Clark's compression

[two lives]

It seems there are more geeks nowadays who because they can spot 'compression' in a track, they think they can justify an opinion as being fact rather than opinion. Clark has had some stick from kids who say his music is over-compressed... so what?! You know what you sound like geeks? You sound like old farts from the 50s who moaned about kids using 'distortion' on their guitars in the 60s. It's like trying to say that metal bands use too much distortion on their guitars... that's their sound!

Each to their own, but don't try and elevate your taste to some form of scientifically dignified view because you've seen the waveforms on bleep and they're all 'blocks'... do you listen with your eyes?

If you listen to music intellectually, you aren't hearing. Dynamics in a waveform and perceptual dynamics are 2 very different things. That's why a heavily clipped sine tone (a square wave) sounds louder than a sine tone that isn't clipped, despite them both being the same amplitude - it's called perception. If you allow your knowledge to take over your perception, you'll convince yourself they same the sound volume.

People who 'know' that the waveform is less dynamic convince themselves that the music is less dynamic... strangely enough, people who don't know much about compression enjoy the music and ignore all of those 'rules of enjoyment'.

Besides, none of you know a fraction as much about compression as clark. Compression is something he clearly has a good feel for, but he makes loud slamming music, so what?

Oh, and for those who say clark is ripping off jackson.... I KNOW for a fact that it is the other way round.

[Aesthetics]

Great post but wrong messageboard imo. As far as I'm aware the people here do like Clark or choose not to speak about it. Your topic seems a bit out of the blue to me... as if you need to ventilate your feelings?

If you want your post to be taken seriously and are up for some feedback see this board:
www.xltronic.com/mb

Friendly topic
Unfriendly topic

Just see my post in the first topic. The users over there tend to express what they don't like rather than what they do like.

[Lone]

amen two lives, aamen.

'dont think.. feeeeel'

[john fonda]

I feel it adds a claustophobic feel to his music,herzog and ted are genius in my opinion

[Lone]

some of jacksons stuff is tasty. clarkious pisses on him though in my opinion. pissess on most folk.

[thedisavowed]

Clark

Pros:

1) Excellent sense of melody and pacing
2) Exciting, energetic tracks
3) Good production values
4) Banging albums (Body Riddle is among the best of Warp's output IMO)

Cons:

1) The compression does cause ear fatigue. I rarely can listen to an entire Clark album end to end. But I rarely listen to Autechre albums end to end, either. They're challenging listens.

But even that said- it is surprising how much nuance he extracts out of his tracks, even with everything cranked to the max.

[Lone]

crank it the fuck up i say.

yeah body riddle is a classic, no question. id certainly put it in a top 10 of warp albums. if i could be arsed to make a list.

all his albums are awsome to me. turning dragon is the only one im not crazy about, but i still think there are moments on that record that are truly inspired. real tastefull stuff.

his remixes hes been doing lately are ace too - that jungle remix of the milanese track is nuts, the amon tobin one is wicked (probably my fave) and that latest pivot one.

[The Telepathic Kid]

O rly Lone?
Turning Dragon is probably my favourite Clark album.

Jackson is also pretty awesome.
They're different artists with different sounds, Jackson with a warped party like sound, and Clark with lots of energy, yet sorta cold and dark.
I couldn't compare the two.

[cmx]

by the way; i saw him yesterday and it was greaatttttt

[kyriakos]

clark is awesome