Why do mass marketed CD's sound so crappy?

So, what are we supposed to do about this. Stop buying the music we love and want to hear? "...Atomic Bomb" is the number 1 seller on Amazon right now. Obviously the poor recording/mix isn't hurting sales.

Rcprince, did the guys from the studio notice the difference between the two versions of the recording on your home system? Weren't they ashamed at the poor quality of the mass released version? How can they look at themselves in the mirror say they're doing a good job?

Listen also to the Santana disc superlingual, I think, it's non-listenable. It's a $14 coaster in my book.

I spend a lot of time archieving vinyl to CD format for car play. It's interesting to take an old vinyl disc and compare it to current CD slop. People often ask me why it sounds so good and what is my car stereo. (basic GM original) no upgrades.

They have that jaw hanging slack look when I tell them what they're listening to. So I think most people CAN HEAR the difference, they were just never educated and the music industry would prefer they stay that way. Why look at the MP3 downloads for only 0.99 each. Pure profit, no materials, not costs. Hmmm

loon

Hammergjh: Yeah, they heard the difference; they could also easily hear the difference between the 24/96 master tape we got to hear in the control room and the 16/44.1 CD they mixed down from that tape. But they're really not the record producers in this case, they produced a demo CD for this artist in order to sell the artist to a major recording label, so they did what they had to do to get the attention of the major labels. No shame there. And I guess the major labels want what sells, what will sound good on a car radio, not what will sound good on a high end system because we're unfortunately not the market they're worried about. I'd love it if the companies would release two versions of a disc, a compressed one for the radio stations to play and an uncompressed one we could buy, but there I go dreaming again!

There was an article in Bass Player magazine about this. Bela Fleck and a famous bass player (I forget his name) did a recording. The article talked about how they struggled with the final mix. The bassist came from a classical background, and wanted no compression, and the microphone far away from his acoustic bass. Bela, being from a more pop/jazz background, wanted lots of compression so it would sound good on car radios.
Why don't we have DECOMPRESSORS anymore? When I was just starting out, I remember seeing in the HighEnd rooms DBX gear that was designed to restore the dynamics original to the music. Now that we're in the digital age, it should be easier to undo than ever.

The use of compression is an extremely MAJOR problem. This not only alters the dynamics of the recording, but can also introduce major amounts of smearing with a lack of definition.

Another problem is the fact that some studios are using speakers with very poor frequency response linearity as their point of reference. When mixing down, the engineers have to factor in what they hear in terms of the sonic presentation that they are trying to achieve. The non-linear tonal balance of the speakers definitely alters their perception of the original recording, affecting the end results and presentation of what we hear in our systems. Recordings that were made and mixed down using reference speakers that lack bass end up getting too much bass to compensate for what they heard in the studio. Recordings that were made and mixed down using reference speakers that are bloated end up getting thinned out and lack impact and warmth. Same goes for speakers that are excessively bright or dull, etc...

As far as recordings sounding good on a car stereo, that is the method that Ric Ocasek of the Cars used when mixing. He would listen to the recording through various "beat to death" car speakers and adjust the sound accordingly to what he heard there. Anyone that has heard Ric's work knows that it is actually better than most of what is being reproduced today ( or even back then ), so we can't blame the bad sound on even the low quality of most car speakers. Sean
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