kdtn radio one reviews

Bryan Cole - KDTN Radio One Network Ad

“Bryan Cole is a great undiscovered talent. He possesses amazing vocal abilities and terrific guitar skills. He is truly an artist worth taking notice of”. – Chuck Ainlay Award Winning Producer/Engineer. Bryan Cole hails from Western Pennsylvania among the ghosts of a former steel town and blue-collar community. He began his love for music at the age of seven, where he performed in front of ten thousand people. His childhood was no different than any other young man; with the exception that Bryan was gifted with truly exceptional vocal and musical abilities. He knew very early on what his life calling was and he would approach this calling with the utmost tenacity, drive and spirit. Throughout his early teenage years, Bryan performed with many local bands and honing his craft. He was branded “The Little Steve Perry” among his hometown fans, due to his fantastic vocal range and clarity. By the age of 23, he was befriended by rock superstar guitarist Reb Beach (Winger, Whitesnake, Alice Cooper) and asked to front Reb’s solo act. Bryan jumped at the chance to tour and play in front of large audiences. Although his heart was in Country music, he knew this would be a fantastic opportunity. Bryan dazzled audiences with his amazing stage presence and talents. After five years in the rock scene, Bryan decided to take a chance and go back to his upbringing in Country music. He took a brief vacation to Nashville, where his late Grandfather suggested he’d go for many years. Bryan was welcomed with open arms by the Nashville music community and he knew that’s where he belonged. Bryan began an all out search for quality material to put together his debut album. This would be a long road, since he had no record deal or producer at the time. He later teamed up with songwriter/publisher Tom Paden, who wrote for Reba MacEntire, Kevin Sharp and many others. Paden, took notice of Bryan’s abilities and began writing songs and helping find songs for Bryan’s CD. After finally deciding on the material he was truly excited about, Bryan began the grueling search to find a producer and a budget to record his CD. He recorded demo versions of the material at his home studio and began playing local bars regularly, gaining a large fan base almost overnight. Bryan’s demo found it’s way into the hands of the Program Director of Froggy Radio in Pittsburgh, PA. Froggy wanted to play one of Bryan’s songs “It All Comes Back To Me”, a song co-written by Kent Blazy, who penned several major hits for Garth Brooks, one of Bryan’s heroes. Bryan was interviewed briefly by a Froggy DJ and placed on a Hometown Country CD along with Brad Paisley, Bret Michaels and others. The response from listeners was fantastic and Bryan was asked to open for Montgomery Gentry, Hank Jr, Reba MacEntire, Brad Paisley and other top selling acts. His tenacious search for funding also paid off as he finally found outside investors to bring this dream into a reality of making a industry standard product ready to sell to fans. Bryan met Grammy Award winning Producer/Engineer Chuck Ainlay through a mutual friend in Nashville. At the time, Chuck was busy putting the finishing touches on the Dixie Chicks’ “Wide Open Spaces” record. Bryan was certainly aware of Chuck’s incredible list of credits and their personalities clicked right away. Bryan knew he found his producer. He began tracking “Wide Open Road” at several major Nashville studios, with some of the industry’s top musicians and session players.The CD was then mixed by Ainlay at Sound Stage Studios and mastered by Brian Foraker. Currently, his debut single “It all comes back to me”,is beginning to recieve national airplay. He has secured endorsement deals with RED BULL ENERGY DRINKS, WRANGLER JEANS, GHS STRINGS, IN TUNE GUITAR PICKS, BAILEY HATS and ROCKTRON EFFECTS. He plans to begin touing in 2008 in support of Wide Open Road. Bryan resides in Nashville, TN and Pittsburgh, PA with his beautiful wife Molly and their cats. You can also visit the official artist website for Bryan Cole at www.bryancole.net

By IFS

DENVER, CO (IFS)  It’s getting louder out there on the grooves.  In Kenneth Howard Smith’s “Design of Sounds”  in his 1984 book, “Beyond The Lock-In Groove” and the alteration of the grooves, as the walls flatten to accommodate the “excessive” drive force within mixing sounds at digital levels over +/- 3.00dB causing exponent fracturing. 

