lordfoo
Active Member
This is a post at classicstereo from lizzycork.
Please check out the youtube video. Its a very graphic representation of what we lose thru MP3 downloading.
Why the new "LOUDNESS CRAZE" in digital mastering really robs music of life..
"Modern releases of music on CD and downloaded .MP3s, particularly pop &
rock, are often criticised for being overly processed digitally. Here's
a video that explains in very clear terms what you, the consumer, are
losing. It's very short, under two minutes, and very clear. Have your
speakers on at a reasonable volume and don't turn the volume down once
it starts. (Trust me: it's not one of those screaming faces or anything.)"
http://www.youtube. com/watch? v=3Gmex_4hreQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Gmex_4hreQ
Anothe post from the same poster:
THE MASTERING MASTER by BRIAN SMITH
Mastering is the key process to the final sound of a recording. It’s
where the mixed master from the recording session is technically fine
tuned (through equalization adjustments, sound compression, signal
leveling, editing, restoration and blah, blah, blah) for listening on
vinyl, CD or any other format. In short, pretty much every commercial
recording you own has been mastered. And there’s a real art to it.
This Steve Hoffman guy is, um, a master at mastering, one of a few in
the world. His versions — always from original master tapes — are the
definitive ones, from the recent Red Hot Chili Peppers’ heavy vinyl
pressing of Stadium Arcadium (Warner Brothers) to the Faces’ A Nod is as
Good as a Wink CD (Audio Fidelity) to the Sonny Clark Trio SACD (Audio
Fidelity) to the out-of-print McCartney CD (DCC).
His is an ability to identify warmth — the tonal, ambient and rhythmic —
in prerecorded music and present it in such a way that’s totally
involving, while not ****ing with the integrity of the recording. His
masterings are popular among audiophiles, artists and other engineers.
His online audiophile forum, stevehoffman.tv, is growing quickly. Its
informed members chime in on myriad musical subjects, including
"mastering" engineers whose final touches ruin "remastered" reissues.
They can get crucified in some of the site’s threads. Nitpicky? Sure.
But if one gives a damn about music and how it sounds, albums and discs
faithful to the original master tapes are essential.
And if modern recordings are a difficult listen, if the sound leaves you
fatigued, blame can often be placed on a mastering engineer for jacking
up the volume and applying other "enhancements" that squash the dynamic
range of the music and kill the feeling. —Brian Smith
Metro Times: What’s your biggest complaint about modern mastering
techniques?
Steve Hoffman: The music is mastered too loud. The engineers and
producers are so concerned with their release being as loud as possible
they forget that in order for something to actually sound loud it has to
have some quiet parts in it! "All loud all the time" basically has the
effect of making everything sound quiet.
MT: What makes a well-mastered disc?
Hoffman: When the music (doesn’t matter what kind) has some "breath of
life" as I call it. In other words, if, when you play the music your
ears might accept it as actually happening instead of a mere recording
of something. Dynamics and fidelity come first. Your ears want to hear
something that sounds lifelike no matter what the type of music. From
birth you have been unconsciously taught to survive by using your wits,
eyes and ears. Your ears need to be able to tell you if there is danger,
the sound of a friendly voice or whatever. We are "tuned" to this
whether we realize it or not. Well, when we hear music we struggle to
make sense of it; is it happening in a real space, etc. When we can put
a mental "picture" to the music we can enjoy it better. It’s hard to do
this with purely electronic music, but we are getting so used to that
sound now (after years of synths, Star Wars, etc.) that it’s becoming a
reality just like a violin. We do strive to makes sense of noise though,
and the more dynamic something is (even if it’s a sound that does not
occur in nature) the more our ears can accept it as "fact" instead of
fiction. That helps.
Remember, our ears are pretty smart.
