The loudness war
For anyone who has listened to my podcasts and somehow managed never to hear me on my soapbox, here’s an article worth reading about the loudness war.
Also, check out Turn Me Up!, a non-profit organisation (of audio engineers) devoted to bringing dynamics back to music.
Hey Bruce,
Thanks for sharing this info. Some great reading.
Happy 2008,
Dan in Tokyo
http://www.whitokyo.info
http://www.jindies.com
Although I’m not an audio engineer and don’t consider myself an audiophile, I always wondered why (esp. with newer cd) I really enjoy certain records when I listen to them in my car on the way to work, whereas the same records tend to bore me when I listen to them on my stereo over high quality headphones. I almost always skip songs before they end.
Now I know ! Thanks for that link. Seems to be alittle like the 6 megapixel thing with the digital compact cameras, where image quality is actualy getting worse because they get ever more mpixels on the same sensor size.
see. http://6mpixel.org/en/
The relevant Wikipedia article has the following to say:
“As a result, the common practice of mastering CDs involved matching the highest peak of a recording at, or close to, digital full scale, and referencing digital levels along the lines of more familiar analog VU meters. When using VU meters, a certain point (usually -14 dBfs, or about 20% of the disc’s amplitude on a linear scale) was used in the same way as the saturation point (signified as 0db) of analog recording, with several dB of the CDs recording level reserved for amplitude exceeding the saturation point (often referred to as the “red zone”, signified by a red bar in the meter display), because digital media cannot exceed 0db. The RMS level of the average rock song during most of the decade was around -18 dBfs RMS.”
I agree that loudness maximisation has gone way too far, but I think the above quote explains why early CDs sounded so poor compared to their vinyl countepart. One of my first CDs was Joe Satriani’s “Not Of This Earth”, and compared to the LP, it was woeful and put me off CDs for a few years. It just had no oomph at all.
There is probably some happy middle ground somewhere.