On Monday, June 5, 2017 at 7:38:44 AM UTC-4, wrote:
wrote: "Not at all. I'd expound further but I don't want to upset Phil. "

We need to ignore the bulldogs
on the thread and continue to
promote intelligent discourse.
Seriously!


My GUT tells me that a source
(an entire song, individual tracks,
stems, etc) retains *more* of its
inherent dynamics when *less*
processing(compression, limiting,
etc) is applied to it. Please
correct me anywhere you think
my instincts are misleading me.

I think we're talking about two different things. The processing I'm referring to isn't part of the recording process, but in the performance itself. In general, rock music is performed on instruments that already are heavily processed, guitars in particular. Guitars are filtered through all kinds of distortion, phasing, chorusing, etc. effects. Keyboards (other than the occasional acoustic piano) are also electrically processed and a lot of drums are synthesized anyway. These instruments are uniquely suited to digital recording. The dynamics I'm referring to is the range between the softest and loudest passages. Other than the occasional ballad, rock is very dynamic (even power ballads).

Symphonies OTOH feature many dozens of acoustic instruments, each making an unprocessed sound. And while many symphony pieces can be quite dynamic and demanding of a sound system, there is a lot of it that is soft.