Comments on: The Loudness War or: One Reason I Can’t Stand Most New Music

By: Zsolt

Zsolt — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 17:10:15 +0000

Hi!
With what software did you make the waveform images and determined the dynamic range?
I want to know how much my music sucks…
Did anyone ever made a website about CD releases and their quality?
I started listening to digital audio at the end of the nineties so I didn’t know about loudness war, until recently. I sometimes noticed distortions, especially in the sound of cymbals. But the new Pretty Reckless EP I heard recently was so brutally loud and severely distorted, that I started to search other people’s comments, and that is how I found out about loudness war. Since then the new Korn album seems very bad too.

By: Robert

Robert — Sat, 24 Jul 2010 10:08:39 +0000

Great post here. I also took a little while to discover the loudness wars too, quite often by ear-bleeding dizzy-making unwanted exposure to over-squashed music mush in shops. I often couldn’t listen to so squashed up releases much either…Sounded musical ‘alien’ to me, very dull with strange clicks & pops too…And those over-loud shouty vocals, boah…Utter horrible. Also seen how those songs look in an editor…Fat ‘square waves’ just about every time. But I wonder what one can do about this? Already complained to various labels to no avail…They don’t even reply! One can try a Declpper on already bought CDs like “SeeDeClip Pro” which is what I use, but this is not a 100% solution. Already joined TurnMeUp and Pleasurise Music with that Dynamic Range Meter. I realty call this sonic butchering not mastering at all. Somehow imagine that they put it all through a “brickwall limiter”…That they call mastering…Just shocking I sadly see no other solution that to boycott new releases…Amongst others I’m so sick of this destructive loudness war, and wished it ended for good! Sonic casualties amongst others, one can find in a database here: http://www.dr.loudness-war.info/index.php

By: Rob

Rob — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 05:10:19 +0000

Wayne, I emailed you two waveform images from The Wanamaker Legacy organ CD. You’re right, the disc features a great amount of dynamic range…roughly 20 dB, compared to 11 dB in recent mainstream CDs.

By: Wayne

Wayne — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 02:32:15 +0000

The loudness wars have definitely influenced my music purchasing habits. I buy a lot of CDs too; on average about $150.00 worth each month and almost none of my money goes to major labels! At 50 years old, I can’t say I really care much for most popular music these days, and the loudness wars really put me off from it. But as of late, I have been rediscovering the wonderful world of classical music and especially pipe organ music. It is my experience that for the most part, classical music recordings are still very dynamic; quiet passages are very quiet and loud passages are very loud. I recently acquired a CD entitled ‘The Wanamaker Legacy’ featuring the organist Peter Conte performing on the Wanamaker Grand Court Organ located at the Lord & Taylor department store in Philadelphia. It’s a beautiful recording issued on the Gothic label. I’d love to see a waveform of it! The label Deutsche Grammophon is another label, which has not compromised itself to the loudness wars. I assure you that if they did, it would mean immediate doom for them.

By: MarkPMUs

MarkPMUs — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 07:34:56 +0000

Thanks very much for this essay – I agree and will harp on about it to anyone who will give me 5 mins of their time! Trouble is, being over 40, I’m sure a lot of people attribute my dislike of the “loudness” war to my age!

By: Ett inlägg i volymkriget | Blindmen

Ett inlägg i volymkriget | Blindmen — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 16:14:59 +0000

[...] Läs hela goodrob13s artikel här [...]

By: Shawn Daley

Shawn Daley — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 15:13:55 +0000

Excellent post man. Another resource worth mentioning is the Pleasurize Music Foundation.

They have a Dynamic Range meter plugin for any mastering engineers weary of the Loudness War, or for fans who just want to analyze their favorite music.

Keep up the solid posts man.

By: James Pew

James Pew — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 14:55:39 +0000

Awesome post goodrob13. I just wrote about this on Studio Manifesto (we cover the loudness wars often). I think this is a great piece of work illustrating the loudness wars, both through sound and the visualizations.

I see you’ve posted about the recent Beatles remasters as well. I’ll read that next.

Keep up the great work!

By: Studio Manifesto | Awareness Grows For The Loudenss Wars - Please Retweet | Studio Manifesto

Mon, 28 Sep 2009 14:49:55 +0000

[...] Read the full post at goodrob13.com [...]

By: goodrob13.com - Rob’s video guitar lessons and music blog » Beatles Review - Abbey Road Remastered CD

Mon, 14 Sep 2009 05:41:55 +0000

[...] a technical level, the remastering on this album has put my mind at ease regarding the loudness war. There is no obvious brickwall limiting and none of the peaks reach 0.0 dB, which is great, [...]