Angelo Montrone for President ;)

  • Thread starter Thread starter SouthSIDE Glen
  • Start date Start date
GREAT article Glen, thanks for posting it. It's not a new subject, but I thought it was illustrated particularly well in that article.
 
Robert D said:
GREAT article Glen, thanks for posting it. It's not a new subject, but I thought it was illustrated particularly well in that article.
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Yeah, we all get tired of arguing this topic, I think, but I agree with you that this one nailed it very well and from a slightly different angle than often taken in here.

What I love the most about it though is that not only is Angelo is an A&R guy taking the side of the music, but that he is actually going out on the limb and trying to get his associates to atone. Kinda like a member of the Taliban saying, "Maybe we should chill a bit." :D

G.
 
Thanks Glen, great read. they covered a lot of points form very angle.
It's funny, after reading all that I think I've been pushed closer to the fence on the issue.
 
tarnationsauce2 said:
It's funny, after reading all that I think I've been pushed closer to the fence on the issue.
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From which side?

G.
 
:D Yo Glen:

The south side is a good side! ;)

I always like to compare the word LOUD to CLARITY. Hearing all of the syllables, Sinatra stuff, AND a great band is always a pleasure.

Thanks for posting the article. I like a little loud but prefer MORE CLARITY.

Sunshine to all.

Green Hornet :D
 
The Green Hornet said:
Thanks for posting the article. I like a little loud but prefer MORE CLARITY.
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Thanks for the good words, GH; much appreciated from a veteran of this board such as yourself.

Out of curiosity, I decided to try and find the entire Montrone letter. It turned out not to be very hard to find. Here it is in (I believe, at least as far as I can find) it's accurate entirety:

There's something far more sinister in audio that is causing our listeners fatigue and even pain while trying to enjoy their favorite music. It has been propagated by A&R departments for the last 8 years:

The complete abuse of compression in mastering (forced on the mastering engineers against their will and better judgment).

The mistaken belief that a "super loud" record will sound better and magically turn a song into a hit has caused most major label releases in the past 8 years to be an aural assault on the listener. Have you ever heard one of those test tones on TV when the station is off the air? Notice how it becomes painfully annoying in a very short time? That's essentially what you do to a song when you super compress it. You eliminate all dynamics.

This phenomenon is tantamount to a dessert chef deciding that since the frosting is the most exciting part, the cake should be all frosting.

Just to prove that the "super loud" record has no correlation to actual sales, when we mastered the first Los Lonely Boys record I went to the session and specifically told our mastering engineer NOT to make this a loud record. Could it be that a record that actually had dynamic range could compete? 2.5 million records and a year of constant airplay of "Heaven" confirmed my suspicion. Loud records are for the birds.

I dare any label A&R exec to make the decision to stop abusing the very listeners who are supposed to be enjoying our artists and tell the mastering engineer it does NOT have to be super compressed.

----- a little more info on this phenomenon:

Prior to the mid 90's there was always some level of compression done tastefully and left to the mastering engineer's discretion. This allowed some dynamic range. Things got loud then soft again, the music could build, retreat and build bigger the next time. Between the kick and the snare there were brief moments to allow the eardrums to relax and get ready for the next hit. Just go back and listen for 15 minutes to any rock record mastered in the early 90's (or earlier) and then put on any modern super loud abomination for the same amount of time. Which do you prefer? There is a white paper written by mastering engineer Bob Katz that demonstrates that CD players (and other digital playback devices) are actually being driven into distortion by these super loud records. Why are we doing this?


Regards,

Angelo Montrone
Vice President / A&R
One Haven Music
(A Sony Music Company)
79 5th Avenue
15th Floor
New York, New York 10003
 
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