Okay, so this week’s blog is going to get really, really techie and geeky – but it’s something that does affect everyone – so if you can wade through it, it really is an interesting topic. Basically, I’m proposing something that I’m not sure has been discussed much from a particular angle. It’s the idea that audio compression (as opposed to file compression, which is something else entirely) has gotten so thick and heavy on recordings today that it actually has the opposite effect of it’s intended goal, which is to play “louder” on radio, your stereo, or your television and capture your attention. I think there is something to the way our minds are starting to “tune out” heavily compressed music, as we’ve been exposed to heavy doses of it in the past few years from both the music industry and the advertising industry on both TV and radio. Think of it as “compression fatigue”.
I was working and listening to what I can only say is an ultra-pop group that is at the top of the teen food chain right now (some of my readers might ask.. “why”? But that’s another blog for another day). The music is so heavily compressed that there is absolutely NO dynamic range at all in this record – it’s all either loud or louder. But as I was listening, I noticed a strange phenomenon – I was, even when I wanted to, not able to really distinguish easily between various parts of songs until I actually focused on it very intently – and this is not usually something that happens. It doesn’t help that the song instrumentation is almost exactly the same in each song, but seriously – it’s just compressed so hard that it almost washes over as white noise when EVERYTHING is competing for loudest – vocals, instruments, solos, drum fills, everything.
The conclusion I’m coming to is that our minds are starting to actually tune out heavily compressed audio, and that it’s getting increasingly hard to hear – the exact opposite of it’s intended goal – because our minds are starting to perceive it just as we perceive white noise – which is to filter it out and not hear it. But this problem essentially goes away completely when listening to a signal that is rich in dynamic range and tonal subtlety (neither of which is evident on most anything made after 1995). TV advertising is just as bad if not worse. At least movies are still conscious of dynamic range in mixing, although movies over TV get audio compression either at the network, station, or even consumer cable box or satellite unit level, or some combination of all of those. It’s not a pretty picture even when not compressed at the source, but at least in movies it’s definitely not compressed at the source or maybe only very little. This also goes for many classical audio recordings, and many great albums before audio compression became the way to be “louder on the dial”.
I think that this is something that should be looked into further in regards to our changing ears – which have been consistently exposed to heavily compressed audio for years now. This might be a good research project for an advertiser or media group to conduct with focus groups. Maybe if they see some scientific numbers to back these assumptions up, we can go back to having music and advertising that really does reach out and grab you only during the moments it is supposed to. Right now, the “wall of sound” created by audio compression is just too compressed for anything specific to get through, including our aural perception. I would love your comments on t his topic – please chime in!
