Processing your sound for output.
In the past I have been a supporter of outputting your sound raw and untouched to the amp and letting the music producer be the person to say how the music sounds. Let the engineer be the engineer. But now I am starting to have my doubts. I was wrong, and the postprocessing crew may have a point (Let me apologise if I offended anyone in the back and forth).
Take for instance this example. Sasha and Digweed on a Radio program playing two tracks. The first track is:
George Delkos - Deftoner
Here is the track raw from Beatport:
Deftoner on Beatport
And here is same the track from their radio show:
The difference is astonishing. The beatport copy sounds flat and a bit “Meh” and I wouldn’t look twice at it, much less buy it. Meanwhile their radio version is zinging, full and dripping with their trademark heavy groove. This is why I always search out the tracks I hear and I can never recreate the energy of their mixes - they process the shit out of them. Even given that Radio sources usually compress signals somewhat, that doesn’t explain all of the juicyness of their sound. They have something pumping the mid and high end of their output.
I’d love to know what they use… Anyone?
EDIT: Yes, I know Beatport previews usually tend to lose some of the high end but so does Youtube - both the streams are compressed, so I argue that my comparison is valid. There’s more to it than just “more hihat”. Also, before judging make sure the two versions of the track are playing at similar high volumes and tell me what you think.
