Loudness wars cause a free meter to be created

Seafroggys said:
I do think my In Rock and Fireball are older CD releases, mainly because there's no bonus tracks, they're quieter, and sound thinner, almost harsher. My Machine Head, Who do We Think We Are, and Burn releases are warm and full sounding, but hot.

I'd almost want to say the new releases sound better, even with a high RMS.
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There are - unfortunately - always other variables involved too. For example, when I hear about early generation CDs - especially from the early 80s - sounding thin and harsh, my knee jerk reaction is to look at the probability that the original recordings were run through early generation 16 or 20 bit A/D converters to get them to digital. Some of those could sound downright artificial and brittle. It is entirely possible that one can have an overly-crunched mix that'll sound "warmer" because the conversion from analog was superior to the old guy. But it'll still be crunched :)

G.
 
I bought a remastered CD of Queen II last week - I had relied on my digitized and restored LP onto CDR for years but thought I'd like a "real" Cd of the album. It was fairly cheap on Ebay too!
It sounds AWFUL - there's a heap of distortion on the 1st three tracks before it settles down a bit.
 
My copy of Q2 was remastered in '94 - so it probably done well before I digitized the LP.
I bought SHAttack 2 weeks before Q2 & it says it was remastered in '93 - it sounds fine. They both have DIGITAL MASTER SERIES on them. I guess it'd be a case of try before you buy but I bought cheaply from ebay. My digitized & restored version of Q2 smacks the CD to bits! & I'm not very good at the process.
Oh, oh - I found videos for Liar (the original promo)& Keep Yourself Alive - again an of the time promo on Utube - downloaded the better qual versions & made a nice VCD of them & some budgie & very early slade I found in the same session. Freddy with long hair & no mo - much more RnRoll! Did you listen to toehiser's queenesque track in the MP3 clinic a month back? Very Q2 into SHAttack - & fun too!
End of Queen side bar.
I tried the download of this prog - well the offline version only so far - only 1 track I brought to anywhere near modern loudness perversion - I'm glad that my ears have some sense/sensitivity - even if I had to use a prog to prove it to myself.
The manual goes on & on recommending a brickwall limiter in unison with watching the levels in the hosted version. I've used the free Classic Limiter at Master CD preset - is that a brickwall. I don't like the sound of using anything referred to a "brickwall"!
 
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