Loudness War

[Jarlaxle 56]

What is your opinion on the fact that Record Labels are forcing tracks to be produced at such a high volume that the quality of sound is sacrificed? Personally, I'm a bit peeved, I like to hear EVERY instrument. So much music released today has no "space" and everything sounds pushed together, this includes remasters of old music, you just can't find decent sound quality short of a live performance, vinyl or Indie music.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loudness_war

Edit: Here is another very good article

http://www.cdmasteringservices.com/dynamicrange.htm

[Pb Derigable]

I more pissed that all cable and satellite companies compressed all the channels so they can have 6 food channels and 13 women channels. They don't compress channels that have alot of movement like movie and sports channels, but the rest of the channels look like shit, even the semi compress sports channels. They had to throw a football game on temp channel, but it was one of the channels that they compress and it looked like absolute shit, even tho it was in 1080 HD.

but back on track, i always thought new music sounded shitty and i always thought it was because of the compression, but the last article that was posted, pretty much assured me i was right. i think one of the reasons the reunion concert sounded shitty was because they were compressing all the zep instruments. it only sounded good when the multi source came out which helped with the compression problem. i read that the guy wanted the zep to sound like they were in the 90's. that man should not be calling himself a sound engineer. He was probably one of those hacks who is turning a fucking knob every two seconds. Zep made their music in the 70's and it should sound like it was made in the 70's, and to this day i refuse to buy the Mothership becasue of this reason.

[Jahfin]

Remastered Rock CDs - Better or Worse?

[Jarlaxle 56]

I think it's a bit sad, I've listened to an un-mastered copy of The Red Hot Chili Peppers' "Californication" and it's a damn shame how much potential went to waste with the (shitty sounding) retail version.

BTW, the un-mastered copy is floating around on the internet.

[Jahfin]

I think it's a bit sad, I've listened to an un-mastered copy of The Red Hot Chili Peppers' "Californication" and it's a damn shame how much potential went to waste with the (shitty sounding) retail version.

BTW, the un-mastered copy is floating around on the internet.

I have read of some people buying a vinyl copy of their last album (Stadium Arcadium) and burning it to CD because the compression was just too much on the original CD version.

[Pb Derigable]

I also believe that music is sounding shittier is because most people don't have a good pair of headphones. I don't care if you own the $200 Bose ear buds. those can't get as loud and have enough bass as a pair of those big studio style headphones. even the cheap ones are better.

Plus since the standard music system in a car today is better than the most expensive one 10 years ago, more people are listening to music in there cars and almost all modern car stereo (stock or not) have a built in compressor to make things seem louder. sometimes they hide it as a bass booster or loudness.

All FM broadcast are compress, Cd's are getting more compress, and any MP3 player is going to compress it even more. Even though most modern Cd's sound like shit, they still sound better than a FM or IPOD. I think XM uses more compression than Sirius to fit more channels. So the fact music itself is getting compress, our technolgy is adding to the effect.

The bass guitar tone is dead now. it all sounds the same to me because. because when you listen to For Your Life, you feel the kick of the bass drum and the bass guitar and that needs alot of volume to those freq. to work. when you compress, they bass my seem more apparent, but you lose the actual feeling of the bass kick. which kills the sound IMHO

[Sugarplum]

These discussions about analog recording in comparison to compressed digital recording are really starting to interest me. I noticed something seemed off with the sound, but you guys are really helping me to understand why. Thanks a lot, and please keep posting. I'm starting to realize what my ears have been missing..

And I specifically went and bought a pair of studio headphones particularly for the sound quality issue.. no one informed me that they delivered the sound in a more accurate way, but I remember I used to use them when I was younger, and in comparison to the ear buds, I've noticed a difference. I'm still wishing I could listen to my music in a non-compressed format though..

[Sugarplum]

Edit: Here is another very good article

http://www.cdmasteringservices.com/dynamicrange.htm

That explains so much. Great article!!

[Sugarplum]

Here are some links to an interesting interview with a sound engineer. He talks about analog vs. digital, mp3s, loudness, dynamics, formulating a pleasant listening experience, making decisions throughout the recording process, as opposed to leaving it all to be fixed in the end (how musicians are tending to think, "Oh, I can just fix that later".. How they're not really making decisions along the way.)..

There are several more videos from the interview under the 'Related Videos' scrollbar.

[Otto Masson]

Thanks for posting Jarlaxle, interesting stuff.

Californication is pretty bad in that way certainly. At the time I must admit the joy of hearing a new, really good album album with Frusciante back in the band completely overshadowed any sound complaints. But it was easily noticeable.

[hotlightning]

thats nuts - you find crazy stuff on wikipedia dontcha?

[TRB]

I find this not a surprise; most young "listeners" I've run across equate volume with quality anyway. I have been listening on studio sets for several years; standard sets are shite.

[ledbaby]

Depends on what the artists want to do. They created the music and would know if they want to release music with a change or an "upgrade."

IMO it can go either way, depends on the music and the engineer behind it.

Point:

Some may not have had the edge needed to start with. Let the artitsts play or you keep one thing and only one thing.

[DoubleNecker]

Not sure if it's the right area, but when I first listened to What's The Story (Morning Glory) by Oasis, I noticed that it was particularly VERY loud. I read that it was layered guitars, but then, it was still pretty loud even without that theory. I wonder if that contributes to this?

[Jarlaxle 56]

Not sure if it's the right area, but when I first listened to What's The Story (Morning Glory) by Oasis, I noticed that it was particularly VERY loud. I read that it was layered guitars, but then, it was still pretty loud even without that theory. I wonder if that contributes to this?

Yep, that album is a perfect example. You know why it's so popular? Because if everything is extremely loud you can play it in places like your car or at a party and it won't be drowned out by all of the other noise. And the other reason, if everything is at the same volume nothing in the songs will jump out at you. Which makes it perfect as background music while you're doing something else, or at a party.

Bottom line, people love stuff that's safe and generic.

[Jahfin]

From TheAtlantic.com:

The Loudness Wars: Is Music's Noisy Arms Race Over?

High-volume sound engineering may finally be falling out of fashion

Sleigh Bells

Flickr user Erica Cassella

The loudest album of 2010 was almost certainly Sleigh Bells' acclaimed Treats, a collection of songs with the volume and distortion of nearly every element pushed into the red. Drums became blasts of noise, the lyrics were nearly impossible to decipher, and even though it was very much a pop album, it was almost painful to listen to. That, of course, was precisely why it thrilled.

Sleigh Bells had designed the album to sound that way. "I love the physical aspect of music," guitarist Derek E. Miller said in an email to The Atlantic. "I want people to have that experience of standing in front of a rack of sub-woofers, being blasted with air and feeling the center of your chest crush a little. I usually blur the vocals so people spend less time thinking about the lyrics and more time responding on a purely emotional level. Overdubs, hard pans, extremely short delays."

To read the rest of the article, click here.

[dazedcat]

""Everything comes full circle, so I think at some point things will calm down and people will be more into extreme dynamic ranges."

That, then, may be the end of the Loudness Wars: As brick-wall limiting became more popular and attracted more attention, it became something gauche, ugly, uncool. And there's no better way to keep something out of music than to make it seem uncool.

Well here's hoping. Nice article.