Iain M Churches wrote:
"Harry Lavo" wrote in message
...

My conclusion: take what you hear about the transparency of CD's with two,
maybe three grains of salt. Some of it may be equipment- or
blank-induced,
but the deterioration is noticeable in a side-by-side -- ranging from
subtle
to apparent. And if this is true in home recording under controlled
conditions, it is also likely true (as has been asserted) in production
runs
of commercial CD's.

Hello Harry. I attend many mastering sessions to ensure
that what I have recorded reaches the CD without
substantial changes. I can promise you that it is a simple
task to produce a CD which is an exact clone of the studio master.
In classical and jazz music this is how it is normally done.

The same question applies here as for LP mastering:
How do you objectively assess whether 'substantial' changes
have or have not occurred, in any medium?

Wiht digital-to-digital, it's easy to check for perfect
fidelity between master and clone. With tape vs
digital (or LP) , one could at least measure the
frequency profiles, dynamic range,
average levels, etc of the master versus the final product.
A blind A/B wouldn't hurt either.

I suspect that Harry's suspicious would collapse if
these checks were done of tape vs. digital. Tape
vs LP would be another story.


There is no longer the opportunity to work on the individual
elements within the mix, but it is quite common for extra
compression and EQ to be added at the mastering stage.

A minority of CDs (and of course all 'surround' SACD, DVD-A, DTS,etc)
are true remixes, starting from multitracks.

The result is quite often a retrograde step,
but "make it louder" is the order of the day as far as pop
CD's are concerned. The CD has zero headroom.
Vinyl, like analogue tape, is much more forgiving.

But you cannot put the amounts of loud *bass* on vinyl,
that you can on CD -- so it's not more forgiving in
every sense.



--
-S
"The most appealing intuitive argument for atheism is the mindblowing stupidity of religious
fundamentalists." -- Ginger Yellow