The loudness war

[7string]

Then wouldn't making a 'quieter' CD stand out from the LOUD ones? I would think so. For one, it would force people to listen a bit closer. So this trend could turn around if we ALL insisted on getting back to normal.

 

[noisewreck]

^^^ I think you have a point there That reminded me of my philosophy professor I had at the university. They guy almost whispered during class. I mean he spoke so quietly that if a chair squeaked you'd miss a bunch of words. Needless to say, the students' ears were glued to the words that were coming out of his mounth.

 

[ermghoti]

Yeah, but you didn't have to put your professors lectures on radio in between a bunch of Sam Kinison routines, and you couldn't swap to a different professor with your Shuffle button

 

[noisewreck]

Yeah, but you didn't have to put your professors lectures on radio

That's the worst argument. Things on radio are already so compressed, that it doesn't really make any difference whether something is slammed or not... wait... actually it does... the stuff that's already slammed just sounds like nails on the chalkboard... sorry... what's on the next channel?

 

[ermghoti]

I didn't say it made it sound good. I can hear how over-compressed the crap on radio is, and I don't care for it either.

However, if a dim-witted music exec listens to a few soon-to be released tunes, and has to turn up the volume knob a few clicks to hear one of them, do you think he listens for the breathtaking dynamic range on the song, or jumps on the cell to the mastering engineer to yell at him for releasing this quiet-ass disc?

Also, even skilled ears will often interpret the louder of two similar sounds as "better," at least temporarily. So the buyer listening to samples of music will be superficially impressed with the louder tracks. He or she may get a headache from listener fatigue in twenty minutes, but they will never know enough to associate the pain with excessive compression.

 

[noisewreck]

Yeah, I hear ya. Sad but true.