[mad-user] clipping

[Anthony Airon Oetzmann]

On Fri, 15 Dec 2000 10:50:39 +0100, Gabriel Bouvigne wrote:

>> You're thinking lossless compression here, 'cause you won't get a signal
>> different from the original with lossless compression such as Monkeyaudio.

>No, I'm speaking of the original CD, without any compression. Some users are
>telling that there is some clipping on the CD itself. I personnaly think
>that it's impossible, but wanted to know if I was missing something about
>it.

They're right unfortunatly. The RED BOOK standard does say, "No more than five
clipped samples on the entire CD", but people avoid that by pulling down clipped
material to -0.1 to -0.5 dB. Black Eyes Peas is a very bad example, where the
album was clipped by at least 2 dB and then leveled down by 0.5 dB. If mr.joe
consumer don't hear, the mastering engineer might do it.

The normal job of mastering engineers is to iron out any extremes and errors as
well as making shure it doesn't sound too completly different to other records
of the same genre. This is most evident if you simply apply an EQ of +6dB to the
mids and turn it on and off a couple of time. Mastering engineers also compress
the audio to optimize it. Unfirtunatly the clients want their material to be as
loud as possible and those are usualy inept executives at record companies or
the producers. These are people who believe they know what they're doing.

Well, they don't in many cases. It's down to personal preference in the end. If
you still like listening to it, then it doesn't matter and that's the case with
most people.

The extreme nature of the compression means that peaks are likely to pop up when
lossy encoded material is played back again.

To me material that has been dynamically compressed too much sounds boring. The
ear gets used to it, same as it gets used to too much treble boost and you yawn
after a few minutes. That's why I only listen to Robbie Williams material
occasionaly, 'cause that was killed by the mastering engineer. It might play
loud on MTV but it fucking bores me after a while, and even though I like the
songs, I turn 'em down after while. DOWN!

You might want to remember that a certain amount of compression in needed tough.
Who wants siginificant dynamics in a club tune. Not too much any way. A rock
song doesn't need too much dynamics anyway and distorted guitars usualy have
almost none. Hey, it's why lots of people like live music too :). They compress
stuff there too but only so it can be heard better.

 Tony