Why does digital music need to be normalized?
For younger consumers, the focus is often on the computer, which plays MP3s through the PC’s speakers. “They’re made to rumble a lot during games,” says “c’t” expert Zota. This can be useful when reproducing the explosions in a shooting game. However, when listening to music, such boxes disappoint.
Other consumers use their iPod with clip-on speakers, and mini systems like Bose’s “Wave Music System” are enjoying best-sellers. Of course, they cannot match the tonal volume of a full floor standing speaker.
monitor
Those who decide to buy a high-quality music system generally turn to home theater systems. These are multi-channel systems with up to eight speakers and multiple power amplifiers. Their specialty is DVD playback, where they evoke powerful bass thanks to the subwoofers.
The viewer also physically experiences an earthquake in the movie because the shelves begin to shake. Solo: Compared to pure stereo systems, some home theater systems are disappointing. Some subwoofers are too inaccurate to play music. Above all, the quality is significantly more expensive compared to stereo systems. “The budget has to be divided into many more individual parts than with a stereo system,” says Besic, specialist in “Stereoplay”. For 1000 euros there is a decent stereo, but only a lousy home theater system. According to GfK, Germans spend an average of just over 400 euros on complete home theater systems, and 800 euros if these consist of the individual components of an amplifier, CD player and speaker cabinets.
Music producers flatten recordings
But it’s not just bad speakers that degrade sound quality. Music producers also contribute. They have been making their songs louder and louder since the mid-1990s. In pop, hip hop, rock, and electronic dance music, there are practically no quiet passages. At the same time, musical recordings have lost their dynamism. The mids are emphasized, but very high and fine sounds, as well as very deep bass, are often missing. The idea behind it: the songs should appear and assert themselves against loud advertising on the radio or background noise in the pub.
Additionally, sound engineers increasingly manipulate the sound of rock bands and pop singers with just a few clicks. Engineers use computer programs to smooth the edges and eliminate the smallest errors. For example, the pitch of the song is fine-tuned later; and hand-played drums sound accurate after computer processing, but like a machine and somehow always the same. Not much remains of the musicians’ own sound.
“In addition, the generally short time due to lower budgets also plays a role. In the past, you had much more production time, which of course was reflected in the end result in better quality and creativity, ”says Gerhard Wölfle, director of Dorian Gray Studios in Eichenau, near Munich. Wölfle has recorded CDs with the bands Guano Apes, Reamonn and The Donots. In the past, around six weeks of production time was the guideline for such albums. Today, studio professionals are satisfied when the music industry and artists spend half their time on them. Gerhard Wölfle says: “The excessive volume due to the massive use of compressors and limiters definitely gives many productions to the rest”.
An excellent example of an extremely loud album is the album “What People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not” by English band Arctic Monkeys from 2006. The fully adjusted mix quickly rose to the top of audience favor. . The single “I bet you look good on the dance floor” (see the band’s MySpace profile) became a number one hit.
All this has generated a problem in matters such as the loudness of the music, which almost necessarily must be normalized to get them to sound at a similar volume.
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