Too much kangaroo juice I imagine.
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Dynamic range - dumb question.
- Thread starter Count Arthur
- Start date
Sorry, I thought it was obvious? Hard to give an answer that will satisfy you, but for a start, none of the instruments are running through a Marshall stack (although that would be interesting lol).
Sorry but the problem is you generalize way too much, a usual failing of classical music fans derision of the importance of anything else.
"Popular" music whether rock, country, blues, jazz, folk, whatever comes in all different types. Hard rock "Marshall Stack" Hendrix type is but a tiny portion of whats available from non-classical genres. From Buddy Guy/Junior Wells - Alone and Acoustic, to Gordon Goodwin's Big Phat Band, to Jethro Tull's Ian Anderson flute playing with a full acoustic band support, to The Electric Light Orchestra, to --------------------------
So no, it's not obvious, it's not even close to true.
Don't understand the testiness, I don't listen to Classical Music, I mainly listen to Hard Rock & "obviously" with quieter &/or cleaner sounding music, you can hear background noise of all sorts much easier than say listening to Death Metal. It's pretty simple, pretty obvious & pretty true. It doesn't matter what the recording is, you're gonna hear more detail (good & bad) in a quiet environment than you are in a noisy environment???
tuga
Major Contributor
Are you referring to particular recordings of orchestral music?
IMD makes sense, significant levels HD as well, high noise-floor in electronic equipment, "grainy" quality of treble, "wow" if you're listening to vinyl, driver resonances, exaggerated "presence" (bump in FR around 2-5kHz).
Could in part be your room if it's too lively/reflective.
Maybe you are listening too loud?
Could be the recordings as well (tonal balance, close-mic'ing, stereo mixing issues).
tuga
Major Contributor
Sometimes I listen to the Proms broadcast as I'm driving home and at times I am forced to do my own compressing with the volume knob.
tuga
Major Contributor
I don't think that there would be a single reason for compression to be used in classical music recordings if the recordings were made in real stereo (2-channel 2-mic or 2-main + 2-ambience for large ensembles) but nowadays almost everyone is sprinkling mics all over the place and making stereo mixes.
And when you multi-mic close you have to compress and EQ and mix and that destroy the soundscape, messes-up separation and adds distortion, sounding less realistic and making your brain work hard.
Classical is my preferred genre and in my system I have no problem with any very wide dynamic range I own; I listen at lower SPL than any audiophile I know and find the levels at most show and store demos insultingly loud.
If you have to play it too loud either your room's noise floor is very high or your system cannot resolve at very low levels. Or maybe your speakers are bass-shy and you only perceive a bit of bass when you turn it up.
Car radios, phones, TV set and soundbars should come with a DSP "compression" chip for that purpose, just as amps used to come with a "loudness/contour" circuit years ago.
I've merged the 14 tracks of a Denon recording of Belioz' Lélio, ou Le retour à la vie by Inbal and the Frankfurt RSO.
At 16:00 the level drops 30dB which is more than the dynamic amplitude of 99% of the 3500 rock-pop songs in my music library, most of them at least 20 years old.
And when you multi-mic close you have to compress and EQ and mix and that destroy the soundscape, messes-up separation and adds distortion, sounding less realistic and making your brain work hard.
Classical is my preferred genre and in my system I have no problem with any very wide dynamic range I own; I listen at lower SPL than any audiophile I know and find the levels at most show and store demos insultingly loud.
If you have to play it too loud either your room's noise floor is very high or your system cannot resolve at very low levels. Or maybe your speakers are bass-shy and you only perceive a bit of bass when you turn it up.
Car radios, phones, TV set and soundbars should come with a DSP "compression" chip for that purpose, just as amps used to come with a "loudness/contour" circuit years ago.
I've merged the 14 tracks of a Denon recording of Belioz' Lélio, ou Le retour à la vie by Inbal and the Frankfurt RSO.
At 16:00 the level drops 30dB which is more than the dynamic amplitude of 99% of the 3500 rock-pop songs in my music library, most of them at least 20 years old.
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99.999%
Nope, loudness and musical information overload/interaction. Usually symphonies and hyperactive composers. Occasionally Frank Zappa.
...and usually it's the fault of the person that mixed it. You can have a good or bad mix with any genre of music.
No. It just grates - for me.
And shockingly Jethro Tull’s Heavy Horses. Sadly one of the group’s worst and I’m a big Tull fan.
tuga
Major Contributor
Does it also happen when you listen live? (trying to exclude you as cause)
I don't attend live classical performances.
As others are happy with the classical music I find problematical I think it is me. Maybe not just me, though.
tuga
Major Contributor
Do you know if it's particular of complex classical music or if it also happens with other genres?
Maybe some of Beirut's music, or Fanfare Ciocărlia's, may also trigger an identical response for its strong and lound brass content and multiple instruments. Or some big band jazz?
If you don't listen to any of this live your system/roomcould also be playing a part.
I'm out. I listen for pleasure and not for deep analysis.
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Robin L
Master Contributor
Because most pop music is deliberately distorted to start with. Of course, the reality is what we really want is for X to = X. But some folks, cough, cough, vinyl supremacists, cough, really do like the pre-distortion of "classic" LP playback.
Seeing one of your later posts, I've been involved in enough recording to be able to observe how common various post production tools are used to compress, eq or otherwise alter the raw materials of a recording. This is not a bad thing, but this is not "The Absolute Sound". Honestly, microphones all "distort" the sound, and many recording engineers, musicians and producers deliberately seek out the of compression of analog tape.
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This is just the same classical/acoustic bias again.
Those effects aren't distortion because they part of the intended sound. By your logic, the overtones on a purely acoustic instrument are "distortion" as well.
Distortion is used as a recording/mastering tool, but distortion is still distortion whether it's intended or not. Generally analogue distortion is good, digital distortion is bad. Scientifically, your ears enjoy the distortion produced by a turntable, but hates the jitter produced by digital sources.