We can recognize a voice over a really tinny cell phone speaker, so it’s
not about total fidelity. It’s about the idea that the more lifelike
something sounds, the better we can enjoy it. You can be walking on a
street and hear inside a club some music playing and you will know
instantly if there is a live band in there or not. I’m sure we’ve all
experienced that. We are nowhere near the band, but even from a block
away we know it’s live. It has certain musical and sound "cues" that
clue our brain to the excitement of live music.
Dynamics have a lot to do with it. When a drum set is being played, the
cymbal vibrates at a different frequency than the snare drum and at a
different volume. When our recorded music faithfully reproduces this, we
can be "fooled" into thinking that it’s actually happening. That always
makes the listening experience better.
Also, when people are all playing together in a room, the sound is
bouncing off the walls, ceiling, etc. and this all hits our ears at
different times. When this can be reproduced on a CD or album, it’s all
the better for us. Close micing techniques of most modern music can
really spoil this illusion. Think about it; no one listens to a hi-hat
cymbal on a drum kit from one inch away from it. Well, that is where the
microphone is! If the engineer moved the microphone back about two feet
the sound of the hi-hat would mingle with the sound of the rest of the
kit and the room and (like a good sauce in cooking) everything would
simmer together better.
MT: So far your work seems mostly appreciated by audiophiles and artists
and not many others. If more people heard this kind of presentation on a
decent system, there’d be many more sets of ears into hearing music as
it was intended to be heard by the original producer and artist. Do you
agree?
Hoffman: I would like to think that this is true, but my real life
experiences have shown that people, 99 percent of the time, think that
louder is better and that any music with natural dynamics in it (loud
parts and soft parts) is somehow "flawed." Sad but true.
MT: Musicians, songwriters, producers, audiophiles and those keyed into
the actual dynamic integrity of music seem to be drawn in by something
other than performance and the quality of overall sound. There is
something deeper. Engineers and producers in the ’50s and ’60s
understood this "mysterious" element. You understand this "mysterious"
element. What the hell is it? And where did it go?
Hoffman: Spontaneity. I mean, musicians playing together in the same
room without headphones or studio isolation panels has a lot to do with
it. When "multi-tracking" came in the late 1960s (I mean 16-track,
etc.), we lost that in our mad rush to have total control over the final
mix. In the good old days, feel was what mattered. That is totally lost
now, I’m sorry to say.
MT: Everything you’ve mastered has a real-world, life-like quality. Do
you have any theory about how certain tones or rhythms can affect a
person’s overall well-being? Or how certain sounds and tones lead to
emotional responses?
Hoffman: I have found this to be true: The better mastered the music,
the better it can make you feel. After doing this for 25 years, I can
state that this is so! Yes, certain "tones" strike a chord (pun) with us
and lead us down a path of actual healing. I actually invented a CD
called The Healing Disc that has nothing but tonal vibrations on it
manipulated in such as way as to stimulate your own body’s healing
force. This enhances your body’s innate healing ability because it is my
belief that all life systems have their own rhythmic balance. Music and
the tones inherent in the music seem to make the mind and body become
"as one" as they say. I’ve always found this to be true but was quite
surprised that the musical tones themselves without any semblance of
"order" can work on their own. However, our minds need emotional
responses as well, and music has fit that bill for hundreds and hundreds
of years. One can find music that will make you happy, sad, thoughtful,
etc. These emotional responses translate into physical ones as well.
It’s very rewarding when someone writes me and tells me that something I
have worked on has made them cry or laugh out loud. I am doing my job
when that happens.
MT: You do all your actual mastering work in analog right? No dumping to
hard-drives.
Hoffman: I dislike the sound of digital work stations. If I am working
with an analog tape, I will keep it in the analog domain until the final
"dump" to the digital master. This means that all my mastering "moves"
(fades, EQ, balances, etc.) are done in real time, live in true analog.
I try to keep the good analog sound until the very last minute.
MT: For personal listening, do have any format preference — vinyl, CD,
SACD or DVD-A? Can you explain for the reader what you like and dislike
about each?
