Degradation of audio quality inevitable?

[seewhyaudio]

Here's the problem:

I believe that the audio quality of reggae reissues is plummeting. I'm an audio restoration engineer myself so I know what I'm saying.

I bought several reisue CDs the other day and can't really listen to any of them without getting annoyed.
If it's from vinyl, the restoration is either poor quality or wildly over the top, if it's from master tape it's poorly mastered for CD and in all cases they were hugely hard limited (volume wars).

Am I right? Or am I talking ARSE?

At this point I don't want to name names... there may be purely logical reasons like cost/value breakdowns or some other thing I am unaware of though I'd welcome any explanation as to why this is. As far as I'm concerned it's killing my interest in reissues at a time when the labels really need all the help they can get. Are they shooting themselves in the foot by cutting corners? Does anyone actually care?

I believe it's important because once a title has been reissued (badly) it may never see the light of day again - so it's important to do things with a little more care and get it right, don't you think?

Well, what actually DO you all think? Any label owners out there? Anyone else feel the same?

Remember I'm talking about reputable companies and labels that you've all heard of. Not dodgy repressers or MP3 downloaders, just strictly legit commercial releases.

[ReggaeFire]

What's the mystery? Quality restoration is (as you know) expensive. In the current market it's probably judged that for most releases it simply unfeasible to make the money back.

[seewhyaudio]

What's the mystery? Quality restoration is (as you know) expensive. In the current market it's probably judged that for most releases it simply unfeasible to make the money back.

Indeed true. However my concern is more directed towards heavy-handed use of denoisers, overcompression and thoughtless EQ'ing and completely pointless things like adding reverb. These things are all cheap. Why do it?
Surely better to leave the stuff alone than to kill it by having no hiss etc.

And above all why compress? reggae lives or dies as a dynamic music with quiet and loud well defined. Use your volume control.

Above all, why does everyone put up with it? If it were to happen in rock music nobody would buy it.

[davek]

These are questions best posed to the people doing the re-issues.

Most people either aren't as particular, or don't listen as intently as you do (as "sound" is your business....).

Some people hate to hear clicks and pops from vinyl transfers, and would prefer to compromise some dynamic range for in return for removing them. I have heard arguments for and against all kind of techniques used for sound, and it all boils down to preference, and the ability to discern small differences through how good your hearing is.

Write to them and tell them you are boycotting their product until they do things the way you prefer.

[CONGO BUNNY]

A lot of the cheap MP3 releases available on Amazon etc that I have bought have clearly been run off of vinyl right onto someone’s pc, and include all the rough edges that you might expect from 20-30 year old plastic.

On the other hand I could pay £20, £30, £40, £50 quid for an original LP and it could sound just as bad and I only have one album to show for the money. With that same amount of money I could by several less than perfect re-issues.

I got an Ethiopians album from Honest Johns last year and the quality of the Vinyl was dreadful to the point of being un-listen-able, the same album was available for free download on line in a near perfect condition (ripped from a better LP I assume)

So there are paradoxes everywhere, I could pay over the odds for vinyl and it could be rubbish I could pay cheap prices for MP3 and it could be acceptable to good, or I could steal the music and get near perfect quality….

The music industry is killing itself by over charging honest people for poorly re-reissued music when the pirates are giving away great quality sounds….. its staggering really.

Plus there is so much great music out there that you cannot buy legitimately without having a massive wallet.

I weep for the future. I want to buy my music, I don’t want to steal it, but the temptation is so great when the free music just sounds better quality

[Maxi Trojan]

I think it's generally assumed that people are attuned to compressed music, and have forgotten how much space and depth there used to be.

Personally I suffer from Tinnitus and Eustachian tube dysfunction, after years of DJig; I can hardly tell the difference