thefreedictionary.com

The phrase loudness war (or loudness race) refers to the music industry’s tendency to record, produce and broadcast music at progressively increasing levels of loudness to create a sound that stands out from others. This phenomenon can be observed in many areas of the music industry, particularly broadcasting and albums released on CD and DVD. In the case of CDs, the war stems from a desire to create CDs that sound as loud as possible or louder than CDs from competing artists or recording labels. However, as the maximum amplitude of a CD cannot be increased, the overall loudness can only be increased by reducing the dynamic range and distorting or clipping the waveform of the recording. Introduction Loudness Initially, a loudness war started between FM stations competing for listener ratings. Subsequently, record labels began increasing the loudness of their releases, both on vinyl and on CD, resulting in a volume “arms race”. The main reason for this practice is that, when comparing two recordings with different levels, it is likely that the louder one will be regarded as sounding better. This can be attributed to the way in which the human ear responds to sound pressure at different levels: as our ability to respond to sound frequencies change according to differences in sound pressure level (SPL), the more the SPL increases[1], the greater the amount of low and high frequency content we perceive[2]. Music with higher levels is easily heard and understood in noisy environments such as a car, train, or busy city street. Higher levels can also result in subjectively better sounding recordings on low quality reproduction systems such as web audio formats, AM radio, mono television and telephones. Compounding this loudness problem is the fact that artists are more inclined to request that their mastered CDs match the loudness level of top contemporary CDs.[3]. Opponents This practice has been condemned by several recording industry professionals including mastering engineer Doug Sax, Geoff Emerick[4][5] (noted for his work with The Beatles from Revolver to Abbey Road), Steve Hoffman, and many others, including music audiophiles and hi-fi enthusiasts. Even Bob Dylan has condemned the practice, saying “You listen to these modern records, they’re atrocious, they have sound all over them. There’s no definition of nothing, no vocal, no nothing, just like – static.”[6] If a CD is broadcast by a radio station, the station will apply its own signal processing, which further reduces the dynamic range of the broadcast material to closely match levels of absolute amplitude, regardless of the original record loudness. Opponents have also called for immediate changes in the music industry regarding the level of loudness. In August 2006, the vice-president of A&R for One Haven Music, a Sony Music company, in an open letter decrying the “loudness wars” claimed that mastering engineers are being forced against their will or are preemptively making releases louder in order to get the attention of industry heads.[6] Some bands are being petitioned to re-release CDs with less distortion. This may indicate a general public discontent to this practice, and a call to put an end to the “Loudness War”. Effects Enlarge picture Waveform image of a snare drum transient from a 1990 audio recording. Enlarge picture Clipping resulting from above waveform boosted by 9dB to achieve average volume level of recent popular music. Enlarge picture Waveform processed with distortion plugin and boosted by 9dB to achieve average volume level of recent popular music. Enlarge picture Waveform processed with a limiter plugin and boosted by 9dB to achieve average volume level of recent popular music. The practice of increasing a CD’s loudness to be louder than competing CDs often results in distortion. In the digital realm, this is usually referred to as clipping. Digital media cannot output signals higher than digital full scale (0dB), so whenever the peak of a signal is pushed past this point, it results in the wave form becoming “clipped”. When this occurs, it can sometimes produce an audible “click”. However, very often certain sounds like drum hits will reach their peak for only a very short time, and if that peak is much louder than the rest of the signal, this allows an engineer to amplify the recording simply by increasing the volume. The peaks of the drum hits will be clipped, but it will not be noticeable to the casual listener. However, if clipping occurs too much in a recording, or if certain signals are noticeably clipped, it can make the recording sound distorted, making it harsh and fatiguing to listen to. How much is too much is a matter of taste, but most pop and rock CDs, and many jazz CDs have some amount of digital clipping. Analog media, on the other hand, dynamically compresses the signal as it exceeds its saturation point. Such distortion can be utilized in the digital realm as well, either by transferring audio processed with tape or valve saturation to a digital recording medium, or by using computer software to emulate the effect (this process is usually referred to as “saturation”). Analog distortion, real or emulated, results in harmonics that can appear to the listener as a slight “crackle” or “fuzz” within the sound. The effect can vary depending on the sound itself, as well as the amount and kind of distortion used. Because analog distortion doesn’t “flatline” to the extent that clipping does, the results are