Loudness War is over, and the good guys won . . .
- Thread starter TimN
- Start date
bouldersoundguy
Well-known member
First mention of LUFS on this forum was one year ago to the day.
B
Beck
Guest
I wish it were so, but people will continue to master stupidly "Loud" despite an announcement concerning iTunes. Katz is an awesome fellow though.
B
Beck
Guest
I doubt it will change overnight but at least people are starting to at least become aware of it, then they wonder why so many 70s records sound so amazing
Yeah, that is true... and people need to stay aware of it too.
Mo Facta
Farts of Nature
"Amazing" is relative. While I find a lot of 70s recordings pleasurable, there is an appreciable lack of low end due to the limitations of vinyl. They are very different from modern, full-bandwidth recordings. Vintage recordings also tend to sound bandpassed to me. If we could get the dynamic range back with the benefits of extended range recordings, I'd be a happy camper.
Cheers
Cheers
dainbramage
New member
I think it's a big deal.
Yeah going out with statements like "loudness war is over" is a bit too much too soon- but dont let that fool you in thinking that what Katz or iTunes are aiming for is a lost, irrelevant cause.
the WAR is going on for decades now, and is still being fought hard. we are speaking here as educated and informed mastering and audio engineers. usually the guys pushing for more volume are the artists and their producers, along with AnR guys and record companies.
listening to modern music i think it's fair to say that more volume comes at the expense of quality. even with out comparing to old 70's music. Nirvana's 'Nevermind' sounds amazing!- but in todays standard it's soooooooo quiet!
It's up to us, those who care about music, LOVE dynamic range, and understand the science behind it with the pros and cons of volume, to EDUCATE the rest of the music industry, artists and producers first, and use what itunes have done as leverage to actually end the war, and make them understand that louder will not in fact sound better, and will not sell more any longer.
it's a start, but it's a promising start. more and more audio distribution companies are starting to realize this, the general public is starting to wake up, and we mastering engineers have to fight for it.
Maybe in 2020, we'll look back and say - THIS was the moment, from here we started fixing things.
I hope so.
Yeah going out with statements like "loudness war is over" is a bit too much too soon- but dont let that fool you in thinking that what Katz or iTunes are aiming for is a lost, irrelevant cause.
the WAR is going on for decades now, and is still being fought hard. we are speaking here as educated and informed mastering and audio engineers. usually the guys pushing for more volume are the artists and their producers, along with AnR guys and record companies.
listening to modern music i think it's fair to say that more volume comes at the expense of quality. even with out comparing to old 70's music. Nirvana's 'Nevermind' sounds amazing!- but in todays standard it's soooooooo quiet!
It's up to us, those who care about music, LOVE dynamic range, and understand the science behind it with the pros and cons of volume, to EDUCATE the rest of the music industry, artists and producers first, and use what itunes have done as leverage to actually end the war, and make them understand that louder will not in fact sound better, and will not sell more any longer.
it's a start, but it's a promising start. more and more audio distribution companies are starting to realize this, the general public is starting to wake up, and we mastering engineers have to fight for it.
Maybe in 2020, we'll look back and say - THIS was the moment, from here we started fixing things.
I hope so.
Massive Master
www.massivemastering.com
Limited and centered low end content, limited high-frequency content, noise floor, limited dynamic range, etc., etc.
The nifty thing about vinyl is that those limitations made "quality" more or less a necessity. You couldn't have recordings with crazy low end phase issues, you couldn't have excessive sibilance, you couldn't crush the recordings --- You had to have enough volume to get a decent signal but too much and you had the needle jumping out, too little and you were buried in noise and hum.
Blah, blah, blah - This was the exciting thing about the advent of digital - Those limitations were essentially removed. If you wanted to do really weird low end stuff (Bjork - The Hunter - for example), you could. If you wanted insane high end (too many to mention), you could. And you could do it with a full 20-20k with an aurally obscene 96dB potential dynamic range with no particular audible noise floor to speak of.
And what'd all the bands and labels do...? Crushed everything. Good going, gents...
theredbull
New member
the loudness war also reflects the record company's insanity on beating the next guy, at whatever compromise possible despite what the mastering engineer thinks, when I have talked to friends and family about this, even they know things are getting loud. Also re-mastering is a bit of a pet hate of mine, let's just peak normalise it to -0.3dB just because every one else is doing it is a flawed and insane way of thinking. If the sheep jump off the cliff then they would also follow! lol
jimmys69
MOODerator
I think the important thing to keep in mind, has more to do with music sounding good. It does not matter how loud shit is, but then again, if it comes across as weak-there are other issues that have nothing to do with the 'loudness' of the recording.
Is 'loudness' even a real word? Every time I see that word I think of a Japan based band from the 80's/90's. Akira was a great guitar player...
Is 'loudness' even a real word? Every time I see that word I think of a Japan based band from the 80's/90's. Akira was a great guitar player...