tulamide wrote:Hey Spogg,
I agree to what you experienced.
...
The only things you really need to compress are vocals (if not a choir) and electric guitars (because of their distortion). Apart from that, compression can be an art form if you use it in extreme ways.
Then I am not alone in the world! Thank you tulamide!
I remember that in my vinyl days I was always frustrated by the difference in dynamic range between a recording and a live performance, be it rock or classical. I understand why compression was needed for that medium, to keep the stylus in the groove, to fit more on a disc and to keep all the quieter parts usefully above the noise floor (hiss, crackle, rumble).
When I heard my very first CD (orchestral music on headphones) I was stunned at the apparent dynamic range and inuadible noise floor and I just had to spend £300 (equals a grand now) on a Yamaha CD player. I bought some CD versions of albums I already owned and did A/B comaprisons just to delight in the improvements of literally
every sonic aspect. These days vinyl, for some reason that totally escapes me, is considered "better" somehow. I'm simply stunned that some people actually want to make their music sound like it's come from vinyl or even cassette tape. But that's a different issue I guess, more to do with psychology than Hi-Fi reproduction I believe.
I'm probably just showing my age
Maybe the conclusion is that all this mastering is "horses for courses". In this way it's "right" for EDM and "wrong" for classical and somewhere in-between for other genres. The exception would of course be for addressing older recordings' shortcomings.
I'm currenly experimenting in FS with compression and the like but somehow my heart isn't in it, if you know what I mean.
Cheers
Spogg