less harsh-sounding and can result in a desirable “warmth” to the recording, at the cost of slightly less transient response. The amount of distortion increases the more a signal is overdriven, ranging from transparent to highly audible, and just like digital clipping, certain instruments or musical arrangements can better mask distortion than others. In other cases, compression or limiting is used. While the resulting distortion is lessened from the final product this way, it has the side effect of significantly reducing transient response (most often heard as lessened drum impact), and, when taken to severe levels, can reduce the natural dynamics of other instruments within the recording. Loudness increasing techniques, however, do not always affect macrodynamics (the difference in volume between sections of a song) if used with care and detail. Multi-band compression is commonly used to make a mix more uniform and easier to balance, more compatible with low-end equipment, or to achieve a certain “sound” or artistic effect. Slow-acting, broadcast-style compression, on the other hand, will be applied to the music to make the volume in different song sections more uniform. This can make the recording more suitable for background listening or noisy environments, but can also reduce the dynamic expressiveness of the song as a whole. History (Note: Some of these examples are explained using RMS (Root Mean Square) power values. In reference to CD audio, these values are based on the calculation of the average of CD audio sample values with digital full scale used as a reference.) The practice of focusing on loudness in mastering can be traced back to the introduction of the compact disc itself, but also existed to some extent when vinyl was the primary released recording medium. Many record companies would print compilation records, and when artists and producers found their song was quieter than others on the compilation, they would insist that their song be remastered to be competitive.[7] Also, many Motown records pushed the limits of how loud records could be made, and record labels there were “notorious for cutting some of the hottest 45s in the industry.” However, because of the limitations of the vinyl format, loudness and compression on a released recording were restricted in order to make the physical medium playable — restrictions which do not exist on digital media such as CDs — and as a result, increasing loudness levels never reached the significance that they have in the CD era. In addition, modern digital audio effects processing allows mastering engineers to have greater control over the loudness of a song; for example, it gives them the ability to use a “brick wall” limiter which limits the volume level of an audio signal with no delay (analog equivalents have a short delay due to processing time). The stages of CD loudness increase are often split over the two-and-a-half decades of the medium’s existence. Since CDs were not the primary medium for popular music until the tail end of the 1980s, there was little motivation for competitive loudness practices then. CD players were also very expensive and thus commonly exclusive to high-end systems that benefited less from higher recording levels during this period. In addition, for the first four or five years of the CD, there was absolutely no way for a recording to be compressed in the digital domain, as signal processing in the digital domain did not exist for mastering engineers. As a result, the two common practices of mastering CDs involved either matching the highest peak of a recording at, or close to, digital full scale, or referencing digital levels along the lines of more familiar analog VU meters. When using VU meters, a certain point (usually -6 dB, or 50% of the disc’s amplitude on a linear scale) was used in the same way as the saturation point (signified as 0db) of analog recording, with several dB of the CDs recording level reserved for amplitude exceeding the saturation point (often referred to as the “red zone”, signified by a red bar in the meter display), because digital media cannot exceed 0db. The RMS level of the average rock song during most of the decade was around -18 dB. At the turn of the decade CDs louder than this level began to surface, and CD volumes became more and more likely to exceed the digital limit as long as such amplification would not involve clipping more than approximately two to four digital samples, resulting in recordings where the peaks on an average rock or beat-heavy pop CD hovered near (usually in the range of -3dB) 0db but only occasionally reached it. Guns N’ Roses’s 1987 album Appetite for Destruction is an early example of this, with RMS levels averaging -15 dB for all the tracks.[8] In the early 1990s, some mastering engineers decided to take this a step further, and treat the CDs levels exactly as they would the levels of an analog tape and equate digital full scale with the analog saturation point, with the recording just loud enough so that each (or almost every) beat would peak at or over 0 dB. Though there were some early cases (such as Metallica’s self-titled “Black Album” in 1991), albums mastered in this fashion generally did not appear until 1992. Alice in Chains’s Dirt and Faith No More’s Angel Dust are some examples from this year. The loudness of CDs during this period varied massively depending on the philosophies of the engineer and others involved in the mastering process. 