Prog rock and the loudness war

And Paradise Lost, from Symphony X, maybe.

I saw Explosions in the Sky last month and thought they had very good dynamics.  Maybe a little too good, because during the soft parts I could hear people talking.  (Very annoying!  Why did they come to a show if they were just going to chat the whole time!)

I would love for you to be right, but even if you are, it will be a slow process. I mean, how long will this anti-trend take to permeate into the music of [insert name of current pop singer we love to hate here]?? Probably half of all the albums that currently dominate the UK charts are written and produced by businessmen. Do they care about dynamic range? Only if it increases sales. Does it increase sales? Not at all. Even people looking for dynamic range will still by albums based on a whole load of other factors first.

Depressing, sorry!

Extreme examples are Green Day's American Idiot, Metallica's Death Magnetic and, curiously, Avril Lavigne (wtf)

Every time I have to do mastering I explain the band about the loudness wars, show them examples and they understand why I won't overcompress the signal to favour the dinamics of the music.

A fantastic example of a VERY dynamic album is Grace for Drowning (Wilson's better sounding work, IMO)

The downside is that we've been listening to dynamic-less music for so many years and some people are not used to the bug dynamics jumps (often complaining about having to adjust  the level in the really low parts and jumping when the loud part comes in, a complaint I have recived in a few reviews)

My answer is that I (and I guess SW too) don't make music for you to listen in the bus with your headphones and the ambient noise on the background, but rather when you're relaxed at home, using a good sound system (hopefully 5.1) and focusing on the music.

 

 went to a Motorhead gig about three years ago....I'm still suffering from about 30% hearing loss in my right ear...

subtle nuance was not on the agenda.

 

It has always been like that, and one of the greatest falacies in the old days was that there were too many bands that were simply loud, and they did not have the music to support it ... but stoned, or with a drink or two, you get some ear ringing off it, that makes you feel like you are totally stoned when you leave and that has always been a point/stipulation for a lot of rock bands whose music was questionable in the first place.

 

The loudest i have ever been to? ...

 

The Rolling Stones and I walked out! And htey were out of tune.

 

Others that were loud:

 

-- Hawkwind (Space 1999 tour), and we left before the conclusion ... the Hall was too small for that loudness.

-- Deep Purple/Leon Russell ... Long Beach Arena ... it was by far the worst concert I have ever seen and DP were ridiculous and lousy and not worth it. I still don't think they should ever be considered "progressive" ... they were also one of the bands that were about "loud" with lots of vaccuousness with it.

-- Black Sabbath ... Hollywood Paladium with Nazareth. So loud that Ozzie couldn't be heard ... and you know that is a real oxymoron!

 

In some ways, Robert Fripp predicted this and said something about it, and it is what "21st Century Schizoid Man" is all about and the guitar and saxophone parts out front are the outburts that bordered on senseless and simply noisy and attention getting ... with nothing behind it ... however, in the end, Robert did not foresee that what he and the album stood for, was a perfect picture of the time and place, and how some people were so confused that no one got or understood his album ... but the music was cool and everyone liked ... which is exactly on par with the loudness mentality in most popular bands.

 

Bands like Amon Duul 2 tried to make fun of the loudness and blow it out of town ... unffortunately they were never really able to blow out an audience, except on one album in London, which is more of a statement about the difficulty in their music, than it is about anything else. They never did "Mozambique" in concert, or "La Krautoma" so they would get a chance to blow out an audience out loud. And sadly, Scorpions made fun of AD2, with the song "Fly To The Rainbow" which was the complete reversal of "Apocaliptyc Bore".