Many modern albums suffer from processing that results in brickwalled audio. The drums become quiet (flat) and the sounds muffle and/or blend up into something that's harsh to the ears because of all of the competing sounds. The median volume has, during the loudness war, been increased, however, so that there is very little headroom and the dynamics are reduced. A little bit of compression can be used when mixing so that some very quiet instruments can be heard, but compression is being abused and misused in sonic terms, a waveform is supposed to have lots of space between its median volume and the threshold so that the peaks have plenty of room (headspace). Compression reduces the difference between the loudest sounds and the quietest in any given sample. A waveform with good dynamic range will have peaks and valleys a waveform that looks like a tube (with relatively flat top and bottom) is brickwalled (limited to the point of having all of its dynamics sucked out). In order to prevent the loudest parts from distorting, they are reduced in volume while the rest of the parts are pushed up to the brink of that threshold, and thus the volume throughout a track's elements are made very uniform in volume and the audio loses its dynamics. The industry has an obsession with presenting audio to consumers at the loudest possible volume to the point where they will significantly compromise sound quality. You will hear the difference.ĭynamic range compression (or "limiting") is used to increase the loudness of audio, although there is a threshold to the loudness of an audio waveform, and you can only push the loudness to a certain point before it distorts (known as "clipping"). Their dynamic range doubles that of the originals, going from a DR5 rating to a DR10 on the Dynamic Range Database scale. That said, they are completely new remasters, and the source audio (the FLAC files) sounds far better than the original CDs. YouTube then converts everything down to AAC audio. To be played on YouTube, they needed to be downsampled to 16 bits, 44.1 khz audio (Redbook PCM standard (used for CDs)). He analyzes the new remaster of "American Idiot" here.įor those who are familiar with the albums, you've never heard them like this before. Everything sounds better with greater dynamics. Mastering engineer and anti-loudness war advocate Ian Shepherd examines this, making the point that even heavy rock sounds good with more dynamics. Many will debate whether one can even hear the difference between 16-bit 44.1khz audio and any higher resolution. That means CDs and digital downloads should, as a whole, sound far better if mixed and mastered properly! This is what we should have gotten in the first place in 20, respectively. We could have far better-sounding music at the native resolution of CDs, 16 bit 44.1khz. What counts is the mastering process, much more so than the format. More important than the audio format is the actual remaster, the process of preparing the audio for release.
While these albums were released in 24-bit with higher sampling rates than CD audio, allow me to clarify that the format is far less important than the mastering process. These are the definitive version of the two albums, and it attests to the fact that proper, non-compressed mastering results in better-sounding audio. The guitar is also no longer distorted from the audio processing procedures. The remastered versions feature less compression than the originals, meaning clearer audio, more separation, and punchier drums due to greater dynamic range. In 2012, veteran mastering engineer Ted Jensen, who was responsible for the original 2004 CD version of Green Day's American Idiot and the original 2009 version of 21st Century Breakdown, remastered those albums from analog for the HDTracks music service.
0 kommentar(er)