1994 was the year in which this style of “hot” mastering became commonplace, though exceptions, such as the album Superunknown by Soundgarden from the same year, still existed. The most common loudness for a rock CD in terms of RMS power was around -12 dB. Overall, most rock and pop CDs released in the 1990s followed this method to a certain extent. The concept of making CDs “hotter” began to appeal to people within the industry, due in part to how noticeably louder CDs had become, and also in part to the notion that customers preferred louder CDs. Engineers, musicians and labels each developed their own ideas of how CDs could be made louder. While the increase in CD loudness was gradual throughout the 1990s, some opted to push the format to the limit, such as on Oasis’ widely popular album (What’s the Story) Morning Glory?, which reached -8 dB on many of its tracks[8] — a rare occurrence, especially in the year it was released (1995). In 1997, Iggy Pop assisted in the remix and remaster of the 1973 album Raw Power by his former band The Stooges, creating an album which, to this day, is arguably the loudest rock CD ever recorded. It has an RMS of -4 dB in places[8], which is rare even by today’s standards. The standards of loudness would reach its limit in the 2000s. -10 dB has been the standard for the past several years, but this is often pushed to -9 dB, and occasionally higher. Quieter exceptions to today’s standards are rare. One noted example of pushing the limits of loudness is the 2001 release by The Bee Gees. Universal Records remastered all the tracks on this CD with many averaging out at -10db, which in some cases caused minor distortion to the booming bass heard on some of the older songs. Interpretations Views regarding the impact of the loudness war are heavily subjective. Proponents of louder CDs claim that consumers prefer louder CDs and that they are better for most busy listening environments. Many hold the opinion that only a handful of albums such as the Red Hot Chili Peppers 1999 release Californication (a CD with such excessive amounts of high-frequency digital clipping that audio enthusiasts have made complaints) are examples worth considering, while others believe any CD where digital full scale is utilized, should be considered unacceptable.[9] Such listeners may be unwilling to listen to albums mastered in a loudness-based fashion. Conversely, others may not notice the effects at all, or consider them only a minor annoyance. Remasters Enlarge picture One Of Us, 1983 release Enlarge picture One Of Us, 2005 remaster Many recordings have been re-released in remastered form. Pre-LP recordings may be remastered using ‘Computer Enhanced Digital Audio Restoration’ (CEDAR). Such tools are designed to improve the bandwidth of the recording and to remove background noise. The critical response to remasters can be mixed. Sometimes an extended frequency response is welcomed, since this can improve the sense of clarity and ambience of the recording. Other times this improved sense of ambience may be counterbalanced by an unnatural and excessive sharpness to the recording [10]. Sometimes engineers may decide to increase the average (rms) level of the recording with the aid of compression. Two screenshots here, of ABBA’s “One Of Us”, from their 1981 album The Visitors (released on CD in 1983) demonstrate the effect. The first image is taken from the original Polydor CD release. The second image is taken from the 2005 remaster (part of the Complete Studio Recordings box set). There is a heavy amount of compression and the dynamics and “snap” of the original track have been lost as a result. The Examples section contains several other remastered albums that have been remastered in this fashion. Other formats At present the loudness war tends to affect only audio CDs and consequently any MP3 or other digital music files produced from them. Recent recordings released on vinyl do not undergo the same kind of loudness-based mastering. This is partly due to technical limitations of the format and partly due to vinyl now being a product for the niche market favoured by a small number of hi-fi enthusiasts — similar to the CD’s role in the mid-1980s. Some SACD and DVD-Audio releases are affected as well. However, nearly all DVD-Audio discs also contain a Dolby Digital (AC3) or DTS sound track to allow the disc to be played in DVD-Video players without DVD-Audio playback capability. Dolby Digital has a defined and calibrated reference playback level and the DTS track will also follow this level. It is therefore beneficial that the high-resolution DVD-Audio soundtrack will be produced at the same reference level — and this indeed is normally the case. As these new high-resolution formats are marketed largely at audiophiles, attempts to master them for loudness would almost certainly be counterproductive as the target audience is likely to be highly critical of sound quality and dynamics. Possible solutions This article appears to contradict another article. Please see discussion on the linked talk page. * The adoption of a common alignment level and enforcement by audio standards organizations.