Mixing/Mastering for Digital Delivery

[dgatwood]

It occurs to me that a lot of music these days is being listened to primarily in a compressed format. Whether it's someone ripping the song to an MP3 to listen on an iPod or somebody downloading an AAC file (or... shudder... WMA) from an online music store, it seems like fewer and fewer people are listening to the raw, uncompressed audio. Even most radio stations use a combination of low sampling rate and audio compression to pack data onto the hard drives of their on-air computers.

With that realization, perhaps there should also be a new awareness of these compression mechanisms and the effect that they have on recordings. Occasionally, you'll hear a track that just sounds absolutely awful when compressed. Sometimes, these are even available for purchase with flanging in the cymbals or other annoying artifacts.

What techniques might be useful to improve the sound of tracks that are mutilated by a particular compression scheme? Are there any specific tips when mixing/mastering for digital delivery?

 

[Atterion]

Sometimes, these are even available for purchase with flanging in the cymbals or other annoying artifacts.

Oh god I hate that!!!
I don't use compressed formats except for demoing, but not as finished product. Period!!! I'll make CD's, or suffer longer medium transfer times. But short of that, people should use the highest quality compression settings available to them. I would personally wait the extra download time for higher quality.

 

[masteringhouse]

IMHO a good mix should stand up in any medium. Just make it sound it's best period. Trying to mix to radio, tv, or compromise your mix for the Internet is just going to make it sound inconsistent or bad elsewhere.

Same rules apply to any media, watch phasing issues, don't overcompress levels, watch out for distortion due to any form of processing (quantization, phase distortion, distortion due to gain, etc.), good frequency balance and let 'er rip!

 

[Projbalance]

I agree with the Master. It's the job of the software engineers to write programs that compress with less apparant loss. The only way to control the issues of mixing for a compressed format would be if you're creating your mixes soley for that format. A good mix should always stand on it's own and be the best it can be.