Hoffman: Vinyl is neat, very lifelike-sounding, and I love to watch the
label going around (old-school). An important feature of good vinyl
mastering is that there are rules for mastering; you cannot go crazy and
add too much treble or the needle will jump right out of the groove, and
you cannot add too much bass or the needle will jump out of the groove
and the record will be over in three minutes. So engineers (even the
deaf ones) have to follow the rules and most LPs sound good.
CDs are neat as well. The good ones sound really good; the bad ones
sound really terrible though, with much wider variance than vinyl
because there are no rules in mastering; you can add as much screechy
treble or pumping bass as you want. Not my favorite.
SACDs are nice but no Beatles, Led Zep, etc., so pointless for me.
I’m not really into surround sound so DVD-A leaves me a bit cold. I
dislike having music playing behind me like I’m sitting in the middle of
the band or something. This is not anything that would ever occur in
real life unless you were the bass player or something.
MT: We live in a culture with myriad downtime distractions. So sitting
down and actually listening to albums in a real participatory way is all
but an archaic activity. It’s like some people enjoy wholesome
home-cooked meals while others prefer the Burger King drive-thru. The
magic of music — in that powerful, life-changing sense — might be lost
in our culture. It’s but aural wallpaper, a soundtrack to other
activities. If you had one piece of advice to someone who wants to
broaden their listening from, say, downloaded MP3s on an iPod to a more
dynamic, musical experience, what would it be?
Hoffman: Take the buds out of your ears, get a real (modest) stereo
system for your room or house and devote at least a half-hour a day to
real listening. Sit still and focus on the music alone. It might change
your life!
MT: Through your Web site, many have been converted to, for lack of a
better word, "audiophiles," or have a better understanding of how sound
and music work. Was that part of your plan when you set the site up?
Hoffman: Actually, it was. Sometimes too much information (like how
something was recorded, etc.) spoils it for the casual listener but most
times, they gain a new understanding and awareness of the recording
process and therefore can appreciate the music even more. That tickles me!
Please check out the youtube video. Its a very graphic representation of what we lose thru MP3 downloading.
Why the new "LOUDNESS CRAZE" in digital mastering really robs music of life..
"Modern releases of music on CD and downloaded .MP3s, particularly pop &
rock, are often criticised for being overly processed digitally. Here's
a video that explains in very clear terms what you, the consumer, are
losing. It's very short, under two minutes, and very clear. Have your
speakers on at a reasonable volume and don't turn the volume down once
it starts. (Trust me: it's not one of those screaming faces or anything.)"
http://www.youtube. com/watch? v=3Gmex_4hreQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Gmex_4hreQ
Anothe post from the same poster:
THE MASTERING MASTER by BRIAN SMITH
Mastering is the key process to the final sound of a recording. It’s
where the mixed master from the recording session is technically fine
tuned (through equalization adjustments, sound compression, signal
leveling, editing, restoration and blah, blah, blah) for listening on
vinyl, CD or any other format. In short, pretty much every commercial
recording you own has been mastered. And there’s a real art to it.
This Steve Hoffman guy is, um, a master at mastering, one of a few in
the world. His versions — always from original master tapes — are the
definitive ones, from the recent Red Hot Chili Peppers’ heavy vinyl
pressing of Stadium Arcadium (Warner Brothers) to the Faces’ A Nod is as
Good as a Wink CD (Audio Fidelity) to the Sonny Clark Trio SACD (Audio
Fidelity) to the out-of-print McCartney CD (DCC).
His is an ability to identify warmth — the tonal, ambient and rhythmic —
in prerecorded music and present it in such a way that’s totally
involving, while not ****ing with the integrity of the recording. His
masterings are popular among audiophiles, artists and other engineers.
His online audiophile forum, stevehoffman.tv, is growing quickly. Its
informed members chime in on myriad musical subjects, including
"mastering" engineers whose final touches ruin "remastered" reissues.
