled it. In the end, isn't it down to the consumer's volume knob and if it clips... they'll turn it down/off?

Edited by ShadownINja on Sunday 24th May 11:34

[The_Burg]

ShadownINja said:

That doesn't make sense. I thought people recorded things at a balanced setting because they have monitors rather than home speakers.

I just had a thought. Maybe it's the music you lot listen to that's just rubbish.

Just googled it. In the end, isn't it down to the consumer's volume knob and if it clips... they'll turn it down/off?

Edited by ShadownINja on Sunday 24th May 11:34

The signal is already screwed, turning the volume down makes no difference to the sound just the volume.
Lack of dynamic range is potentially very damaging for your amp and speakers too.

[ShadownINja]

The_Burg said:

ShadownINja said:

That doesn't make sense. I thought people recorded things at a balanced setting because they have monitors rather than home speakers.

I just had a thought. Maybe it's the music you lot listen to that's just rubbish.

Just googled it. In the end, isn't it down to the consumer's volume knob and if it clips... they'll turn it down/off?

Edited by ShadownINja on Sunday 24th May 11:34

The signal is already screwed, turning the volume down makes no difference to the sound just the volume.
Lack of dynamic range is potentially very damaging for your amp and speakers too.

Yes, but if you turn it down you can't hear anything.

[Funk]

This explains things beautifully.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Gmex_4hreQ

Cracking example here as well:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7UjQc0dM4H4&fmt...

Actually, I just went and had a look at two versions of the same Dire Straits song. One I ripped from the original CD in my collection a while back and the other I downloaded just now for comparison. The original is from the CD released back in the 80s, the second version is one from the 'Special Edition - Best of' released in 2005 (and features a slightly extended intro). Both are gain-equalised to 90dB.

They barely look like the same track:

Original:



Special Edition Best Of:



The latter sounds horrendous. All the punch, dynamics and clarity have gone. The differences would be even more marked if the format were lossless such as FLAC or WAV. I have them as MP3 for convenience as I put them on the MP3 player and play them in the car. Even so, I've still not acquiesced to my original hi-fi roots and the MP3s are all encoded in Lame at 320kbps.

Edited by Funk on Sunday 24th May 15:25

[ShadownINja]

It's quite funny really. It sums up modern life. And proves the old adage, "Less is more."

Edited by ShadownINja on Sunday 24th May 15:12

[robinhood21]

I stopped buying 'commercial' Cd's some years ago when I became fed up with having to return them for sounding so cr@p. Now I will only purchase CD's from the likes of Sheffield Labs, Chesky, Blue Note, Linn etc.

[ShadownINja]

Thanks, Funk.

Hm I noticed when I set my hifi's equalizer I used to put the bass a bit higher than I do these days, and the higher frequencies are boosted more. Maybe I'm subconsciously picking up on the lack of clarity.

[Funk]

The irony is that by making the whole CD sound 'louder' by compressing the st out of it, all they do is make you turn it down to the volume where you would want it anyway. You end up with a badly-compromised sound at all volumes.

There's a lot of noise amongst people who're unhappy with the way CDs sound these days, especially when they have the potential to sound so good.

[RedLeicester]

The_Burg said:

Early CD, pre mid 90's

1: Open case
2: Put in CD and play.

Modern CD:

1: RIP to WAV
2: Reduce overall level by 10db using Audacity
3: Run the Nyquist de-clip plugin
4: Export back to WAV
5: Burn back to CD
6: Play the thing at last.

And they wonder we don't buy CD's anymore.
It takes around 3 hours work to make the CD useable.
(Though i skip 5 & 6 and stream to my Squeezebox).

Any of you clever folks have a automated method of doing this rather than track by track?

OMFG..... fk it, I'm obviously out of a job!

[Funk]

RedLeicester said:

The_Burg said:

Early CD, pre mid 90's

1: Open case
2: Put in CD and play.

Modern CD:

1: RIP to WAV
2: Reduce overall level by 10db using Audacity
3: Run the Nyquist de-clip plugin
4: Export back to WAV
5: Burn back to CD
6: Play the thing at last.

And they wonder we don't buy CD's anymore.
It takes around 3 hours work to make the CD useable.
(Though i skip 5 & 6 and stream to my Squeezebox).

Any of you clever folks have a automated method of doing this rather than track by track?

OMFG..... fk it, I'm obviously out of a job!

Far from it. If you can produce decent-sounding CDs in the first place...!

From your comments, I'm presuming you're in the industry by the way..

[GetCarter]

ShadownINja said:

Thanks, Funk.

Hm I noticed when I set my hifi's equalizer I used to put the bass a bit higher than I do these days, and the higher frequencies are boosted more. Maybe I'm subconsciously picking up on the lack of clarity.

...or you're getting older

[ShadownINja]

GetCarter said:

ShadownINja said:

Thanks, Funk.

Hm I noticed when I set my hifi's equalizer I used to put the bass a bit higher than I do these days, and the higher frequencies are boosted more. Maybe I'm subconsciously picking up on the lack of clarity.

...or you're getting older

PARDON?