Radio 4 Compression vs Art

[bonzodog]

Just listened to a great documentary on radio 4 called Compression vs Art. All about how compression is used in the music industry for both sonic reasons and to reduce file size. Plenty of examples where they show the same song in compressed and uncompressed formats.
Well worth a listen on catch up.
I would recommend listening through decent speakers or headphones though.
It's 30 mins long.

[HowieBass]

Thanks for this - I'll have a listen to it.

Link here http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b06tvgp1

[LewisK1975]

Cool - I'll have a listen later.

[planer]

That looks very interesting, thanks. Will have a butchers later :-)

[uncle psychosis]

Just gave it a listen,thanks for the heads up.

Thought it was interesting but it came dangerously close to implying that compression (of both kinds) is inherently a bad thing, rather than just misuse of compression being a bad thing. They didn't make it clear enough that a high res mp3 is all but indistinguishable from a CD, it's low res that is the real problem.

[colgraff]

[quote name='planer' timestamp='1452172676' post='2947231']
That looks very interesting, thanks. Will have a butchers later :-)
[/quote]

Pedant alert. Unless you are just looking at the webpage and not listening, you won't have a butchers'.

Ahhh - that feels better.

[planer]

[quote name='colgraff' timestamp='1452199848' post='2947614']
Pedant alert. Unless you are just looking at the webpage and not listening, you won't have a butchers'.[/quote]

*slaps forehead* - of course! Doh :-)

I should have said 'I'll have a goosey' instead ;-)

[grandad]

[url="http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/feb14/articles/loudness-war.htm"]http://www.soundonso...oudness-war.htm[/url]

Quite a long article and detailed.

Edited January 7, 2016 by grandad

[Chrismanbass]

the irony being that everything gets compressed for radio anyway when broadcast............

[dincz]

A pity they chopped and changed between volume compression and data compression without clearly differentiating them.

[Bobthedog]

[quote name='Chrismanbass' timestamp='1452216707' post='2947810']
the irony being that everything gets compressed for radio anyway when broadcast............
[/quote]

Apart from Radio 3 I believe. Certainly they never used DRC in the past.

I enjoyed the programme although there was nothing new in it for me as a former audiophile.

[TrevorR]

It was a really interesting listen. Though they never used the obvious populist example of what compression can do as quoted by mums, dads and grandparents up and down the land... "Why are the adverts so much bl**dy louder than the rest of the TV programmes...? Gives me a flippin' 'eadache!"

Made me think back to the first time I listened to Rush's Vapour Trails album. Now there was a tiring album to listen to. The remixed and remastered version didn't completely undo the damage but it was a much better listen and showed what a mixing and mastering dog's breakfast the original was...

[Chrismanbass]

[quote name='Bobthedog' timestamp='1452256842' post='2948115']
Apart from Radio 3 I believe. Certainly they never used DRC in the past.

I enjoyed the programme although there was nothing new in it for me as a former audiophile.
[/quote]

Radio 3 definitely do having been responsible for overseeing a few OB things from the venue I work in but they certainly don't compress as much as other radio stations in the same genre