neil wilkes
2K Club - QQ Super Nova
(with apologies for the selected quote)
I broadly agree with what you are saying here - it is indeed often true that modern mastering techniques will destroy any mix out of all recognition. It is also a sad truth that more records have been ruined by bad mastering than have been improved on by good mastering. Don;t get me wrong though, there are still some superb ME out there (Bob Katz will always give you the best sounding master, not the loudest one for example - and he has a magic touch).
Where I think you're off the mark is when saying that "If too conservative you get reduced bit rate audio and tend to lose dynamic range" I am guessing you have fallen for the old myth that if you do not use all the bits up you throw away definition or resolution - this is nonsense, and you lose nothing by delivering a mix that does not use the entire range of dBFS - you deliver a more dynamic one because not only are you giving those transients breathing space you are also still using the same dynamic range - if your quietest passage is at say -50dBFS and your peak is at -10dBFS your dynamic range is still the same as if your quietest part was at -40dBFS and your loudest at 0dBFS.
What changes is your Signal to Noise ratio though. It gets worse.
Also, 16/44.1 Red Book audio has exactly the same bitrate - regardless of where the peaks are in the audio file. Lowering the peak does not somehow reduce the resolution.
