Loud songs/albums that sound good

[tablo]

We have lots of examples of loud albums/songs that sound terrible, what about songs/albums that sound good even though it's very loud?
I'll start off with "Power" by Kanye West.

[dimag333]

new again taking back sunday

[LeeYoo]

Nothing comes to my mind. I HATE loud tracks.
It's not about the music, it's about where you play it.
Everything sound good on the alarmclock and in the car.
Different story on a $5,000 stereo.

[Th3_uN1Qu3]

Killer and Sickology 101 by Tech N9ne. Hella loud but they still sound pretty dope. Especially in comparison with his latest album All 6s and 7s which completely falls apart.

[Kaoz]

Tomahawk - the entire Mit Gas album, but mainly Rape This Day and Capt Midnight.

[IIIrd]

Motorhead - The World Is Yours
Motorhead - Inferno reissue
Jon Spencer Blues expl. - Damage
" - Orange
" - Acme

Queens Of The Stone Age - Songs For The Deaf


There are quite a few where the loudness is appropriate, and without too much in the way of collateral damage. The blues Explosion cd's are incredibly loud

[Theramax9]

Some of Muse's stuff kind of gets by with it, because the vibe of the tracks seems purposely "overblown" and fizzy sounding. I like the band, but listening to an entire CD is rather "offensive". Similar to QOTSA, someone mentioned earlier.


"Perry Mason", by Ozzy. It works with that track. I don't know if it is the "loudest" thing by this year's "standards" [or, actually, lack thereof], but I remember when I played the CD through the console and I saw the meters pinned to the right, mercilessly. I thought maybe someone had hooked something up wrong.


Honestly, most super-loud stuff [as in almost all of it] just sounds stupid, as if whoever did it just didn't know how to engineer. That's what's kind of sad about the whole thing.

[Dug Wolfsohn]

Consolers Of The Lonely by The Raconteurs.
The whole album is really loud but sounds great, looking at it on a DR meter shows that most of the album has a dynamic range of 2db!

[Owen Gillett]

Faith divides us - Death unites us by Paradise Lost. It is a very fat detuned 'gothic' metal production/mix/master courtesy of mr Jens Bogren. Despite being as compressed as it is, it has punch and a very nice frequency balance with liberal low mid, bass and sub content. You can turn it up without it getting harsh. Imagine if it had been allowed another 4dB of dynamic range!

[Cheebs Goat]

Andrew WK "I get wet".

That album is such a cartoon, it gets away with it (and everything else it does).

The first MGMT album also works with the sound it has, the entire point of which is to be as flat, distorted, and stressed as possible.

[nomoreflakes]

the decemberists "the crane wife" album always surprises me

it is very loud yet intact

[sat159p1]

alkaline trio - good mourning.

i think Bernie mastered it.

[Storyville]

House music tends to sound pretty good even at high levels of compression. And house inspired music. LMFAO, Skrillex - basically club music. Personally, I wouldn't mind if it was a little less pushed so maybe more of the low end could push through the speakers - but I would say that stuff generally holds up.

The first Florence And The Machine record, "Lungs" sounded really really good, even though it was pushed hot as can be. The second one was unfortunately pushed further than that...

I'm working on a record now that pretty much pegs the meter the whole time. It's a house influenced pop track.

[Trell Blaze]

Tyrese - Alter Ego...one of the loudest R&B records I've ever heard. It was mastered by Chris Gheringer at Sterling Sound but it was produced and mixed by The Underdogs. I know their reputation so the record was most likely insanely loud before Chris touched it. Still - the incredible loudness doesn't annoy me at all...

