Re: Why contemporary music sounds terrible

[kkissinger@kevinkissinger.com]

Quoting Charles Zwicky <cazwicky@earthlink.net>:

> The reality is that humans like 'loud'.

Reality has many facets.  In my experience that spans over 35 years of  
paid (professional) music-making, the first thing people will complain  
about is music that is too loud for their liking.

> Back in the day Jensen sold more car speakers than anyone because they
> were 'louder' on the display wall than the other options.

I worked at an electronic retail store during the Jenson days.  Jenson  
speakers had a good reputation and people generally asked for them by  
name without even listening to the store display.  I don't recall ever  
getting a return on a Jenson product.

> Loudness is only the scapegoat du jour... past 'culprits' have included
> EQ, effects, distortion, transistors, digital recording, EMGs, MP3s,
> "the internets", saddam, osama, etc...

I think it is an important topic du jour.  Excessive SPL can cause  
permanent damage to one's hearing.   Excessive SPL is not a new issue,  
of course -- however the hardware compressors of old weren't like the  
software multi-band compressors with virtually unlimited compression  
in every frequency band.