The anti-loudness wars go overground

[juicylime]

Saw this in yesterday's Gaurdian. Nothing that slutz won't already know but it's good to see album examples named and shamed and to see the word being spread in mainstream media.
http://technology.guardian.co.uk/wee...992325,00.html

[d_fu]

Originally Posted by juicylime

http://technology.guardian.co.uk/wee...992325,00.html

Quote: "The brick wall has been reached. I wonder how long it will be before the record companies re-re-release their back catalogue, re-re-mastered for additional dynamic range?"


"Now with a whopping 10 dB dynamic range..."

Does anyone have that Paul Simon album? Would it be ok to post a 30-second-sample here?

[juicylime]

Maybe the loudness wars are an extremely clever marketing ploy by labels to flog distorted records so that they can then turn around and offer the undistorted version in the future to the same people. It's like they've realised through the introduction of varying formats that the real money is actually in reselling the same product as many generations as possible. Artist develpment has been replaced by artist re-deployment.

MP3 will be the same. The kids of today will be told in 10 years that MP3 is actually seriously sub standard and that without hearing the original wav's they quite simply haven't really heard the music properly. All by the same people selling the MP3's now. And then some lone dissenting hippy (him: ) will stand up and point out that that record was actually made AAA in the first place so they're still talking nonsense.
Um....rant over.

[Geert van den Berg]

Great article, I'll print it. If I have someone complain about an undistorted dynamic CD I'll give it to them to read and think about.

[juicylime]

Originally Posted by Geert van den Berg

Great article, I'll print it. If I have someone complain about an undistorted dynamic CD I'll give it to them to read and think about.

That's a good point. I used to hate, hate, hate it when bands asked me to do some rough mastering in house. Eneivetably I'd do it but would call it something like volume version or something. Several times the bands would then send for mastering but would actually send that version, "Because it sounds much better in the guitarists car so surely it's a better start for the ME." Ukk.

[r.staettler]

The kids of today will be told in 10 years that MP3 is actually seriously sub standard

most of the kids of today wont even recognize the names of the "stars" they listen to on their cellphones in 10 second cuts.
but many of them will identify the exact model of denim fashion they wore at a specific evening

[max cooper]

"Equalisation done digitally is very harsh, and most mastering engineers tend to overuse it."

[Pasta4lnch]

Originally Posted by Geert van den Berg

Great article, I'll print it. If I have someone complain about an undistorted dynamic CD I'll give it to them to read and think about.

I doubt it'll do any good, but good idea anyhow!

[synth.ignition]

i particularly liked this:

"The only way that something can sound loud is if there's something quiet that precedes it, or else there's no frame of reference."

but why do i think A&R will read this as justification instead of thinking "hmmm...maybe the better frame of reference is actually in the song itself and not other CDs"?

[Pasta4lnch]

Originally Posted by synth.ignition

i particularly liked this:

"The only way that something can sound loud is if there's something quiet that precedes it, or else there's no frame of reference."

but why do i think A&R will read this as justification instead of thinking "hmmm...maybe the better frame of reference is actually in the song itself and not other CDs"?

I thought that was a great line as well . . . never thought about it, but it makes total sense!

[audiovisceral]

Originally Posted by Pasta4lnch

I thought that was a great line as well . . . never thought about it, but it makes total sense!

Some songs are terrible for this, All My Life by the Foo Fighters comes to mind. It's supposed to be quiet in the beginning, but it actually sounds quieter when everything else comes in post-intro because the quiet intro (though you don't realize it at the start) was actually so loud to begin with.

Great song otherwise ...

[theblue1]

Originally Posted by juicylime

Saw this in yesterday's Gaurdian. Nothing that slutz won't already know but it's good to see album examples named and shamed and to see the word being spread in mainstream media.
http://technology.guardian.co.uk/wee...992325,00.html

It's great to see people outside the recording community talking about this -- but I couldn't help but notice that it was in the IT section -- not the arts or consumer sections.

[recall]

agreed, if it had been in the arts section far more people would read it, I'm bummed out producing these "slabs" for people. Loud does not equal quality, but a lot of musos don't actually "listen" to music. I've worked with a band off and on for years and none of them ever buy records and will only listen through crappy small computer speakers, therefore any quiet intros which aren't heard above the whining fan on a computer is deemed "not mastered/recorded properly"

It bugs me that people who want to make music their living don't educate themselves.....off topic but heres the root cause in my opinion.

[Gregg Sartiano]

Great article -- technically on point but written in terms the layman can understand and identify with.

[Acoustic Cloud]

Rollercoasters have dynamics. If it didnt chill for a while, the next part wouldnt be scary. If the whole thing was a corkscrew till the end, or straight ahead at 400 mph till the end, there would be no nuttin' for comparison.

People will just realize later that it was all bad. Thats not out of the norm, same as usual........carry on.

Years ago I was a competitor on guitarwar.com... this was when I was just getting into digital recording. My 2 tape machines were gone, all my outboard, and i wasnt liking the sounds from the pc.. (yes I pouted a while about it) But I started realizing that dynamic control was so do-able with digital, as long as you didnt over do it. (clippage,etc)

Oh well, cut story short...the stuff many people do sounds good nowadays, and much dont.