Mike Rivers wrote:
In article nvalid
lid writes:
It would be much better if it were all distributed uncompressed but with
a compression option built into the players.
There are several problems with this.
- There would be a considerable difference in how it sounds depending
on the player.
Well, yes. - It would sound good on a player without the compression
and bad (which many people seem to like) on a player with the
compression.
At the moment we don't have a choice, it just sounds bad.
- If the compression was adjustable or even selectable by the user
(none, low, medium, high) most wouldn't know what it does and would
just set it so that it was loudest.
Yes again. They would get the nasty noise they deserve (just as they do
now) and wouldn't know any better.
- If it was not adjustable, we'd be no better off than we are now,
and probably worse since this aspect of "mastering" would be
decided upon by the manufacturer of the player rather than someone
who actually has an opportunity to listen to the music before
turning the knobs.
But if the CD producer is ruining it by compressing it to hell, we would
be better off by stopping him and having the opportunity to buy a decent
player so as to hear it properly. (Unless you are saying that we really
ought not to hear what the artiste actually sounds like, in case we
suddenly realise the true worth of some modern performers).
This would extremely cheap to include in CD players, car radios and many
other consumer devices which already handle sound in the digital domain.
These days, a switch is about the most expensive thing that a
manufacturer of consumer equipment can add.
So there would be three types of player:
1) No switch - permanent compression
2) No switch - no compression
3) Switchable (but more expensive).
Sounds like a good marketing opportunity for someone there ...and still
the discerning user would have a no-compression option which he/she
doesn't have at the moment.
--
~ Adrian Tuddenham ~
(Remove the ".invalid"s and add ".co.uk" to reply)
www.poppyrecords.co.uk