The loudness war

[CrazyHarij]

An important read for everyone who enjoys music, basically:
http://www.stylusmagazine.com/articles/weekly_article/imperfect-sound-forever.htm
http://www.barrydiamentaudio.com/loudness.htm

You can read more on the loudness war here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loudness_war

 

[CptStern]

Loudness is awesome!


japanese heavy metal ftmfw!!!

"You come to see the show
Well, we're gonna rock and roll you
Come and get on your seat
We're gonna make you feel alright
Hey, you wanna go crazy tonight!
Let me hear you shout and scream
You make me mad and wild
Well, we're gonna rock and pile you
We're gonna do our best
The best kicks you in the head, alright"


"Rock and roll crazy night
You are the heroes tonight"





oh you meant something else ..ok will read

 

[eraser]

This is interesting... thanks for this.

 

[3ssence]

Very interesting read

 

[knut]

My mate will love this so much. No, he'll probably masturbate over it, actually.

Good read, though.

 

[Geogaddi]

Japanese people with big hair D:

 

[CptStern]

japanese men with big hair threatening to rock and pile you ftw

 

[Viperidae]

Hmm, I've read articles about this before. Why can't people just turn the volume up if they want it louder?

 

[CptStern]

"Why don't you just make ten louder and make ten be the top number and make that a little louder?"


"These go to eleven"

 

[mortiz]

As Manowar once put it "All Men Play on 10". They held the Guinness world record for loudest ever live show as it happens as well, 129.5 decibels. (not sure if they still do).

 

[CptStern]

Man-o-war meets Manboobs the Hairy

 

[mortiz]

Man-o-war meets Manboobs the Hairy

Har har, legendry. He's soo tr00.

 

[impakt]

I prefer a nice dynamic soundscape. Loud mixes does however work in some tracks.

 

[Cerpin]

dB does not equate to what we percieve as loudness. You can do wonders with equalisation.

 

[CrazyHarij]

dB does not equate to what we percieve as loudness. You can do wonders with equalisation.

compression generally makes it louder.. as well as EQing in the frequency of human speech, we're alot more sensitive in that area.. i think its like around 1khz-4khz

 

[Markdude]

First post. I'm fascinated with audio engineering so I figured this would be a good one to start on.

Compression itself doesn't actually make anything louder, it makes things quiter. It takes any sounds that are louder than a set threshold decibel level, and lowers their volume in ratio to how much louder the offending 'peak' is, with other settings that control how long it takes for it to lower the signal and how fast the signal goes back to its original volume after a 'peak' has been hit. What actually makes it louder is the makeup gain controls on a compressor. The compression is used to get the entire track's volumes relatively even and punchy (so you don't have to worry about about a loud section of a song clipping if you just increased the overall track volume), and the makeup gain brings the whole, now even track to a louder volume.

And yes, the human ear is most sensitive to upper-midrange frequencies (which human speech is most prominent in), so a lot of 'hi-fi' speakers are made to boost the lower and higher frequencies of the spectrum to compensate and make music sound bigger and fuller (although I really hate the way hi-fi speakers sound). Some albums are intentionally mixed with a lack of midrange for the same reason.

Personally, I think the 'loudness war' is getting ridiculous, but you can't blame the mastering companies for it. The reason they do it is because it sells, and uber-compressed and maximized mixes are the hot and commerical sound that is unfortunantely necessary to be accepted as a mainstream record. I'm sure the mastering engineers all prefer a living, breathing mix and not a nonstop, squashed ear-fatigue fest, but they're working for the client, and if the client wants the album to be commerically marketable, it's a necessity to follow the trend.

 

[CrazyHarij]

Compression itself doesn't actually make anything louder, it makes things quiter.

And with that, it increass the percieved loudness, the RMS becomes flat as a brickwall. Plus that it allows for increasing that RMS brick wall.

but yeah you summed it up pretty well. it's just surprising to me how so many consumers can't even spot the clipping in the very latest music. Justin timberlakes album for instance, I'll probably get shot for saying this, and let me assure you i don't like a lot of mainstream music, but I kinda like his single sexyback, the mastering however makes my ears hurt. And that's not just from playing it on my monitors, but if it's shown on MTV the clipping distortion is heard just the same.

It's not just clipping, overly "hot" mixes sound flat, mechanic and unharmonic.

for these reasons I dont think there's much to worry about because it's going to be more and more obvious to the public.

 

[Baal]

And with that, it increass the percieved loudness, the RMS becomes flat as a brickwall. Plus that it allows for increasing that RMS brick wall.

but yeah you summed it up pretty well. it's just surprising to me how so many consumers can't even spot the clipping in the very latest music. Justin timberlakes album for instance, I'll probably get shot for saying this, and let me assure you i don't like a lot of mainstream music, but I kinda like his single sexyback, the mastering however makes my ears hurt. And that's not just from playing it on my monitors, but if it's shown on MTV the clipping distortion is heard just the same.

It's not just clipping, overly "hot" mixes sound flat, mechanic and unharmonic.

for these reasons I dont think there's much to worry about because it's going to be more and more obvious to the public.

Do you think we're going to act like a bunch of high school students in regards to your taste in music?

Surely you have a greater opinion of us than that! Anyone who says they don't find certain mainstream songs (while the majority may suck, yes) catchy for the time they're new are liars!

But anyways, this loudness war certainly is interesting. Personally I like music loud, but I am worried about how it can effect my ears. So this equalization which makes music sound louder than it actually is....seems fascinating to me.

But if the music starts to become distorted based on this.....well that's a real shame, and needs to be stopped.