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It's not that simple…

From back in the days when they first started mastering discs from tape, dynamic compression has been used. The simple fact is that the dynamic range of some live music can exceed the dynamic range of both CDs, and LPs. Some dynamic compression is required if you are going to get a lot of musical pieces onto disc for playback. In fact the first product recall I know of was in the 1950's when Decca recalled the first release of the Solti recording of Wagner's Das Rheingold because they didn't use enough compression on one passage and the first release of the set simply couldn't be tracked by most people's arms and cartridges—the stylus was thrown out of the groove because the groove excursion was so great. They remastered that passage with a bit more dynamic compression—they already had used some—and re-released the recording to critical acclaim.

The fact is that the majority of really well regarded recordings released on LP and CD have some dynamic compression. The use of dynamic compression isn't a problem. Excessive dynamic compression is a problem.

When it's done well, you don't notice it and the music sounds great, with believable dynamics. When it's done badly the music sounds like it's pretty much all at the same volume and, since one of the reasons for using excessive dynamic compression is to raise the overall level of the music, one of the things that often goes with excessive dynamic compression is mastering the recording at such a high level that what dynamic peaks are left are often clipped and distorted as well.

Your question should have been "What does badly done dynamic compression sound like? The odds are that most of your favourite wide dynamic range recordings, the ones you regard as superb examples of the art of recording, have some dynamic compression but you simply weren't aware of it.




David Aiken

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