# Why does music on the radio have less bass? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 30, 2005, 11:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-music-on-the-radio-have-less-bass/319353 "2005-08-30T23:18:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Wishbone\_Ash](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/ba8739/32.png) [@Wishbone\_Ash](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wishbone_Ash)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2005, 11:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-music-on-the-radio-have-less-bass/319353/1 "2005-08-30T23:18:31Z")
I have noticed for a long time that if I heard a song on the radio it has a lot less bass than playing it on the CD. (no my EQ settings are not different). Its easy to notice on the song “In The Air Tonight” by Phil Collins. If I play the CD, the drum part shakes the house, but on the radio it is flimsy. Do stations use some type of compression technique to limit the bass? ---
**Author:** ![Kevbo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e47774/32.png) [@Kevbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kevbo)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2005, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-music-on-the-radio-have-less-bass/319353/2 "2005-08-30T23:25:52Z")
Most radio stations DO compress the audio. They don’t intentionally kill the bass, but that is one of the methodes of compression. By limiting the bass, there is more dynamic range left for the rest of the spectrum. A huge percentage of the listeners are in thier cars. Compression makes it easier to hear programming over traffic noise. Since, outside the ghetto, most car audio systems have fairly weak bass response, losing some base to the compression is an acceptable compromise. ---
**Author:** ![fishbicycle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/aeb1de/32.png) [@fishbicycle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fishbicycle)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2005, 11:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-music-on-the-radio-have-less-bass/319353/3 "2005-08-30T23:35:33Z")
Radio stations compress the snot out of _everything_ in the drive to be louder than everybody else in town. That’s why there are no dynamics in radio music. It’s squashed to the max and brickwall limited to give it that sound that you can’t recreate in your house. As if that were not bad enough, all new CDs are mastered the same way. Levels amplified to 0 dB and hard limited with between 12 and 24 dB of gain. No dynamics whatsoever. Then radio does another compression process on it. Lovely. No wonder decent stereo stores have gone the way of the dodo. A whole generation of kids has never heard what great recordings on a great system sounds like. Sorry for ranting, I’m an engineer. ---
**Author:** ![elsquid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9de053/32.png) [@elsquid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elsquid)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2005, 11:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-music-on-the-radio-have-less-bass/319353/4 "2005-08-30T23:51:49Z")
> [@fishbicycle](#): > > Radio stations compress the snot out of _everything_ in the drive to be louder than everybody else in town. That’s why there are no dynamics in radio music. It’s squashed to the max and brickwall limited to give it that sound that you can’t recreate in your house. As if that were not bad enough, all new CDs are mastered the same way. Levels amplified to 0 dB and hard limited with between 12 and 24 dB of gain. No dynamics whatsoever. Then radio does another compression process on it. Lovely. No wonder decent stereo stores have gone the way of the dodo. A whole generation of kids has never heard what great recordings on a great system sounds like. Sorry for ranting, I’m an engineer. Fascinating. I never knew about the bad stuff done to new CDs. Is there any way to get around this? Does someone have lots of older versions for download online? Can I just buy older CDs without these compromises somewhere? ---
**Author:** ![Future\_days](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/cab0a1/32.png) [@Future\_days](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Future_days)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2005, 12:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-music-on-the-radio-have-less-bass/319353/5 "2005-08-31T00:10:50Z")
Yes, a lot of new CDs these days are mastered for loudness rather than sound quality. This is because loudness sells, it attracts attention on first listen. A lot of it is done for radio, so that their songs stand out more on the radio. It’s sad really, a lot of CDs from the 80s actually sound more enjoyable than their recently remastered equivalents. The Judas Priest remasters are a good example of this. I recently bought a copy of The Who’s _Who’s Next_ album from the Canadian Amazon site, it was the original release of the album on CD and it has a nicer sound than the remasters in a lot of people’s opinion. ---
**Author:** ![Future\_days](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/cab0a1/32.png) [@Future\_days](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Future_days)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2005, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-music-on-the-radio-have-less-bass/319353/6 "2005-08-31T00:12:11Z")
> [@elsquid](#): > > Is there any way to get around this? Does someone have lots of older versions for download online? Can I just buy older CDs without these compromises somewhere? Best bet is to buy second hand on ebay for most things. What bands are you interested in? ---
**Author:** ![fishbicycle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/aeb1de/32.png) [@fishbicycle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fishbicycle)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2005, 1:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-music-on-the-radio-have-less-bass/319353/7 "2005-08-31T01:52:37Z")
> [@elsquid](#): > > Is there any way to get around this? Does someone have lots of older versions for download online? Can I just buy older CDs without these compromises somewhere? As mentioned, you will probably have to look for earlier pressings of CDs, made before about 2002. They started with the brickwall limiting around then, and it caught on, and now nearly everything has it. Earlier mastering jobs may not have been as smooth as what is possible today, and they may have some tape hiss, or they may even have artifacts from digital noise reduction done by an engineer who didn’t know much about digital noise reduction (this is very rare, but I’ve heard it). But they won’t be hard limited. The thing is, now they have remasters of albums with outtakes and alternate versions as bonus tracks that were not issued on the previous CDs. If you want them, you have to buy the new masters that sound like crap. Classic catch-22. ---
**Author:** ![snailboy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/97f17d/32.png) [@snailboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snailboy)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2005, 2:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-music-on-the-radio-have-less-bass/319353/8 "2005-08-31T02:39:53Z")
Apparently the radio stations vary. There was a station in Dallas that had significantly more bass than a station I listen to in Shreveport. I guess not all stations use a lot of compression. ---
**Author:** ![Future\_days](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/cab0a1/32.png) [@Future\_days](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Future_days)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2005, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-music-on-the-radio-have-less-bass/319353/9 "2005-08-31T22:53:25Z")
Classical stations tend to have less compression.