[11] For example, the European Broadcast Union standards call for 18dB of headroom. * Shift all compression to the listener’s end, by incorporating selectable compression and limiting settings in consumer equipment. However, this would require new listening devices must be in place before compression at source is eliminated. Enlarge picture One Of Us, 1983 release with Replay Gain Enlarge picture One Of Us, 2005 re-master with Replay Gain * In 2001, Replay Gain was created as a new proposed standard for digital audio formats. Replay Gain scanning software calculates the perceived loudness of an individual track or album and stores the gain data in the file’s tags so that a Replay Gain compliant player may adjust the playback level to a standard level. When gain is adjusted like this, “hot” compressed tracks can often sound slightly quieter than older less compressed material. The most effective demonstration of this can be performed by comparing an original CD release to a re-master. Similar volume-levelling player-specific solutions exist, e.g. “Sound Check” in iTunes and “Volume Levelling” in Windows Media Player. It should be noted, however, that volume levelling (such as that used by Replay Gain) can only reduce the volume of “loudness mastered” audio so that it is not proportionately louder than the listener’s other music. It cannot restore dynamics or undo clipping, so the ultimate solution may lie with a new digital media entirely. * The new hybrid formats such as DualDisc and hybrid SACD are double-sided and double-layered discs respectively with plain CD Audio on one side or layer (usually mastered for maximum loudness) and high fidelity audio on the other. This offers a compromise: the CD Audio layer can be played in the car or transferred to an iPod or similar device and thereby gain some of the benefits of compression, and the high fidelity side/layer can be played at home to allow listeners to experience the full dynamic range of the recording. * HDCD (High Definition Compatible Digital) is a technology that uses dynamic range compression when mastering a CD. When played back on a normal CD player the sound will be compressed and “loud”. When played back on a CD player equipped with HDCD decoding, a dynamic range expander is brought into play, reversing the compression applied at mastering. Were it to be more widely adopted, HDCD would allow CDs to be made louder for the average consumer while maintaining dynamic range when played on an HDCD player. Unfortunately, however, relatively few CD players have HDCD decoding. There are also several licensing restrictions when using the technology; for example, the decoded signal may not be made available via a digital output. Examples Enlarge picture Waveform of “Some Might Say”, from (What’s the Story) Morning Glory? * Christina Aguilera - Back to Basics[6] * Arctic Monkeys - Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not[8] * The Flaming Lips - At War with the Mystics[8] * Los Lonely Boys - Sacred[6] * Oasis - (What’s the Story) Morning Glory?[8] * Queens of the Stone Age - Songs for the Deaf[8] * Red Hot Chili Peppers - Californication[6][8] * Santana - Supernatural[9] * Sting - Brand New Day[9] * The Stooges - Raw Power (1997 remix)[8] See also * Programme level * Headroom * Alignment level * Audio quality measurement * Audio noise measurement * Loudness * Replay Gain References 1. ^ “Loudness” - Loudness is not simply sound intensity” at HyperPhysics 2. ^ Loudness Curves at HyperPhysics 3. ^ “The Big Squeeze: Mastering engineers debate music’s loudness wars” at Mix Magazine 4. ^ Piosenek, Teksty. Retrieved on 2007-06-12 5. ^ Sherwin, Adam. Why music really is getting louder. The Times Retrieved on 2007-06-12 6. ^ “Everything Louder Than Everything Else” from Austin 360. 7. ^ “The Loudness War” at PerformerMag 8. ^ Southall, Nick. Imperfect Sound Forever . Stylus Magazine. 2006-05-01. Retrieved on 2007-05-15. 9. ^ “Dynamics and Dynamic Range” at StereoPhile. ((Page 2)). Retrieved on 2006-05-20. 10. ^ Greenfield, E. et al. The Penguin Guide to Compact Discs, Preface, p. VIII - X. Penguin Books, London, 1990. 11. ^ EBU Recommendation R117-2006. Retrieved on 2007-05-21 External links * EBU Recommendation R68-2000 * AES Convention Paper 5538 On Levelling and Loudness Problems at Broadcast Studios * AES: An Integrated Approach to Metering, Monitoring, and Levelling Practices (PDF) * Video Explanation of Loudness War (YouTube) * Declaring an end to the loudness wars - by one of its earliest opponents, producer/engineer Barry Diament * Discussion with waveforms including CD analysis and ranking * The Future of Music: Tearing Down the Wall of Noise * Turn Me Up! – An organization campaigning to give artists back the choice to release more dynamic records This article is copied from an article on Wikipedia® - the free encyclopedia created and edited by online user community. The text was not checked or edited by anyone on our staff. Although the vast majority of the Wikipedia® encyclopedia articles provide accurate and timely information please do not assume the accuracy of any particular article. This article is distributed under the terms of GNU Free Documentation License. Copyright © 2008 Farlex, Inc.Source URL: http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/The+loudness+war

By Eric de Fontenay for MusicDish

NEW YORK-(IFS) Not Fade Away Records annouces the release of Tim Young’s third album “The Cost” produced by Mark Meisel and Bob Decker of Detroit’s Counter Clockwise Music.  “Just when I despaired of ever again hearing tight, passionate, honest, slam-bang ROCK, along comes Time Young. . . It comes from a talent that has worked out in the “gym” to develop itself, and a maturity that reminds you just what personal rock and poetry are all about.” -Eliot Camaren, The Clinton Chronicles.