whereisbrian
Active Member
I don't use Tidal or any other streaming service. It's an absolute rule for me 
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Where are the dynamics...
- Thread starter Matt S
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Unless there's a problem with electrical current or your equipment, the sound is changing very little or not at all. Moisture in the air and temperature can effect the sound, but otherwise any change in perceived sound is due to something going on with you physically, mentally or emotionally. It's quite amazing how powerful music is in this regard and simultaneously how out of touch we are with our own process.
As far as how recordings sound, I don't think what people are hearing is generally the "mastering" part of it but more the production part of it. In rock, metal and pop, the instrumentation is much fuller and far more layered than older recordings which gives less space for the instrumentation. Yes, it's mastered "louder" but the mastering engineers of today are so good at that they have been able to create dynamic perception into the mixes and are actually changing the mixes less now because the gear is a lot better than when the loudness wars started.
As far as how recordings sound, I don't think what people are hearing is generally the "mastering" part of it but more the production part of it. In rock, metal and pop, the instrumentation is much fuller and far more layered than older recordings which gives less space for the instrumentation. Yes, it's mastered "louder" but the mastering engineers of today are so good at that they have been able to create dynamic perception into the mixes and are actually changing the mixes less now because the gear is a lot better than when the loudness wars started.
Multicore
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Tidal versus a good live gig on KEXP is like comparing being fed ultra-processed factory food blindfold versus grazing in a good kitchen garden with its proud gardener on a sunny day.
As you say, dynamics might have something to do with the subjective difference you experienced or it might not. Youtube's Opus (format 251) sounds fine to me so I wouldn't worry about that.
More interesting to me is how my appreciation of music is unstable. Music can be simultaneously attractive and repellent, in balance, precarious, or fallen over depending on my subjectivity. The LRB had a recent podcast called Abbamania in which this was discussed, how Abba's songs can be so annoying and wonderful at the same time. I actually think that when it comes to pop music, being annoying is often a virtue. But the same can be said of Bach and Mozart with their frequent refusal to get to the point, forever teasing us along with their pretty lures and inventions and then not delivering a money shot. Or a truly great rock song from that was done to death on commercial pop radio so long ago it has become detestable for that reason. Most factory studio music is now highly formulaic but some of it has qualities within the formulae that stand out, make it notable but maybe one day those aspects don't stand out as so novel or important and you're left listening to the remainder, the handle turning.
In these and many more ways my relation to the music can flip between this and that depending on what aspect of the music is foremost in my mind at that moment, which can be highly unstable. Maybe the dynamic constipation of factory music faithfully delivered by Tidal and your excellent system was dominating the experience that Sunday. Or maybe you're starting to get bored of that music (it's allowed, happens to me all the time). Or you just weren't in the mood for the highly manufactured and needed something more immediate. I have no idea. Just throwing ideas out there.
Just for example, which recording of Duke Ellington's Wig Wise do we prefer? The one on Money Jungle (Blue Note 1963) or the goofy Itallian pop-jazz cover by NAD from Post Kali Yuga (CKC / Kutmusic, 2017)?
For myself, it depends on my mood. Ellington rocks but sometimes Max Roach's drumming annoys the salty chocolates off me. Swing drummers, man -- they just don't let it go, do they? But the modern NAD pastiche, with Boris Savoldelli's scat, no matter how tender and loving and superb, demands a certain mood too.
For your convenience...
<ive found tidal to sound rather lacking in vibrancy.>
the sound is the same regardless of content.
Again, Tidal doesn't have "a sound". Steaming a track on Tidal will sound the same as listening to the same track on CD, provided it is the same release/master. If you find everything on Tidal to sound "rather lacking in vibrancy", the problem lies on your end and you should look over the hardware chain you use for streaming from Tidal. The problem can also be expectation bias on your part if you for some reason have made up your mind that Tidal has "a sound". But if it's in comparison to listening on vinyl, you may just like the way vinyl sounds because that can have "a sound", and that is of course perfectly fine.
Here is an example of a track. On the left is the CD release and on the right is a rip from Tidal. They measure the same and will sound the same as long as you use the same hardware chain (DAC, amplification, and speakers) playing them. The only other possible reason for any differences in sound would be if your streaming hardware has some kind of DSP software that changes the sound.
ZolaIII
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It's: DR/EBU R128/ISO 226 + psy; feeling fine, not being ill, fresh and willing. Too little is bad and too much is trouble and that's DR. For me anything more than 8 is fine on properly done mixes, 12~13 is enough for very most of the things and going above 16~17 for music content dossent make sense not even for movie SFX so a wise use of compressor is there more than welcome. Opus is clever made lossy compression and you won't really notice difference over high 256 kbps (stereo) to lose less 44.1~48 KHz (Opus hard cut everything over 20 KHz anyway). You can point to a difference on the plot but it won't sound different. Better master will always sound better even with worse/lower quality lossy codec. Remasters are usually just a rip offs as something once broken remains so usually such actually add more to afterwards part of the list.
- Thread Starter
- #27
My own ramblings, as I listened. Driven partly by the frustration of what we are forced to listen to - overly compressed music for the masses listening on their phones.
You didn't have to answer.
Most of them are mastered to sound best as lossy files (AAC or OGG, Spotify). The HF roll-off from lossy files allows for less "in your face" presentation hence a lot more enjoyable with compressed music than lossless audio
You didn't have to post.
No, not really.
- Thread Starter
- #31
There was just no need for your original comment. I can't say that I've found everything written by yourself to be of interest. I'll be sure to comment in future.
