Date:         Tue, 21 Oct 2008 19:37:09 -0700
Reply-To:     Association for Recorded Sound Discussion List
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Sender:       Association for Recorded Sound Discussion List
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From:         Lou Judson <[log in to unmask]>
Subject:      Re: Poor sound of modern recordings thread
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Knowing Dave, I can understand his feelings, which have made me proud  
to do live and recorded projects with jazz and bliuegrass musicians,  
where the purity of the dynamics and acoustic sound are prime. I may  
only do one or two CD release projects a year, but never once have I  
been asked to "make it louder" in any way. People seem happy to have  
natural dynamics and clean, clear sound, with only one or two peaks  
reaching the ceiling of -0.3 dBFS.

Generalizing it to all  musicians is conter productive, and I find it  
is the rockers and record companies that do the destructive over- 
processing...

But my main focus is working toward more restoration of older tapes,  
too, as it is very worthy work. Dave and I share a love of the spoken  
word.

<L>

Lou Judson • Intuitive Audio
415-883-2689


On Oct 21, 2008, at 10:45 AM, Dave Radlauer wrote:

> << That optimism however is belied by the sorry results heard on most
> recordings of the last three decades. Therefore one must wonder,
> might inadequate monitoring facilities be to blame? >>
>
> Musical artists (and their producers) must also share  
> responsibility for the
> poor sound of modern (ie last 30 years) recordings.   We engineers are
> unltimately employees or contractors to the giant egos and whims of  
> artists and
> producers.   We are constantly asked to do things we know are wrong  
> (the
> loudness/squashed dynamics wars of the last 5-10 years may be the  
> worst example).
>
> This is just one of the reasons why as an engineer I've specialized in
> restoration/preservation and spoken word productions.
>
> Dave Radlauer
> www.JAZZHOTBigstep.com
>