Bob Katz - Loudness: War & Peace

This 20 minute video takes you from the quiet beginnings of the Compact Disc in 1980 through to Loudness Peace by the year 2020. It includes demonstrations of the loudest master I have ever had to make and paints a picture of what the art of audio mastering will be like once the loudness war has been settled.

Bob Katz
Loudness: War & Peace

• Category

  Education

[Redfingers]

Being born in the 90s is pure pain.

[Pudentame]

What's the actual name of the song/artist introduced at 9:29 as the loudest CD you ever had to master for a client?

[Vlaai Trep]

music=called the soundtrack of life

One takes away the dynamics of music...

Thank you for a much better understanding of the current world around me

[2009korte]

great film . yeah to me its like they really afraid of no being heard. kind of desperate how they want their music pushed/forced. i blame mixing/mastering engineers like Chris lord Algae and the likes who do anything in terms of loudness just to sell the most and become a celebrity mixer - how pathetic. today's music is soft to my ears. no punch no definition no depth. everything is upfront, sqeesed tru the speakers like there's no tomorrow.

[KK Slider]

Many musical styles have been mutilated by the loudness war, including hard rock, heavy metal and more experimental styles that are typically loud by default even without applying compression/limiting/etc. I'm from the 90's, and listening to various bands, I came to the conclusion that overall, mastering reached its quality peak during 1995-2000. Great dynamics, great depth, all frequencies are in their place. Still, the dryness of the '70s is still my favorite for some artists.

[LFOVCF]

You're right, thanks! I'm done here :)

[easterntrees]

oh man, look at all this. don't feed him--seriously, anyone with even rudimentary knowledge of engineering can spot the factual errors and malapropisms just as easily as you or I can.