Late-Breaking Useless Trivia

[Fire Walk With Me]

Didn't remember this in time for the main thread...

It's said that cocaine reduces the ear's high frequency response, which is posited as the explanation for why many 1980's recordings are a bit bright (considering the amount of drugs in some of the studios...) Unconfirmed audio engineering lore...

Hadda share that.

[darkstar]

1. probably explains compression

and gated snares too...that drug thins out sound and souls alike....

[Fire Walk With Me]

2. There are plenty of anti-"ultimate loudness" threads on prosoundweb's recording forums

and engineers hate being asked to follow that trend. But have to pay the bills! It's a client-oriented business, and some have to follow trends just to survive, even when hating it. My heart goes out to them.

[darkstar]

3. Yeah, there is that...plus I've realized lately that compression sounds good

to aging/fatigued/damaged ears. Not the loudness, per se, but frequency based compression schemes that bring out 11-12 k. Hard not to reach for that knob when that sound is all around you, you are being pressured to do so, and it actually is compensating for your own loss. But man o man is it overdone. Turn on new rock radio station. Put in ear buds. Turn down signal really low. All you hear is guitar gloss and cymbals.