The Loudness War Thread

tweeky

PaulBrewer wrote: »

He's actually one of the owners.

He would hardly turn it away, you always have to balance the "music business" with the "business of music". When a band makes a smart comment about some of a studios clientele they can always be reminded that it was Dido/Phil Collins/Blur/Oasis/kylie that paid for the Neve desk and Dyno..lec..KRK monitors that their tuneless warblings are going thru.

PaulBrewer

tweeky wrote: »

He would hardly turn it away, you always have to balance the "music business" with the "business of music".

I remember being on tour with Something Happens in the US in the 90s.
There was always a cheer and a clap every time their label mate Phil Collins came on the radio.
They knew they weren't earning enough money to keep the show on the road so someone had to!

squibs

Punters dont want hi-fi - they want snake oil. In the 80s it was bass boost and smiley-face eqs, now it is savage compression and limiting. The in-sound will change, and it's changing already. It is just another fashion and the backlash will be just as strong as it was against the reverb-mania of the 80s, or the gated reverb snare, or the flanger on the fretless bass, or the DX7 EP sound. And mark my words, those sounds will come around again - I predict you'll be hearing the Paul Young bass sound on a number of top 10 singles before 2010 is over.

I'm definitely hearing more dynamics in music over the last year or so, I'm just afraid of what the new fad will be...

Ultimately, the quality acts will continue to hire quality engineers and produce quality music for audiophiles who can hear the difference.

tweeky

squibs wrote: »

Punters dont want hi-fi - they want snake oil. In the 80s it was bass boost and smiley-face eqs,

Thought i had OCD in the eighties flattening all them smiley eq's and releasing the loudness buttons on every rack system and 3 in 1 i saw.

iquinn

PaulBrewer wrote: »

He's actually one of the owners.

maybe he told himself he'd fire himself if he didn't do it.....

jtsuited

jaysus maybe metallica's new album might be the thing to put a stop to all this madness.

just look at how they managed to stop all illegal filesharing a few years back. oh, hold on:D

sei046

jtsuited wrote: »

jaysus maybe metallica's new album might be the thing to put a stop to all this madness.

just look at how they managed to stop all illegal filesharing a few years back. oh, hold on:D

Oh jt your too cynical, All them uploads were just slips of the mind!

jtsuited

sei046 wrote: »

Oh jt your too cynical, All them uploads were just slips of the mind!

i know i know. i've often uploaded the entire metallica collection to rapidshare because I wasn't paying attention. It can happen anyone:D

TelePaul

I just hate going from listening to 'Harvest' by Neil Young to 'Born to Run' by Springsteen...lets keep in mind that some albums are a little on the quiet side. i know that's not what's strictly being discussed here, I just figured it was worth mentioning here.

Also, on another related note, I think amateur 'musicians-cum-sound engineers' (like me) become a little obsessed with loudness. This is because when we mix down something for a friend/'client', we dutifully neglect the comparatively expensive mastering process. So when the friend/client calls the next day and complains that their demo is quieter than the commercial records they own, we just slap on a master limiter and be done with it.

dav nagle

TelePaul wrote: »

I just hate going from listening to 'Harvest' by Neil Young to 'Born to Run' by Springsteen...lets keep in mind that some albums are a little on the quiet side. i know that's not what's strictly being discussed here, I just figured it was worth mentioning here.

Also, on another related note, I think amateur 'musicians-cum-sound engineers' (like me) become a little obsessed with loudness. This is because when we mix down something for a friend/'client', we dutifully neglect the expensive comparatively expensive mastering process. So when the friend/client calls the next day and complains that their demo is quieter than the commercial records they own, we just slap on a master limiter and be done with it.

very true

PaulBrewer

TelePaul wrote: »

Also, on another related note, I think amateur 'musicians-cum-sound engineers' (like me) become a little obsessed with loudness. This is because when we mix down something for a friend/'client', we dutifully neglect the comparatively expensive mastering process. So when the friend/client calls the next day and complains that their demo is quieter than the commercial records they own, we just slap on a master limiter and be done with it.

This is true. We try and not let any mixes out at all til mastered. If we have to give out an unfinished track, we'll squeeze it in through a Limiter to raise the level.

Neurojazz

I think we should all rebel against the loudness war and release a blank CD with some earplugs and let the punters use their *imagination*

Sorry if my stupidity lowers the tone of the thread

mike65

Mastered to -70 dB

Mike.

iquinn

Neurojazz wrote: »

I think we should all rebel against the loudness war and release a blank CD with some earplugs and let the punters use their *imagination*

Sorry if my stupidity lowers the tone of the thread

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/4%E2%80%B233%E2%80%B3

Neurojazz

omg - does this mean that every silence between every track ever made infringes his copywrite of this 4'33 tracks? - this means he could sue everyone who uses silence.... i should have been a lawyer

cornbb

Neurojazz wrote: »

omg - does this mean that every silence between every track ever made infringes his copywrite of this 4'33 tracks? - this means he could sue everyone who uses silence.... i should have been a lawyer

Crap, I've been performing that piece live all morning without permission from the publisher if anyone hears heh about this I'm screwed...

Neurojazz

actually boards.ie are streaming it 24/7, will have to sue.

jtsuited

i met a guy years ago who actually recorded a performance of 4'33.

well it was more he recorded a recital and that was one of the works in the middle that they had to record as part of the contract stuff.

With the quality of mastering these days I reckon there are a few people that could make that recording sound worse than the original!

mike65

Worth a read from Stylus

http://stylusmagazine.com/articles/weekly_article/imperfect-sound-forever.htm

Mike.

PaulBrewer

nyarlothothep wrote: »

When I'm listening to music on the train/in town, the more modern records, which have received the smashed dynamics treatment, are easier to listen to, given the extraneous noises which will drown out older records at full volume. I'm not a fan of in ear headphones as they keep falling out and are bit invasive, so the mastering in this case helps. (I'm not a fan of such mastering though).

I've just been listening to Elbow in the car .....

whilst it's dynamic range is enjoyable at home it makes little sense on the Route 66 Autobahn 'tween Portlaoise and Tullamore ....