Has anyone else noticed what seems to be an automatic gain control mechanism operating on CD Review now? It seems to be particularly bad during Building a Library.
I first noticed it during the review of Faure Nocturnes when in several extracts the piano suddenly got quieter for no apparent reason and the whole image changed. It seemed particularly noticeable this morning in the Chorus Mysticus example where the choir and background noise started to get louder as the clip progressed. An automatic system obvioulsy doesn't understand the idea of sustained quiet music staying quiet. Then when the reviewer returned his voice was much too loud for a very short time until the system dropped the gain back to normal levels. There was also something odd going on in the louder sections as well with unexplained dips in volume. I can't believe any of these effects are inherent in the original recordings.
BAL provides an excellent opportunity to judge the sound quality of each recording and I don't always agree with the reviewer on this point, but that's not unusual for many contributors to this forum. Given the other limitations of listening via Freeview, which have laready been well aired, this is yet another layer to have to listen through.
I first noticed it during the review of Faure Nocturnes when in several extracts the piano suddenly got quieter for no apparent reason and the whole image changed. It seemed particularly noticeable this morning in the Chorus Mysticus example where the choir and background noise started to get louder as the clip progressed. An automatic system obvioulsy doesn't understand the idea of sustained quiet music staying quiet. Then when the reviewer returned his voice was much too loud for a very short time until the system dropped the gain back to normal levels. There was also something odd going on in the louder sections as well with unexplained dips in volume. I can't believe any of these effects are inherent in the original recordings.
BAL provides an excellent opportunity to judge the sound quality of each recording and I don't always agree with the reviewer on this point, but that's not unusual for many contributors to this forum. Given the other limitations of listening via Freeview, which have laready been well aired, this is yet another layer to have to listen through.
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