The Loudness War

[amoergosum]

Here's a great article on The Loudness War:
Link:
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/ar ... 6054893862

If this trend continues, music looks set to be largely devoid of emotion and personality in future.

...brilliant clip with mastering engineer Greg Calbi:

The Level War comes from being afraid that a certain part of your customer base will leave you if they perceive that you can't make the cd as loud.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Do1FJ5BcqSY[/youtube]



Example (switch to 480p after pressing play) :

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TqQX3htzhSY[/youtube]

[S.P]

I really enjoyed those two clips, I wasn't aware that there was a loudness war. Does this happen with in all CDs these days i.e. even Chick's, or Herbie's records? Or is it mainly in mainstream music?

[amoergosum]

Discussion on BBC Radio 4:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IKSaaBTRbc0[/youtube]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dyscQ43HEyw[/youtube]

[amoergosum]

Difference between the overcompressed CD version of 'Stadium Arcadium' (Red Hot Chili Peppers) and the LP version (mastered by Steve Hoffman) >>>

Switch to 480p after pressing play:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EScPiP2QjXM[/youtube]

[amoergosum]

Great presentation >>>

[vimeo]http://vimeo.com/16835917[/vimeo]

[Ardent15]

Can't hear you, listening to the latest Rush album now.

[Suspiria]

Yeah, amazing what kind of garbage is sold these days. I recently hear samples of the upcoming Beastie Boys record and it is insanely loud.

[Andy Vermiglio]

During the filming of the documentary "The Heart is a Drum Machine" I spoke to Eddie Kramer about the compression wars. He said that many times when he's brought in to mix an album, he'll go in to the program and remove much of the compression that a previous engineer used. When he does this the clients will say "wow, it sounds so much better!"

Thanks for your posts!

[robhaerr]

I'm no sound expert, but...

This is what happens while video recording a gig with a Zoom Q3 HD. The "spike dynamics" are somewhat gone, and it sounds like everything is at the same volume. It's OK for evaluating a gig or your playing...but not that great for any kind of "quality". I still love my Zoom...but finding it's limitations...it's internal limiter/compression thingy that prevents those spikes from clipping the audio.

[chris perra]

Your'e exactly right Rob,... Most recorders have a built in auto leveling limiter...

I can't stand the sound quality of albums these days... We have so much awesome technology that's so cheap in comparison to the pre digital days... But when a mastering engineer gets ahold of it they usually destroy it... Usually against their better judgement... The potential fidelity that we could get from the gear that is out there now is ridiculous but for some reason, unless you make non mainstream music it gets trashed..

If you want to get into it. check out this Honor roll put together by Bob Katz. If you are into recording check out the rest of his site.. some killer info on there


http://www.digido.com/honor-roll.html