Do you still enjoy listening to CD's ?

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Customer Artist Engineer Hi-fi equipment company


What you can do as consumer:

You aren't happy whith the sound quality of a CD jou just bought?

• Send an email to the record company. Tell them why they shouldn't mix and master their CDs so loud, that it will not cost them anything, that mp3s from a less loud CD sound worse, ...
• Send an email to the artist. Tell him/her that less loud CDs sound less "Digital" and more "natural". Thell him/her that the original dynamics which were hearable in the sudio, have disappeared on the CD. Tell him/her that sound quality is an important factor for when deciding to buy a CD.
• Return the CD to the shop and complain LOUDLY - as loud as the CD:-)
• And please keep me informed if you get a result or reply.

What you can do as musician:

• Ask for dynamic sound, not for loud sound ... A loud CD sounds good on cheap systems and when there is a lot of noise around, like in a car. But everywhere else, it sounds just like a cheap demo. And I'm sure that's not what you want to spend your money on.
• And the best part is that it doesn't cost anything more! Just make sure not too much limiting and compression is used during mixing and mastering.
• But be careful: if you tell your soundengineer that you want a "dynamic recording" and not an "as loud as possible mix", he'll probably give you a hug :-)

What you can do as sound engineer:
I guess most of you are already trying hard to get more sense into the heads of the record companies. Keep spreading the word...

• Use digital effects with care.
• Don't use sound maximizers during mastering. If you don't use this, you also don't need effects which make your recording sound more analog, like Magneto.
• Make sure the master doesn't clip. If the master does clip: reduce the overall volume, do not add extra limiting: you will remove all depth, warmth and dynamic range in the recording (say goodbye to that analogue feeling!)
• Use decent equipment to monitor your mix. No, a pair of Yamaha ns-10's won't do the job. A pair of Dynaudioacoustics will.
• Buy yourself a very good CD player (+EUR750) and listen to / study a lot of CDs...

What you can do as hi-fi equipment company:

• It is important that customers are happy with your equipment. Without decent stuff to listen too, they will never buy better equipment, because it has no use then.
• Put a link to this site on your homepage. Show your customers you care. More info here