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Are most sound engineers half deaf?

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bmw
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Are most sound engineers half deaf?

Post by bmw » Mon Jan 07, 2019 12:53 am

I could go off on 10 different tangents here - from over-processed CD's to over-modulated FM radio to sportscasts that sound like they're being streamed from Real Player over dial-up internet in 1997 to digital artifacting in the higher sound frequencies of just about any radio broadcast to most syndicated talk shows on radio sounding like poor quality mp3 files (even big names too like Limbaugh and Hannity just to name a few) to satellite radio sounding like ass to AM radio sounding awful thanks to IBOC to youtube channels with otherwise superb production value having horrid audio, etc, etc, etc.

You would think that in 2019 that with the enormous advancements we've made in video resolution and overall quality over the past 10 years that audio quality would be getting better instead of worse.

Serious question - do the corporations who own these media outlets not care about the quality of their audio? Are they all old and deaf? What's the deal here? I swear that most things on the radio sounded better in the 1990s when I was a teenager than they do today.



CK-722
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Re: Are most sound engineers half deaf?

Post by CK-722 » Mon Jan 07, 2019 3:13 am

People who listen to loud music all the time do get hearing loss. So even if it's just a rhetorical question, the answer is an attenuated yes.


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Art Van Damme
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Re: Are most sound engineers half deaf?

Post by Art Van Damme » Mon Jan 07, 2019 7:44 am

Just for shits and grins, I threw one of my daughter’s pop music files on the ProTools just to see the waveform. Ugh. Looks like someone drew a line with a thick magic marker.

I would interject that some sound engineers are “told” how to make something sound, like a recording or broadcast signal. Most audio engineers whom I have encountered throughout my career, have a solid grasp of good-sounding audio. It’s the people above them in the food chain that haven’t a clue.



Nelson
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Re: Are most sound engineers half deaf?

Post by Nelson » Mon Jan 07, 2019 9:40 am

bmw, you're not the only one that things sound quality in general is just crap today. I don't get it. Regarding broadcast services, excessive dynamic range compression is my primary complaint followed by excessive digital bit rate compression. Dynamic range compression is especially noticeable (and especially bad) on live talk programs whereas digital compression is my main complaint with some FM stations but also with a lot of (radio) network programming.



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Ed Joseph
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Re: Are most sound engineers half deaf?

Post by Ed Joseph » Mon Jan 07, 2019 4:49 pm

Nelson wrote:
Mon Jan 07, 2019 9:40 am
bmw, you're not the only one that things sound quality in general is just crap today. I don't get it. Regarding broadcast services, excessive dynamic range compression is my primary complaint followed by excessive digital bit rate compression. Dynamic range compression is especially noticeable (and especially bad) on live talk programs whereas digital compression is my main complaint with some FM stations but also with a lot of (radio) network programming.
Exactly. My part15 stations sound awesome using dumpster-rescued processing that I've rehabbed. The FM runs a CBS Audimax IIIs, followed by a pair of Harris MSP-90 Tri Band AGC units and an Optimod 8000 feeding composite out. My AM runs a Symmetrix 422 leveller running before an Innovonics 222. All of it runs very loose. Both of these mite-powered stations sound absolutely great compared to most of the other signals on the dial. If I can accomplish that with the crap I'm running, then what's the excuse when they're probably using $10k processors? I don't get it.

I really don't get the fascination with disabling noise gates on boxes pushing 30dB or more of processing, ESPECIALLY on talk formats where there are tons of pauses to suck up every electron of line noise available. How can anyone think that doesn't sound plain awful?


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Ed Joseph
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Re: Are most sound engineers half deaf?

Post by Ed Joseph » Mon Jan 07, 2019 4:51 pm

And then, there's IBOC on AM... STILL! Go figure.


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