the loudness wars continue

[Sir HC]

Originally posted by callat703:
  not to hijack this thread - but perhaps this would be a good place to ask about it.  Does anybody here know some good, cost-effective techniques to soundproof a room?  I'm looking to convert part of my garage into a studio/practice space, but I need to ensure that I'm not bothering the neighbors as I live in the heart of the city.  For the most part, the room is pretty quiet from the exterior - but I have at least one wall that is allowing substantial amounts of sound out.  The wall is old brick, with a window and door; any tips?
 
 Thanks!

Often used are heavy hung carpets, that eggcrate like foam, and just insulation.  In general layers that are thick help.  What frequencies, low or high are getting out as they are best handled different ways.
 
 Or get a bunch of old AmVets mattresses and line them up against the wall, stains to the wall.

[Sage 703]

The back wall is pretty much leaking the full range of frequency - it just isn't an effective block to the sound as it is just one layer of brick.  Any suggestions on where to find those kinds of materials around DC?  Mattresses are a great idea; any other tips?

[sweetcell]

only weight stops sound from leaking.  egg crates are useful for breaking up reflection, but don't do much to stop leaking.  heavy carpets (as many layers as you can get up there) and heavy mattresses are the way to go.  don't bother with regular spring mattresses, they won't do much    
 
   

Originally posted by Sir HC:
 With this new system, there are lows hitting all the way up to the VIP bar, something new to deal with.

huh, funny you should mention both stereolab and the lack of bass upstairs in the past.  when i last saw them two (?) years ago, i was upstairs and the lack of bass ruined the show for me.
 
 more reading: The Death of High Fidelity.  lots of links at the end to even more reading.

[sweetcell]

The Loudness Wars: Why Music Sounds Worse (NPR article & show segment stream)
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=122114058

the article references the first youtube vid that smakawhat posted:

Or is this just a way for me to subject you to McCartney...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Gmex_4hreQ

discuss..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BQyPF3TwNT4&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UEFyNdB13vg&fmt=18

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sTBoMlsw-0I&feature=related

the ever present DM Metallica debate...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DRyIACDCc1I&feature=related

the most convincing argument winner gets a biscuit...

[Justin Tonation]

The Loudness Wars: Why Music Sounds Worse (NPR article & show segment stream)
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=122114058

From the article linked above:

Dr. Andrew Oxenham is a professor in the psychology department at the University of Minnesota. His specialty is auditory perception ? how our brains and ears interact. He also started out as a recording engineer.

Robert Siegel asked him to explain digital compression.

"Really, the challenge is to maintain the quality of a CD, but to stuff it into a much smaller space," Oxenham says. "Let's think about how digital recording works. You start out with a very smooth sound wave and we're trying to store that in digital form. So we're really trying to reproduce a smooth curve [with] these square blocks, which are the digital numbers [the 1s and 0s that are used to encode sound digitally].

"Now, the only way you can make square blocks look like a smooth curve is by using very, very small blocks so it ends up looking as if it's smooth. Now using lots and lots of blocks means lots of storage, so we end up using [fewer] bigger blocks. Which means we end up not representing that curve very smoothly at all."

Lost? Go back and re-read it ? you'll get it.

That is the worst description of digital audio I've ever read.