HiFi Subjectivist ¦ Audio Forum ¦ NVA User Group

Lindsayt wrote:http://dr.loudness-war.info/album/list? ... definitely

Definitely Maybe has a Dynamic Range of 11 on the original vinyl and only 4 to 7 on the various CD versions. I've only got the CD version.

Any album that's supposed to be recreating live sound that has a DR of 4 to 7 has been engineered by clowns that don't know what they're doing.

if the vinyl has a DR of 11 there is clearly nothing wrong with the recording. If the various iterations of the CD release have had a lot more dynamic compresion applied that is part of the mastering process not the recording process. You could take any recording with a DR of 15 plus and re-master it to have a DR of 1 if you wanted to.
My point being that the way a recording sounds is an artistic decision, not a question of competence. You may not like the artistic decision (clearly a lot of folk here would prefer Oasis to sound like Dire Straits) but to confuse it with a lack of ability is a mistake.

Would anybody actually voluntarily listen to an Oasis album?
There is so much good music out there...

To be fair, I can listen to it quite happily on the radio or whatever but couldn't sit and listen to an album of it. He sounds like a wee baby in his pram screaming for his mother to me ! But it's each to their own isn't it, be a bloody boring world if we were all the same eh. I'll state here and now I LOVE DIRE STRAITS ! (well the older stuff anyways). There, that's me out of the closet. There's a lot of snobbery when it comes to what music you listen to, if you like it, listen to it even if it's Justin Bieber - well maybe not that far !

I can handle 'Wonderwall' but that's about the limit for me.

Dodgy recordings that sound strangely brilliant:
Can - Tago Mago
PIL - Metal Box
Soft Machine - Third
All Martin Hannett productions

Fretless wrote:All Martin Hannett productions

Agreed.

_D_S_J_R_ wrote:'After the lights go out, what will I do?
After the lights go out, facing the night without you'

Sorry, my dad bought 'The Sun....' single when I was nine in 1966. I played both sides to death and it took many years before I finally bought a Walker brothers compilation CD with the B side on it - by this time I could properly 'feel' the lyrics, with tears in my eyes. I readily agree about a good system really bringing more out in these tracks, technical imperfections and all...

Aye, I'm about the same age as you, so most of my formative musical education came from these mid sixties pop/rock/r&b/soul recordings, played on my parents' KB valve radiogram. Imagine my horror 20 years later when I played these sounds via various compilation LPs and CDs on my very expensive, flat earth "hi-fi" system. It was horrible, the way the damn thing mangled these fabulous pieces of musical heritage. "Yeah but it's the recordings, you can't expect to be able play them on quality gear" was the song every dealer sang as they demmed "Love Over Gold" and Judie Tzuke and merrily extracted more money from my wallet.
Years down the line, these records are finally being done justice and now sound even better than I remember. It's the system baby every time. Anyway I've nowt new to say, so I'll now STFU

Judie Tzuke, wonderful - Scott Walker too. And don't get me started on the Beach Boys ...

Fretless wrote:I can handle 'Wonderwall' but that's about the limit for me.

Dodgy recordings that sound strangely brilliant:
Can - Tago Mago
PIL - Metal Box
Soft Machine - Third
All Martin Hannett productions

Tago Mago in original United Artists vinyl is tricky, but bloomin' marvellous on a proper toned period system (the first time I heard a BIG hifi system was with this album).

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Fretless wrote:I can handle 'Wonderwall' but that's about the limit for me.

Dodgy recordings that sound strangely brilliant:
Can - Tago Mago
PIL - Metal Box
Soft Machine - Third
All Martin Hannett productions

'Raw Power' by Iggy and the Stooges.

Now listening to the latest Klaus Schulze release. 'Stars are burning', an official bootleg from 1977. KS habitually had a simple, portable cassette recorder placed on the stage front so he could listen to the performance later.

Lo-fi, primitive analogue synths in all their Moog-ish glory.