The Loudness War

Badlittlekitten · 12-20-2010, 02:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SATCHMO

In the case of Loudness Wars, which is really a compression war, the resulting loudness is usually not from any sort creative decision or input from the musicians themselves who are creating the music , but a marketing technique used by record companies so that an album or song gets noticed or stays at the forefront of a listener's attention.

I'm not clued up on the technical side of production, mastering etc. and wasn't really aware of this. So record companies actually do this to gain listeners attention? Seems like really dumb logic on their part.

SATCHMO · 12-20-2010, 02:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Badlittlekitten

I'm not clued up on the technical side of production, mastering etc. and wasn't really aware of this. So record companies actually do this to gain listeners attention? Seems like really dumb logic on their part.

Yes, this is something that record companies do very consistently and It's been a steady and increasing progression since the late 70's, but the original post of this thread does a far better job of explaining it than I ever could.

~~someonecompletelyrandom~~ · 12-20-2010, 02:34 PM

Again, it's all in the GIF.

SATCHMO · 12-20-2010, 03:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Conan

Again, it's all in the GIF.

Yeah, that GIF really does illustrate the evolution within the recording industry over the course of the past 25+ years of the overuse and abuse of dynamic compression becoming becoming the default standard in producing albums. I don't think it's anything we're going to get away from anytime soon.

Zer0 · 12-20-2010, 05:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pedestrian

I remember a couple of years ago Metallica got huge criticism for doing this on their album.

I remember getting Death Magnetic the day it was released. When i brought it home and listened to it the first thing i noticed was the sound quality. On headphones the album can be very painful to listen to and some parts of the album sound a bit distorted. They remastered and re-released the album a few months afterwards i think and the sound is meant to be a lot quieter and clearer.

The best example of a 'loud' album that i've come across is The Woods by Sleater-Kinney. At first i thought i'd downloaded a bad rip because the sound quality was so loud and distorted, but it turns out that the album sounds like that anyways. The album gain is roughly around -13.05 dB which is ridiculously loud for a studio album. The album was produced by a certain Dave Fridmann, who was also responsible for ensuring that The Flaming Lips' At War With The Mystics album was just as loud.

Badlittlekitten · 12-20-2010, 05:59 PM

Well I've learnt something today. It's funny, I've always accepted that cds I've got from recent years are likely to be louder than one from, say, the 80s, but I never put any thought into why that may be.

Admittedly there's not many albums I like, that I can think of, that have suffered from this. But then maybe that's why I like them?

Stone Birds · 12-20-2010, 06:19 PM

i'm actually okay with some loudness, but when something is so overcompressed that there's absolutely no dynamics (the waveform is literally a block) it doesn't sound good. or when i download an mp3 to itunes sometimes people have the "volume adjustment" messed with usually all the way up. volume adjustment is only to make sure that audio can be heard at a respectable level with the rest of your music not to kill ear drums.

s_k · 12-21-2010, 06:54 PM

This is limited so badly that I decided not to buy the album.
Gives me a ****ing headache.

nbakid2000 · 02-20-2011, 08:46 PM

Ozzy's new CD is ridiculously loud and sounds like crap because of the loudness war.

I absolutely hate the loudness war, which is why I'm trying to stick to original CDs and stay away from remasters because the remasters also compress and brickwall everything.

nbakid2000 · 02-20-2011, 08:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zero1986

Death Magnetic They remastered and re-released the album a few months afterwards i think and the sound is meant to be a lot quieter and clearer.

Link/source? That album has never been remastered or reissued to my knowledge, ever.

12-20-2010, 05:59 PM	#16 (permalink)
Badlittlekitten And then there was music Join Date: Oct 2010 Location: Near Wild Heaven Posts: 287	Well I've learnt something today. It's funny, I've always accepted that cds I've got from recent years are likely to be louder than one from, say, the 80s, but I never put any thought into why that may be. Admittedly there's not many albums I like, that I can think of, that have suffered from this. But then maybe that's why I like them? __________________ 'Said do you feel it? Do you feel it when you TOUCH ME?. THERE'S A FIRE! THERE'S A FIRE!' The Stooges. Dirt. https://soundcloud.com/bad-little-kittens My Top 100 LPs My Top 52 Indie Tracks Of The 21st Century (incomplete)

12-20-2010, 06:19 PM	#17 (permalink)
Stone Birds myspace.com/stonebirdies Join Date: Apr 2009 Location: Conor Oberst Was/is Here Posts: 1,401	i'm actually okay with some loudness, but when something is so overcompressed that there's absolutely no dynamics (the waveform is literally a block) it doesn't sound good. or when i download an mp3 to itunes sometimes people have the "volume adjustment" messed with usually all the way up. volume adjustment is only to make sure that audio can be heard at a respectable level with the rest of your music not to kill ear drums. __________________ Silk & Tree Records //\\//\\/\\/\/\/\\\\\\\\///\/\/\/\/\\////\/\\\\\///\V //\\//\\/\\/\/\/\\\\\\\\///\/\/\/\/\\////\/\\\\\///\V soundcloud.com/stonebirds [Link removed by mod, no advertising] ... Damn those mods are always gettin ya :)

12-21-2010, 06:54 PM	#18 (permalink)
s_k Music Addict Join Date: Nov 2010 Location: The Netherlands Posts: 2,206	This is limited so badly that I decided not to buy the album. Gives me a ****ing headache. __________________ Click here to see my collection

12-20-2010, 02:34 PM	#13 (permalink)
~~someonecompletelyrandom~~ Account Disabled Join Date: Nov 2008 Posts: 4,538	Again, it's all in the GIF.

02-20-2011, 08:46 PM	#19 (permalink)
nbakid2000 Music Addict Join Date: Feb 2011 Posts: 179	Ozzy's new CD is ridiculously loud and sounds like crap because of the loudness war. I absolutely hate the loudness war, which is why I'm trying to stick to original CDs and stay away from remasters because the remasters also compress and brickwall everything.