[IIIrd]

For the most part The Mars Volta cd's get away with it well...they go over the top sometimes, but one could argue they should do




adendum to that...i did think it a shame a good while back, but i like these albums and don't get afronted by the small amount of loudness war

[blaarg]

well theres a trend to loudness with most all genres metal to pop and dance music. most of the dubstep and dance stuff are based around loudness and compression which is probably why it is popular. personally i try to get my stuff loud because it sounds fuller at all levels in my opinion.
example: Now That I'm With You RRRRREMIX!!!! - YouTube

[Red Mastering]

roots by sepultura,
it's amazingly good sounding album, and it's loud!
(plus it's one of very few metal albums I got

[Joelistics]

Originally Posted by blaarg

well theres a trend to loudness with most all genres metal to pop and dance music. most of the dubstep and dance stuff are based around loudness and compression which is probably why it is popular. personally i try to get my stuff loud because it sounds fuller at all levels in my opinion.
example: Now That I'm With You RRRRREMIX!!!! - YouTube

I don't think there's a correlation between loudness and popularity of genres, it's just a general trend in most genres these days.

Ironically, youtube levels are all over the place and some videos that have more than 10 million views are under 6-db quieter than 'commercial' level.

When it comes to loud masters that sound good the first thing that springs to my mind is Dr Dre's Chronic 2001. I still reference a lot of hip hop against it. Great record imo!

[Th3_uN1Qu3]

Originally Posted by IIIrd

Queens Of The Stone Age - Songs For The Deaf

That one is mixed and mastered in the style of RHCP's Californication, but i've always thought the sound fit them, i listened to that album a lot. Can't say the same for RHCP.

[IIIrd]

Originally Posted by Red Mastering

roots by sepultura,
it's amazingly good sounding album, and it's loud!
(plus it's one of very few metal albums I got

With you there with roots, and their other albums. Not overly loud meter wise, but ears wise they are and are great at eye bleed monitoring level.

Th3_uN1Qu3 - agree with you there, love the chilli prepper's music, I prefer their earlier albums like uplift mofo party plan . the queens of the stoneage sound is better though - generally.

Every album, track, mix etc has (to quote chris athens) it's loudness potential...some fair better than others, so why fight? good auto gain is whats needed...turn down very loud stuff, turn up quiet...get it all within a few dB within the device and there you go...

[Th3_uN1Qu3]

Yes, autogain is THE solution, however it requires headroom on the device (to turn up the quiet stuff), something which is becoming increasingly scarce.

For my own listening on the computer i use Stereo Tool. I only use the auto gain (set to -16dB RMS), limiter and declipper portions. Yes, you read that right. Declipper, as in actually removing the distortion and putting the dynamics back. It's been done. http://www.perfectdeclipper.com/ It's not a cure-all, but it does make clipped stuff sound significantly better, certainly the best declipper i've heard so far. On the other hand if limiting has been done after clipping, or if it's a low quality MP3, the chances of obtaining quality sound decrease drastically.

I've seen the declipper jump as high as 12dB on some stuff. The most offensive example so far is Strangeland by Tech N9ne from his latest album All 6s and 7s. Without the declipper the kick drum intermodulates the voice so bad you'd think it's a 64kbps mp3. With it the intermodulation is still there but at least it's listenable. There's no excuse for clipping this bad, if you look at the waveform the kick is practically a straight square wave. It just sounds so unprofessional.

[Chris Lago]

This pretty much kills:

[robertshaw]

Originally Posted by Red Mastering

roots by sepultura,
it's amazingly good sounding album, and it's loud!
(plus it's one of very few metal albums I got

great record

[estudiomastering]

Longwave - Secrets Are Sinister.
Brilliant songs, sweet and aggressive sound.

[manman]

wow listen to these am i seeing something wrong? it's super damn loud

Chicken & Champagne [Play Digital] :: Beatport

[tablo]

Originally Posted by manman

wow listen to these am i seeing something wrong? it's super damn loud

Chicken & Champagne [Play Digital] :: Beatport

Stereo FX hahah

Originally Posted by Chris Lago

This pretty much kills:

Reptile's Theme also sounds good

[acorneau]

Originally Posted by Chris Lago

This pretty much kills:

[bbcchoir]

Any Radiohead record

[tablo]

Foster the People - Torches

[Piranha]

D'Angelo - Voodoo