I recently started the mammoth project of going through my mp3 collection (I have everything that I own on CD on my computer as mp3 as well) to get the volumes where they're in the same range. Anyone who's ever made a mix cd using old songs and new songs knows just how annoying it is because of the massive differences in volume from song to song. Anyway, I've noticed something that's disturbing (to me anyway). Old songs' waveforms are all over the place, this is good because it means there's a lot of dynamics and articulation in the mix. Now here's a new song's waveform:
That's without any editing whatsoever, it's ripped straight from the CD. I find that just plain SUCKS, and a lot of the new songs are like that. In my waveform editor it clips like crazy: that's bad for your hearing, it's bad for your speakers, and it shows a complete lack of sonic integrity in terms of the final production value of the song. I've noticed on some older songs I have to amplify until it clips then back it off so that it just barely doesn't clip; in order to get the volume to match. Am I wrong in thinking this is entirely the wrong way to go? The music sounds good, I just don't see why they couldn't master the songs lower and just assume people are smart enough to turn the volume up a little.
That's without any editing whatsoever, it's ripped straight from the CD. I find that just plain SUCKS, and a lot of the new songs are like that. In my waveform editor it clips like crazy: that's bad for your hearing, it's bad for your speakers, and it shows a complete lack of sonic integrity in terms of the final production value of the song. I've noticed on some older songs I have to amplify until it clips then back it off so that it just barely doesn't clip; in order to get the volume to match. Am I wrong in thinking this is entirely the wrong way to go? The music sounds good, I just don't see why they couldn't master the songs lower and just assume people are smart enough to turn the volume up a little.