My Peel Sessions

[billfromnorthwales]

I think this compression was nothing compared to the "Loudness Wars" 
that CD manufacturers are engaged in, as anyone who has looked at the waveform of a CD version compared to a vinyl version of a track when, for example, trying to patch a Peel show from the 70's or 80's

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loudness_war

Low bit rate encoding crunchiness on current digital transmissions is still worse to my ears than compressed FM


--- In peel@yahoogroups.com, "Stuart" <stuartb@...> wrote:
>
> I always knew that FM was compressed but there was something about the
> method used around about that time that also introduced distortion overload,
> and the compression itself seemed "enhanced"
> I submitted a fresh complaint when the same studio compression as used on FM
> was applied to digital feeds of the station such as DSat DTT and DAB, where
> the audio level had no impact upon the audibility at greater distances.
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: peel@yahoogroups.com [mailto:peel@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of
> Alasdair Macdonald
> Sent: 11 April 2011 13:28
> To: peel@yahoogroups.com
> Subject: Re: [peel] Re: My Peel Sessions
> 
> Audio broadcast over FM has always been compressed in this way
> (reduced dynamic range). Doing so increases the range (ie distance
> from the transmitter) at which the signal can be received.
> 
> BBC FM compression is nowhere near as awful sounding as many foreign
> (especially U.S.) stations.
> 
> On 11 April 2011 12:26, Stuart <stuartb@...> wrote:
> >
> >
> > Wow I remember writing to the BBC at the time about the sound quality!
> This is confirmation that my ears weren't deceiving me at the time.
> >
> >
> >
> > What I remember complaining about was not only the intrusive dynamic
> compression (often when JP was warning us of a track that faded in, actually
> didn't fade in much as the gain was turned up during the quiet start, then
> when the loud bit came in, the gain was reduced, but not before some audible
> distortion was heard.) I also remember some bass distortion continuing
> through some tracks. This is why, while I thought PJ Harvey and the Pixies
> sounded good on radio, once I got the vinyl LPs the dynamism was
> mindblowing.
> 
> > ________________________________
> >
> > From: peel@yahoogroups.com [mailto:peel@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of
> dgmccarthy
> > Sent: 11 April 2011 00:56
> > To: peel@yahoogroups.com
> > Subject: [peel] Re: My Peel Sessions
> 
> > Cheers, Rocker. I'm in Sydney but, if it comes to it, sending the tapes
> back to their country of origin isn't a problem!
> >
> > The shows are 20 & 21 November 1992 and I see on the WIKI that they are
> available, albeit incomplete. Mine would also be straight out of the desk in
> the broadcast studio so may have the edge in quality.
> >
> > I recall this was during a period (give or take a couple of years) when R1
> was messing around with the processing on the end of the broadcast chain and
> some of the off-air sound was a bit over-cooked.
> 
> 
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