loudness wars: digital recording to improve?

This exact scenario played out twice in my living room this month: I introduced a non-audiophile friend to my sytem and played some stuff that I like to listen to so that he could see what it was all about. Then he said, "Oh, man, I want to hear the Black Keys on this stereo." I said okay and let him play his favorite Black Keys CD.

After a minute, the guy looks over sheepishly and says, "Why doesn't it sound good?"

...thus creating a teachable moment about Dynamic Compression and How the Kids These Days are Ruining Music.

Two different friends, same exact story.

Both encouraging and sad. The good news; we get better sound. The bad news; software programmers have to add more technology into the process, because software programmers have better taste than way too many recording engineers, who should know better and be ashamed of themselves. Couldn't the recording engineers just do it right in the first place, without all the added doodads? Go figure?!

Over and over, they say better sound recording is coming.. Well, it turns into worse sound instead.
The guys who master and process the recordings have to get with it, or they will continue to get worse. Though it is hard to imagine how much more harm they could do..
(though I am afraid i will be wrong on that count)

I'm with Elizabeth on this one. To expand on it - just wait till high-res becomes the standard (don't hold your breath though!). More bits and space to brick wall a recording! Imagine how 'loud' Metallica will try to be.

I just wish they'd declare Metallica's last 2 albums the undisputed winner of the loudness war so we can all move on.

How the Kids These Days are Ruining Music.

I think it is more the record companies that are ruining it. They are the ones who actually decide how an album is going to sound, not "the kids". You can probably blame some of the artists as well. On the flipside, there are some really great sounding pop/rock albums released since the turn of the century, which only goes to show that if you have people behind an album that actually care how it will sound on a decent stereo system, you will end up with a good sounding album. If the kids want louder volume there is always the volume knob on all of their mp3 players. Go nuts with it!

And here's a good question - the record companies hate it when people download music for free (i.e. steal). I do too, because I agree it is stealing. I have personally refrained from doing it, but then again why should I have to pay good money for a lousy product? And don't they realize that many of those who still buy CDs do so because they want a high quality recording? There is nothing worse than putting a CD into your player, hitting play, and listening to one big mess.