They can get crucified in some of the site’s threads. Nitpicky? Sure.
But if one gives a damn about music and how it sounds, albums and discs
faithful to the original master tapes are essential.
And if modern recordings are a difficult listen, if the sound leaves you
fatigued, blame can often be placed on a mastering engineer for jacking
up the volume and applying other "enhancements" that squash the dynamic
range of the music and kill the feeling. —Brian Smith
Metro Times: What’s your biggest complaint about modern mastering
techniques?
Steve Hoffman: The music is mastered too loud. The engineers and
producers are so concerned with their release being as loud as possible
they forget that in order for something to actually sound loud it has to
have some quiet parts in it! "All loud all the time" basically has the
effect of making everything sound quiet.
MT: What makes a well-mastered disc?
Hoffman: When the music (doesn’t matter what kind) has some "breath of
life" as I call it. In other words, if, when you play the music your
ears might accept it as actually happening instead of a mere recording
of something. Dynamics and fidelity come first. Your ears want to hear
something that sounds lifelike no matter what the type of music. From
birth you have been unconsciously taught to survive by using your wits,
eyes and ears. Your ears need to be able to tell you if there is danger,
the sound of a friendly voice or whatever. We are "tuned" to this
whether we realize it or not. Well, when we hear music we struggle to
make sense of it; is it happening in a real space, etc. When we can put
a mental "picture" to the music we can enjoy it better. It’s hard to do
this with purely electronic music, but we are getting so used to that
sound now (after years of synths, Star Wars, etc.) that it’s becoming a
reality just like a violin. We do strive to makes sense of noise though,
and the more dynamic something is (even if it’s a sound that does not
occur in nature) the more our ears can accept it as "fact" instead of
fiction. That helps.
Remember, our ears are pretty smart.
We can recognize a voice over a really tinny cell phone speaker, so it’s
not about total fidelity. It’s about the idea that the more lifelike
something sounds, the better we can enjoy it. You can be walking on a
street and hear inside a club some music playing and you will know
instantly if there is a live band in there or not. I’m sure we’ve all
experienced that. We are nowhere near the band, but even from a block
away we know it’s live. It has certain musical and sound "cues" that
clue our brain to the excitement of live music.
Dynamics have a lot to do with it. When a drum set is being played, the
cymbal vibrates at a different frequency than the snare drum and at a
different volume. When our recorded music faithfully reproduces this, we
can be "fooled" into thinking that it’s actually happening. That always
makes the listening experience better.
Also, when people are all playing together in a room, the sound is
bouncing off the walls, ceiling, etc. and this all hits our ears at
different times. When this can be reproduced on a CD or album, it’s all
the better for us. Close micing techniques of most modern music can
really spoil this illusion. Think about it; no one listens to a hi-hat
cymbal on a drum kit from one inch away from it. Well, that is where the
microphone is! If the engineer moved the microphone back about two feet
the sound of the hi-hat would mingle with the sound of the rest of the
kit and the room and (like a good sauce in cooking) everything would
simmer together better.
MT: So far your work seems mostly appreciated by audiophiles and artists
and not many others. If more people heard this kind of presentation on a
decent system, there’d be many more sets of ears into hearing music as
it was intended to be heard by the original producer and artist. Do you
agree?
Hoffman: I would like to think that this is true, but my real life
experiences have shown that people, 99 percent of the time, think that
louder is better and that any music with natural dynamics in it (loud
parts and soft parts) is somehow "flawed." Sad but true.
MT: Musicians, songwriters, producers, audiophiles and those keyed into
the actual dynamic integrity of music seem to be drawn in by something
other than performance and the quality of overall sound. There is
something deeper. Engineers and producers in the ’50s and ’60s
understood this "mysterious" element. You understand this "mysterious"
element. What the hell is it? And where did it go?
