Quote:
Originally Posted by kjg  I think this is the main reason the hip hop "artists" all want it that loud.
Quite some of the metal crowd too I'd say. Nihilists. Whatever - Just crank up the limiter if you can't reason with them.
Nobody with at least half a brain (or set of ears...) listens to that BS anyway.
A lot of great hip hop music has been made - just not the past ten years. Hip hop is pretty much dead now, except for the product that's often called "urban" these days, that comes with the attitude and the "lifestyle"...
Empty shells, making empty "music" (in the sense of organized sound), for uneducated, nihilistic, lost soul consumerists.
I think anybody who is into music and art, and cares for the work itself (not how it "compares" to other albums loudness wise, let alone "look at my designer sneakers" wise or "I haven't had any meaningful relation with a woman for over 10 years now - biatch!" wise), can be educated. But whoever is into making a product... which has to have the right image... to compete with the other products...
Just slam it and be done with it - if you need their money that is. There is no character, soul or authenticity there anyway, so your limiter can't hurt it either. |
ah yes, the obligatory ___ music sucks. although i thought this thread was about the loudness wars and the eventual backlash or dismissal. guess i was wrong.
as someone who is in the 'uneducated' and 'less than half a brain' club and who regularly engineers for the same, i really don't experience much problems with having to use or crank the limiter and such to make the clients happy. i make sure nothings peaking, and because sometimes it's just for promo, a mixtape or for the net i will pre master but the dynamics are still there, and so far no complaints to have it louder. if they come back to get the song(s) to get mastered at an ME, they already know that anything on the master bus will be taken off, and if they're going to get it mixed somewhere else, they expect the tracks raw with no peaks. they're not clueless (oh my bad, they are due to them being hip hop heads).
they talk about the issue and their desire to get the music as 'loud' as possible without sacrificing dynamics and quality, but also know that your average listener, in any genre, tend to equate loud with professional, which is the dilemma of most non commercial/signed artist
that being said, there's bound to be a backlash against the loudness wars when some take it to damn near cult/zealot status, where even a mention of compression or limiting is met with admonishment.