Music w/soft passages ?

[Oliver]

Do you listen to music where the dynamics explode ?

Do you need headroom ?

1812 Overture your idea of a good listen ?

Or are you more MP3 based ?

Is your music highly compressed and easily rendered without epic peaks and super subtle soft passages ?

[michaelsil1]

Classical Music has a lot of soft passages and then the full Orchestra can kick in. If you're driving on the freeway with the soft passages you better have a ton of headroom or you're not going to hear it.

I have five Class A/B Amps (four way system) for those times I need Power.

[Mooble]

Music without dynamics is crap ---> most recorded music today lacks dynamics---> most music today is crap.

Sad to say, but so many albums coming out today are utter crap in terms of SQ.

[Oliver]

This song is fairly new and could use some reinforcement or headroom for it

Do Me Good ~ YouTube - Amy Winehouse - Do me good & Love is a loosing game

From Wikipedia . . .

quote>
Winehouse's 2003 debut album Frank was commercially and critically successful in her native Britain. It was nominated for the Mercury Prize. Her 2006 follow-up album Back to Black led to six Grammy Award nominations and five wins, tying the record for the most wins by a female artist in a single night, and made Winehouse the first British singer to win five Grammys,[5][6] including three of the "Big Four": Best New Artist, Record of the Year and Song of the Year.
quote>

[Oliver]

Sade does some softer stuff . . . YouTube - LOVE DELUXE

[Andy Wehmeyer]

FWIW, Data compression is NOT dynamic range compression. Turning your music into MP3s doesn't eliminate dynamics. It eliminates some high frequencies (depending on the bit rate) and also, depending on your encoder, doesn't preserve the phase information between left and right channels very well (if you encode in joint stereo).

The problem with many modern recordings is, in fact, dynamic range compression. Confusing that with data compression is a common misunderstanding.

[Oliver]

Thank You Andy

I can't discern the reasons, sometimes . . .

A Supreme Court Justice said it best: "I can't define porn . . . but, I know it when I see it"

[michaelsil1]

It's soft with a rocking Accordion player.


YouTube - Ry Cooder - Let's Have A Ball

[Oliver]

Nice Michael ^^^^

I worked the Entertainment Hall for my 1rst 6 mths at the casino.

I heard some entertainers . . . all genres !

Including some Zydeco [ that finally ended up with the entertainers jamming session style ]

Dexy's Midnight Runners whisper and hit in this rendition of "Come On Eileen"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ThWaMnlSZM

favorite line: . . . at this moment , you mean everything !

[michaelsil1]

I always share my love for Classical Music. What I don't usually share is my love for what the Guy's call Psycho Jazz.

Here's one of my favorite Artists:

YouTube - Frank Gambale playing a funk solo.

[michaelsil1]

Originally Posted by Mooble

Music without dynamics is crap ---> most recorded music today lacks dynamics---> most music today is crap.

Sad to say, but so many albums coming out today are utter crap in terms of SQ.

I don't agree at all. I love music and I can find plenty to satisfy me.

[Oliver]

I agree ^^^^

[michaelsil1]

Originally Posted by a$$hole

I agree ^^^^

Did you like the Frank Gambale (old fat man)? I know it wasn't that soft.

[Mooble]

Originally Posted by michaelsil1

I don't agree at all. I love music and I can find plenty to satisfy me.

The recording quality satisfies you? I have found very VERY few recent albums that haven't had the dynamics absolutely squeezed out of them. Even artists well known for high quality recordings have succumbed.

One interesting exception--Gn'R Chinese Democracy. It's not surprising when you find out it was mastered by Bob Ludwig, but it's still rare to find ANY album with dynamics--even rarer something like Gn'R.

[Oliver]

Originally Posted by michaelsil1

Did you like the Frank Gambale (old fat man)? I know it wasn't that soft.

Right up my alley . . . enjoyed the keyboards too !!!

[Thumper26]

Bach's Air is a great soft piece. I have it on a Denon audio cd called reflections, and it's killer. That cd also has a great Canon in D on it too:

Amazon.com: Reflections: Classical Music for Meditation: Johann Sebastian Bach, Samuel Barber, Alexander Borodin, Frederic Chopin, Claude Debussy, Felix Mendelssohn, Johann Pachelbel, Pyotr Il'yich Tchaikovsky: Music

[michaelsil1]

Originally Posted by a$$hole

Right up my alley . . . enjoyed the keyboards too !!!

Great!

Here's another of my favorite performers; I love seeing him live:


YouTube - Scott Henderson Blues Band - Germany 2003 (1/3)

[michaelsil1]

Originally Posted by Mooble

The recording quality satisfies you? I have found very VERY few recent albums that haven't had the dynamics absolutely squeezed out of them. Even artists well known for high quality recordings have succumbed.

One interesting exception--Gn'R Chinese Democracy. It's not surprising when you find out it was mastered by Bob Ludwig, but it's still rare to find ANY album with dynamics--even rarer something like Gn'R.

I guess I've been lucky, most of the recordings (SQ) I've bought have been outstanding.

[MarkZ]

Originally Posted by Mooble

The recording quality satisfies you? I have found very VERY few recent albums that haven't had the dynamics absolutely squeezed out of them. Even artists well known for high quality recordings have succumbed.

One interesting exception--Gn'R Chinese Democracy. It's not surprising when you find out it was mastered by Bob Ludwig, but it's still rare to find ANY album with dynamics--even rarer something like Gn'R.

Yeah, but who buys music based on recording quality? Most people buy music they like. If it's recorded crappy, you just suffer through it.

[6262ms3]

There are plenty of bands still putting out dynamic recordings; Calexico, Arcade Fire, Iron and Wine, Black Mountain, The Decemberists, Buck 65 and A Northern Chorus are just a few that come to mind. It's mostly the mega-hit top 40 stuff that gets compressed way beyond sanity. I hate trying to listen to an album at a fun volume and then having to turn it down after a couple of songs because the compression-induced distortion murders my ears.

[TJ Mobile Audio]

I often demo "In the Hall of the Mountain King" from Grieg's Peer Gynt in my car for my more refinedcustomers. It's the 1987 Grammaphon recording from West Germany, it starts tiny and builds through the entire piece just as it should. Those timpani drums can be just breathtaking, and it really gets the point across that subwoofers aren't just for teenage punks! I enjoy a wide dynamic range, and definitely agree that that is lacking in most recordings today. So many people don't have any headroom though, and expect their music to be a constant din... It looks like they are winning that battle.

[michaelsil1]

Originally Posted by TJ Mobile Audio

I often demo "In the Hall of the Mountain King" from Grieg's Peer Gynt in my car for my more refinedcustomers. It's the 1987 Grammaphon recording from West Germany, it starts tiny and builds through the entire piece just as it should. Those timpani drums can be just breathtaking, and it really gets the point across that subwoofers aren't just for teenage punks! I enjoy a wide dynamic range, and definitely agree that that is lacking in most recordings today. So many people don't have any headroom though, and expect their music to be a constant din... It looks like they are winning that battle.

If dialed in they are breathtaking; Beethoven loved using them in many of his pieces.

[jowens500]

Bjork's rendition of "It's Oh So Quite" goes from 0 to 100 pretty quick.