Hoffman: Spontaneity. I mean, musicians playing together in the same
room without headphones or studio isolation panels has a lot to do with
it. When "multi-tracking" came in the late 1960s (I mean 16-track,
etc.), we lost that in our mad rush to have total control over the final
mix. In the good old days, feel was what mattered. That is totally lost
now, I’m sorry to say.
MT: Everything you’ve mastered has a real-world, life-like quality. Do
you have any theory about how certain tones or rhythms can affect a
person’s overall well-being? Or how certain sounds and tones lead to
emotional responses?
Hoffman: I have found this to be true: The better mastered the music,
the better it can make you feel. After doing this for 25 years, I can
state that this is so! Yes, certain "tones" strike a chord (pun) with us
and lead us down a path of actual healing. I actually invented a CD
called The Healing Disc that has nothing but tonal vibrations on it
manipulated in such as way as to stimulate your own body’s healing
force. This enhances your body’s innate healing ability because it is my
belief that all life systems have their own rhythmic balance. Music and
the tones inherent in the music seem to make the mind and body become
"as one" as they say. I’ve always found this to be true but was quite
surprised that the musical tones themselves without any semblance of
"order" can work on their own. However, our minds need emotional
responses as well, and music has fit that bill for hundreds and hundreds
of years. One can find music that will make you happy, sad, thoughtful,
etc. These emotional responses translate into physical ones as well.
It’s very rewarding when someone writes me and tells me that something I
have worked on has made them cry or laugh out loud. I am doing my job
when that happens.
MT: You do all your actual mastering work in analog right? No dumping to
hard-drives.
Hoffman: I dislike the sound of digital work stations. If I am working
with an analog tape, I will keep it in the analog domain until the final
"dump" to the digital master. This means that all my mastering "moves"
(fades, EQ, balances, etc.) are done in real time, live in true analog.
I try to keep the good analog sound until the very last minute.
MT: For personal listening, do have any format preference — vinyl, CD,
SACD or DVD-A? Can you explain for the reader what you like and dislike
about each?
Hoffman: Vinyl is neat, very lifelike-sounding, and I love to watch the
label going around (old-school). An important feature of good vinyl
mastering is that there are rules for mastering; you cannot go crazy and
add too much treble or the needle will jump right out of the groove, and
you cannot add too much bass or the needle will jump out of the groove
and the record will be over in three minutes. So engineers (even the
deaf ones) have to follow the rules and most LPs sound good.
CDs are neat as well. The good ones sound really good; the bad ones
sound really terrible though, with much wider variance than vinyl
because there are no rules in mastering; you can add as much screechy
treble or pumping bass as you want. Not my favorite.
SACDs are nice but no Beatles, Led Zep, etc., so pointless for me.
I’m not really into surround sound so DVD-A leaves me a bit cold. I
dislike having music playing behind me like I’m sitting in the middle of
the band or something. This is not anything that would ever occur in
real life unless you were the bass player or something.
MT: We live in a culture with myriad downtime distractions. So sitting
down and actually listening to albums in a real participatory way is all
but an archaic activity. It’s like some people enjoy wholesome
home-cooked meals while others prefer the Burger King drive-thru. The
magic of music — in that powerful, life-changing sense — might be lost
in our culture. It’s but aural wallpaper, a soundtrack to other
activities. If you had one piece of advice to someone who wants to
broaden their listening from, say, downloaded MP3s on an iPod to a more
dynamic, musical experience, what would it be?
Hoffman: Take the buds out of your ears, get a real (modest) stereo
system for your room or house and devote at least a half-hour a day to
real listening. Sit still and focus on the music alone. It might change
your life!
MT: Through your Web site, many have been converted to, for lack of a
better word, "audiophiles," or have a better understanding of how sound
and music work. Was that part of your plan when you set the site up?
Hoffman: Actually, it was. Sometimes too much information (like how
something was recorded, etc.) spoils it for the casual listener but most
times, they gain a new understanding and awareness of the recording
process and therefore can appreciate the music even more. That tickles me!
