Modern music, mastering, and the "loudness war"

[nevohraalnavnoj]

Have you noticed music is louder now than it used to be? Put on a track from the 80's or earlier and compare it to a song you hear now. As a general trend, there is an increase in volume from an almost transparent effect called "compression". Compression allows mastering engineers to make songs sound fuller while maintaining the same maximum audio level.

This trend has been growing over the years, and Metallica's latest album Death Magnetic is what many audio engineers hope is the last push in this ever louder direction.

To illustrate, take Enter Sandman from 1991. Here is a picture of it's wave form from CoolEdit. Notice it has lots of ups and downs (louds and softs), this is dynamics. I've also never heard anyone say "I wish Enter Sandman had less dynamics".



Now take End of the Line off Metallica's Death Magnetic (2008). This album is so loud that all the nuances of instruments and dynamics are gone.



All the dynamics have been squished out of this song in an effort for ear blistering volume. I was so annoyed by it I had to make this inspirational poster:



(No, I'm not saying Metallica sucks).

JonV

[icygirl]

I have noticed that too.

It's very interesting to compare "classical" music with popular music. When you play in a concert band or orchestra, the goal in dynamics is to make your "pp" (very piano, or quiet) VERY VERY soft and yet keep your sound quality high, and same goes for "ff" (very forte, or loud), play loudly but keep the sound quality to a maximum. Often if I listen to a good recording of a "classical" piece through speakers, I sometimes have to adjust MY speakers' volume so I can hear certain parts or tone down the volume on others. (This obviously wouldn't apply if you were listening to it live.) One of my favorite examples of this is La Mer by Debussy.

It seems like in popular music the goal is just the opposite; most popular music has a pretty constant dynamics. And the effect of making it "loud" is just to remove the up's and down's: The hearer will naturally adjust the volume of their speakers/headphones to their liking... so you end up with exactly what you have described... a "flatlining" of dynamics. This is funny to me, because in the concert bands and small ensembles I have played flute in over the years, THIS WAS THE ABSOLUTE NO-NO that would make your music sound as boring and unappealing as it could be!!

[nixer]

they do this with comercials on tv too

[nevohraalnavnoj]

they do this with comercials on tv too

Totally, sometimes it's really helpful...especially to hear what people are saying. It's not all bad, I just wanted an excuse to make my de-motivational poster.

JonV

[RedDevil]

(No, I'm not saying Metallica sucks).

JonV

You won't, but I will. As far as I'm concerned they haven't made a good album since the black album.

[nevohraalnavnoj]

You won't, but I will. As far as I'm concerned they haven't made a good album since the black album.

hahahaha.....that was some good stuff back in those days!

JonV

[Ponthieux]

everything before the black album was before they hooked up with producer bob rock. metallica's black album was what it sounds like when bob rock kills your band. bob rock is also responsible for the execution of motley crue via the dr. feelgood album.