Quote Originally Posted by Dragun
I noticed this problem when listening to Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na (T-Series) and Ada (Big Music), which were mastered by S. Sivakumar. I wonder if the dynamic compression is being done by the record labels or the ARR's mastering engineers. My Sivaji CD from Ayngaran sounds fine and the waveforms look fairly dynamic, though I suspect some compression was used. Maybe on ARR's end.

Jodha Akbar is a fairly dynamic soundtrack as well. I think ARR generally uses more dynamic compression on pop/techno kind of songs and less on classical or softer songs like JA or Guru.

Other mastering problems I've encountered:

Kangalal Kaidhu Sei (Ayngaran) - Looks to be peak-limited. The waveforms stay in the middle, without ever peaking. I've never seen an ARR CD like this, so I assume Ayngaran did something.

Bombay (Saregama) - I've never heard the Pyramid version, but the Saregama version is utterly lacking in bass.

Thiruda Thiruda/Pudhiya Mugam (Bayshore) - I sadly lost my Magnasound/OMI CD of these soundtracks, which sounded amazing. The Bayshore CD sounds anemic and totally lacks punch.
i completely agree with you about jaane tu especially. kahin to is VERY compressed dynamically and i even heard distortions when singer reaches the high louder notes.

i dont think ARR ever compresses his songs. It has to be done by the audio distributors to make it sound louder and therefore distorting. i mean why would ARR ever compress his songs (maybe there is something i dont know about the advantages of compressing?)

but dragun, really good observations!

also i recently compared ayutha ezhuthu from saregama and ramiy records (swiss label) and saregama is AMAZING!! ramiy is overly compressed!

imo, i think all distributors from india are doing a good job atleast not to alter the originals they get from Rahman. international distributors do this to fit in with other soundtracks. even ayngaran's ah ahh is nasty!

please check the waveforms of pyramid, u will notice they are very very small (amplitude). BUT, the dynamics is wonderful. althot there are small amplitudes, there are also tiny peaks that hit the top meaning, the dynamic range has been used to maximum potential.