Search - Renaud Garcia-Fons :: Arcoluz (W/Dvd) (Jewl)

Great DVD, Great Music, Poor Mastering

Fritz Gerlich | admin@audioetc.info | 04/15/2009

(3 out of 5 stars)

"I'll confine myself to sound quality, since it is rarely mentioned in reviews. Around 2004, Garcia-Fons changed from having fantastic, dynamic mastering to loud dynamically compressed mastering. The result is that Entremundo (2004) and Arcoluz (2005) have very little punch, and a rather monotonous volume level. The dynamics in the music have been gutted. The sound of the instruments has also been degraded by the process of compression, limiting, etc. I would recommend not getting these two disks (except for the dvd); and instead getting Alborea (1995), Legendes (1996), and/or Fuera (1999). Those disks are of top notch quality and will provide you with maximum listening pleasure.



PS: if you want to know more about loudness & dynamic compression go to wikipedia and look up "loudness war". It's a shame that it has infected acoustic music like Garcia-Fons'. C'est la vie."