Tide turning?

[Silver Sonya]

Last three clients have asked me not to "Metallica" the record.

- c

[Lagerfeldt]

Haha, same here.

[macleodgrant]

this is great news

with my album being mastered in december i'm going for a more natural level where the dynamics are preserved very well

[kri]

Best thing that ever happened! IMO
Now I have something to show people thats its a bad idea even though "loudness war" you tube video doesnt change many of their minds :-/
maybe this will ...............

[Silver Sonya]

It is arguably the most famous overloud record of all time. Although I imagine it is not the worst.

I don't listen to that kind of music, so I've never heard it.

But I thank Metallica for doing it. They seem to have shown everyone --- not just audiophiles --- the madness of the loudness war.

Thanks, Metallica!!

- c

[jdg]

haha. yah totally.
since last week, i've cut at least 3 "quiet" rock masters.

[jordanstoner]

[MASSIVE Master]

Me too. Actually re-running one today that I thought was a little too quiet - Turns out the band thought it was too loud.


If this keeps up, I can actually go back to making things sound good again. I hope I don't have to re-learn anything.

[Cellotron]

I've seen it go both ways but definitely have been encouraged by the amount of folks who want to have their masters cut at what I call "sensible" levels. I've actually had 3 recent jobs where the recording engineer / producer involved in each job made a point of keeping involved with the post-production by encouraging the band to go for lower average levels and helped to influence the end result for the definite better - so I think increased awareness of the issue by mixing engineers to the point where they are willing to spend extra effort in educating their clients as to its downpoints definitely is helping.

Then again I just had a couple of projects in that definitely wanted their masters pushed way harder than I would ever advise - one of which was happy even when I had to introduce some very noticeable distortion and pumping to get some of their tracks to the extreme level requested. Otherwise I consider myself blessed in that I get a good share of jazz and cross genre projects where loudness never gets priority over fidelity.

Best regards,
Steve Berson

[Rappinghood]

Originally Posted by jordanstoner

I think this is one of the worst songs I've EVER heard. But nice find relating to the thread title!!

[Silver Sonya]

I can see a Youtube video now, with shots of various mastering engineers all around the world sitting at their desks, looking at the camera, giving the thumbs-up sign, and saying "Thanks, Metallica!"

- c

[lofi]

wow i gotta hear that "magnetic death thingy" then.

loud is sad.

tutt

[ianshepherd]

It's great to hear this, I'm seeing the same thing - for example last week I called a customer and said, as I so often do, "The source for your new album sounds great, but it's too loud" - and he said "I know" !

First time that's happened, that I can think of...

It would be great to hear anyone else's anecdotes about this, I'm going to do a blog post along the lines of "The Loudness War Is Over (If You Want It)" and quote some of the amazing reaction there's been over the last month. I'd love to quote some of you from here, if you're up for it ?

Ian

[Edward_Vinatea]

My clientele is still taking very seriously my advise against loudness. But there are users from the web who still don't get it and demand it in their samples.
But in general, it would be nice to stop trying hard to get mixes to sound so loud and without significant dynamics. There is no more of that noisy cassette format around {I don't think} to worry about anymore and vinyl records can benefit with higher dynamics. The one thing I will continue to do is to push for -13 to -12 dBRMS and setting a ceiling at -0.1dBFS. I still favor this much RMS for CDs {on certain music styles of course}.

Best regards,

[James Meeker]

In the last six months I've had probably 4 requests for non-loud mixes and masters. Things are definitely turning around in some corners of the world.

[timothyallan]

Originally Posted by Silver Sonya

Last three clients have asked me not to "Metallica" the record.

- c

I'd love it if that phrase became the "Kleenex" of a overly loud mix.

[nnn]

Hello.

Maybe you could suggest producers to release two discs with different masters i.e. the actual high quality master and the other cheap-stereo/car-audio/noisy-clicky "metallica master".

I guess people would love such a double master albums.

[Beyersound]

It's good to hear there is a little logic left in the world. Lets hope it becomes a trend!!!!!!!!!!!

[heathen]

Actually maybe just common sense is prevailing and people finally realise they have a volume knob to turn things up.

Maybe is was the pressure of all those years under Bush.