Optimod and successors

[ruffrecords]

I suppose I should be grateful to the radio broadcast industry because it was they who first needed compressor/limiters to ensure their transmitters did not overload and to compensate to some extent for non-technical operators. Then someone realised they could extend range and improve clarity in vehicle radios by deliberately compressing the signal. When Optimod, perhaps the first multi-band compressor came out, I posted on rec.audio.pro that its inventor should be shot. The loss of musical dynamics was abhorrent to me.

Today we have devices that split the audio band into 32 one third octave bands and compress each one - the Optimod taken to the ultimate limit. However, to my ears, these latest version have an even more terrible effect on the music - not so much on modern music but on classic tracks from the 50s through to the 70s. I am very familiar with many of these but when I hear them through modern radio stations I notice the the multi-band compressor has altered the mix. Instruments that blended nicely together to form a unique tone no longer do so. Instead one of the instruments has had is level raised which has destroyed the whole balance of the original mix. This seriously annoys my mammary glands.

Cheers

Ian

 

[thermionic]

What makes so little sense to me is the way that most CDs are still squashed to pieces. I just don't get it at all. The classic tracks from the 60s and 70s sound much better on the radio to my ears (aside from the quality of modern music) because they're not squashed to death in the first place, so they only get pummelled once. Most modern material is squashed to death before it gets near the Optimod.

People mark me down as a vinyl snob. I'm not (although I do believe its inherent distortion to be relatively pleasing, given the right cart etc). It's just that vinyl seems to be mastered by engineers who like to keep the dynamics.

 

[JohnRoberts]

I was often surprised after buying an album to hear what the music actually sounded like. Back in the early days of multi-band dynamics cheap radio station engineers would use loudspeaker crossovers to split up the music before hitting separate comp-limiters, then just crudely summing the bandpasses back together,

Carried to excess they just turn everything into white noise.

JR

 

[pvision]

Carried to excess they just turn everything into white noise.

Heard cymbals that sounded like cymbals since the 1980s?

I thought not

Cheap convertors, cheap samplers and cheap studios ruined pretty much everything.  MP3 just continued the process!

Nick Froome

 

[dmp]

This seriously annoys my mammary glands.

Your 'mammary glands'?

We wouldn't have this if the consumers didn't want it. Let's put blame where blame should be put. The people making the music have just been innovating to succeed in a difficult market.
And particularly at low volumes on bad systems, very compressed music does sound better, imo.

 

[JohnRoberts]

This seriously annoys my mammary glands.

Your 'mammary glands'?

We wouldn't have this if the consumers didn't want it. Let's put blame where blame should be put. The people making the music have just been innovating to succeed in a difficult market.
And particularly at low volumes on bad systems, very compressed music does sound better, imo.

It is not about what customers want, as much as what are they willing to pay for.

They find lossy compression schemes mostly adequate (unfortunately).

That's life...

JR

 

[Brian Roth]

Read this article written by Bob Orban:

http://www.orban.com/support/orban/techtopics/Appdx_Radio_Ready_The_Truth_1.3.pdf


Bri

 

[Spiritworks]

Just read it, thanks. Informative.

 

[fazer]

Quote DMP   
"We wouldn't have this if the consumers didn't want it. "

I think the word "accept it", might me more accurate.  We just have so many more options today for entertainment  compared to the 60's and 70's when music was one of fewer choices.  The spirt of the times.

I also think artist like Mark Knofler are exceptional and make beautiful sounding compressed  music which play better out of say, an iPhone  speaker but very rich sounding on a good set of speakers/headphones. 

That said I dream of the Jazz stations that were around back before Happy Jazz Stations.  The old FM Tuners (before digital PLL circuits were invented) had a great and not as compressed sound.  You had to tune stations on those one by one ( Vari Cap analog tuner). 

But maybe it was just my ears worked better back then and I enjoyed it more.