OT3: loudness wars

[Kurt Kaufman]

"...Loud CDs use 'hypercompression' - not
data compression but audio compression in the digital realm, which is
at first interesting but eventually tedious to listen to...."

I remember volunteering at an NPR-affiliate station in South Dakota  
twenty years ago, and I convinced the powers-that-be to drastically  
reduce the amount of audio compression on their FM music broadcasts.   
Most of those broadcasts consisted of "classical" orchestral music  
(along with piano solo and string/piano chamber music, etc.), which  
often contain extremes in recorded volume levels (very quiet vs. very  
loud).  But the compression was awful, it would always kick-in right  
after the beginning of a loud passage, squelching the music, and would  
conversely suddenly bring up the volume of a quiet passage.  This  
would distort the flow of the music, making it sound bizarre and  
artificial.

Kurt