Loudness War

Loudness war is a theme which is mentioned very often today. After hearing the last metallica
output "Death Magnetic" on the really good environment of a friend, we started discussing why
this happens to such well reputated musicians.
After looking around the internet for a while i suddenly found this place:
http://www.dynamicrange.de/
with lots of information AND a tool to check the dynamic range for given music files.
I have only checked some of my older and some of my newer CDs (as MP3). I really found that,
for example, my pink floyds are all have value of 11-12, while my procupine trees are around
8-9. The only new exception i have found so far seems to be "Part The Second" from motW with 12.
I think it would be interessting to see if you can see AND hear similar differences, especially
for so called remastered editions.

Death Magnetic is going to end up being a turning point because even non-musicians can obviously hear the damage done to the music. Now how much we return to sanity remains to be seen. One of the biggest issues is that really high dynamic range requires both good replay equipment and more importantly a good listening environment to be appreciated. If it's just music to jam in the car, even 90's level of range are fine and probably actually better for that lo-fi experience.

This could be a natural progression starting with CDs and digital recordings, which really don't capture low-end frequencies very well.  The issue with most listeners these days seems to be quantity over quality.  This is natural I suppose, but combined with lust for the latest electronic gadget that is smaller than any before, we end up cutting out something in order to squeeze in as many tunes as possible.  That is apparently range dynamics.  Everything is evened out, making the sound dull.  But as long as it sells units, whether they be electronics or music, many do not care.    Besides, how can you fit a big sound into such tiny devices?  How much sound can come through earbuds?  Popular listening technology is what is currently driving the recordings, not the other way around as it has been in the recent past.  And that is indeed unfortunate for those of us who value good music and good sound. 

The worst part is that Metallicas technicians won't admit they're wrong. They think clipping is just fine.

got 6 on the latest DT...

Is it oki if i just have no clue what you are talking about

Dean wrote: You have to bear in mind that the Dynamic Range figure is a relative measurement and does not necessarily reflect the loudness of the recording - if the unmastered uncompressed original (post-mix) recording had a limited dynamic range then the final mastered version will have a poor Dynamic Range figure without clipping or over compression. It is feasile that two different recordings can have the same DR value when one is heavily compressed and clipped and the other has none. For example an uncompressed post-rock drone album could have a terrible DR value and still be a good recording whereas an avant garde album with the same DR value could be a horribly over compressed album.   Simply put - you cannot compare the figures for two different recordings with each other. However for comparative assessment of two similar albums, or of remastered vs. original it is a fair tool.

Very true. I prefer to rely on the album gain calculation in Winamp ... it calculates the RMS value. But of course that's also not a true indication of whether there's clipping or not. Some tracks are louder than others - a death metal track will be louder than a solo acoustic guitar, for instance.

A message from Steven Wilson in the Porcupine Tree album "Deadwing":

"Please note that this record may not be mastered as loudly as some of the other records in your collection. This is in order to retain the dynamic range and subtlety of the music. Please, use your volume knob."

I haven't got that one, but I'm glad that somebody's doing it right

I absolutely hate this trend in music. To my ears, it's like taking a step back to the early 60's. Listen to "Comfortably Numb" on a good system and you'll hear everything, there is a lot of space - staging - in the recording. It breathes. Much of the music produced in the late 70's through the early 90's has that very open quality, lots of tonal variation. I'm not sure when it started to get all packed in with compression, but I sure as hell hate it.

I didn't put together an audiophile grade system to listen to albums that sound like they were done with a Fostex four-track in a basement.