i love that term "the loudness wars" it makes me feel silly every time i read it...
last time i checked there was no gun to my head .. surely we are all free to do what suits us and our clients - there is no army .no rebels , no empire
i make things as loud as i can before i hear , feel and see the crunch then i back it off a touch.
i tell my clients it will be louder then 80 of cds in any shop and i think it sounds good that way and there will be 20 % that will kick their butts loudness wise but i think those records sound compromised.
the 20 % ers are the ones that are in the trenches fighting hand to fist in the loudness wars
its been the same in every "real" war there is always a certain percent of nuts who are prepared to go over the top first and then a bunch of guys that will follow them thinking that they had to do it - that it was their duty and so the battle drags on and on until everybody forgets what they were fighting for and common sense gets put into action and the battle dies away
the thing is you CAN make a record sit in a cd player with 6 current top 40 discs without smashing it to death , you just need to focus in on the 80 % not the 20%
then of course some guy with a bad haircut will turn up wanting his band louder the everybody else and we all do just as he asks.. i mean he wants to be a 20 % er squished beyond the point of control ... fine its his record
but he has to really want to go over the top we give him an education in the sound he is looking for , if he still wants it ..we do as he wants
but we are am not pushing anybody into the killing zone daily around here.
thoughtful level control is what is needed - not more soldiers going off to the loudness wars with new improved weapons of mass dynamic destruction.
loudness wars ...? it cracks me up ...
i will just zip up my flack jacket now and wait for the incoming