Re: OT Re: Beer Budget CD Release ...headache from cds

["Travis Hartnett" <travishartnett@gmail.com>]

I'd heard that the "loudness wars" weren't a result of trying to provide compressed mixes for radio, but rather when 5CD changers came on the market, record executives would get pissed when one of their releases came up on shuffle and was notably quieter than what had preceded it.  "Mine must always be LOUDEST!!!", etc.

TH

On Sat, Jan 10, 2009 at 3:12 AM, <kkissinger@kevinkissinger.com> wrote:

What I find interesting about the notion of compressed-mixes-for-car-radios is that modern car radios/cd players have compressers AND automatic volume adjustment (that is, the system detects ambient noise and adjusts the volume accordingly) built in to them.  There really isn't a need to compress for CD players.

Indeed, the dynamic range of radio transmission is a "given" and, as such, a radio station may be forced to compress the signal somewhat (at least, to louden the soft passages).  I don't understand the driving need to supply a radio station with an already-compressed mix when they themselves will compress it.