I need some feedback -- confused, maybe

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I will listen later. Best if you don’t identify  the tracks so that you get unbiased feedback. You are much luckier than me to get this many responses. 

 

Edit added:-

I prefer the SACD. The background music much clearer. The vocal is right. Instruments presence are more pronounced. I did increase SACD volume by 2.5dB after I sense that the SACD version was better despite the Album appears to be sharper when listened without the level increase. 

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33 minutes ago, John Dyson said:

My version derived directly from a copy of a DolbyA version is the first one (natural.)  The 2nd one to me sounds compressed and distant.  Each person has their own taste, but it seems (to me) that the general taste is going towards a compressed sound.  The natural version is about as 'naked' as the recording gets.  (You can actually hear the distortion from the original -- the first version above -- in the remastered HDtracks version.  They apparently, for remastering the HDtracks version, only had the distorted DolbyA versions to begin with, and simply added some compression/accompanyment/EQ to the original.)

* I was initially incredulous that the SACD version was so very far from the original recording...

 

This general taste for compression is the reason why I asked the question.  It is interesting to me -- I actually used to like compressed sound, but compression can almost never be done without distortion.  Now, since I am working on audio processing -- I have become hyper-sensitized because I know *exactly* how to listen for the gain control distortion  (it is all part of the audio h*ll thing.)

 

The real problem with the orginal (not-compressed-additionally) stuff is that ALL of the original distortion and vocal enhancement is obvious.  Sometimes it seems that some compression helps to take the edge off of the sound.  Sometimes, mellowing out the sound with some EQ or compression might be helpful.

 

Hearing the super clear, raw DolbyA decoded versions of Linda Ronstadt (stuff like 'Just One Look') using the Aphex distorter (keep forgetting the real name) is a real trip to audio hell.  Potentially really clear, nice sound -- all mangled by phase/time corruption.

 

John

 

 

 

Glad you liked the Dolby A processed sound. OTOH, I prefer not to alter the original sound in the recording. I used to add a low pass filter for the sub but no longer.

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I don’t think compression is always bad more so if you take into consideration of how our ears work when dealing with loud peaks and loud levels.