The Loudness War

Big-name CD manufacturers are distorting sounds to make them seem louder. Sound quality suffers.

NOTE: Playback is now disabled on mobile phones because these devices apply their own dynamic range compression, which destroys the effect of my example.

This video was made with image editing software and a screen capture program for the visuals, and a DAW (Digital Performer 4.5) to process the audio.

Thanks to everyone for watching! - Matt Mayfield, St. Paul, Minnesota, USA

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Loudness
• war
• race
• CD
• digital
• audio
• compression
• mastering
• remastered
• overcompressed

[weetcka]

I heard that Bob Dylan hated this loudness war thing but even his own music was released ruined against his will.

I also heared (sorry just can't claim for sure) that iTunes did the same thing with all its music library

Now though they seem to have changed direction. I'm talking about "Mastered for iTunes" section. They aren't saying it's always good or bad, they are letting producers decide what they want for their albums.

So now it means Bob Dylan can finally release the album the way he wants

[LoudnessWar]

@weetcka I hope so, though I'm concerned that dumb group dynamics and such will keep it from being any better than the current situation. Thanks for the comment.

[Rockillswich]

Do you think albums of today are produced horribly?

[LoudnessWar]

@Rockillswich Not all of them. This is just one aspect that detracts from quality when it's overused. I'm annoyed when I can hear that an album is overly dynamic-range-compressed, so the music has to be that much better for me to enjoy listening to it, but it's not a black-and-white thing. If it's only lightly compressed, it usually doesn't bother me.

[capo420420]

Hi, great video, i agree 1 billion percent !!!

QUESTION: i use digital performer too.

How are you selecting those quiet parts and adjusting them ? What page / section in my DP 6.03 manual ? I have a huge problem since my music is so VERY ExTreMeLY dynamic. And i like to close mic which only complicates matters. Please see my featured video to see an example. Thanks .. Jeff

[LoudnessWar]

@capo420420 Thanks! Actually there is no software that works the way you see here. I simulated it in the video with image editing and screen capture software - there is nothing in Digital Performer or any other DAW that I know of that looks like that.

What you have on the video sounds good to me, at least on the laptop where I am now. If I were you I'd probably use volume automation by hand for that kind of track for the most natural sound.

[LoudnessWar]

@dochmbi and many other people, Y U NO read the credits at the end of the video?

[Ozunreal]

This should be the most viewed video on Youtube

[MaccaAndOHarra]

Lol I didn't read the credits either

[MaccaAndOHarra]

The track is Paul McCartney Figure of Eight /watch?v=dlwLo8txw1k, I demand +5 internets for knowing this.

[weetcka]

@LoudnessWar I think this tendency developed because of ignorance of listeners. DTS and Dolby Digital rivaled similarly in the dawn of digital surround cinema.

But now at least the choice exists. And those who are going to take advantage of this new iniciative in my opintion will be the ones who care.

[guitargold77]

Times are bad for music. The next Neil Young, Willie Nelson and anyone without nice bangs and a possee wont be hired.Talent optional, we have harmonizers for that. They SELL mp3s where the friendly pc eliminates the frequencies wed supposedly dont need, or people flat out swap spew labled wrong, no liner notes, they dont care that my zztop 8 track sounds better & isnt labled Mountain. People arent connected, the net & sattelite havent helped like they could, the less cds sell the more it sux

[Kueller917J]

@sedwarg There's times when loudness does affect the song positively. That's not really what I was saying. You said that people would prefer smaller file sizes over larger ones that are higher quality (which is true for most), but you can have a low size file that isn't affected by the loudness war. That's all I was saying.

[dissident93]

@Kueller917J Is it compressing? Using a limiter would just discard the data, not compress it, right?