The Loudness War
- Thread starter Mendel
- Start date
Lol: "The following text is printed inside the digipak packaging of metal band Iced Earth's single I Walk Among You: "This is a dynamic metal record! Play it loud!!! (We refuse to ruin our production by compressing the hell out of it so that it's mastered at ridiculous volumes! That kills the vibe and dynamics of the mix. Just turn it up on your stereo!)"
I think they are wise. What the f, my car stereo doesn't go over 14 on the digital volume control and it goes up to 30!!! With most of the recent (7-8 years or so) CD. Ac-Dc don't have this problem.
Felix Neumann
Member
xFkx
gain induction
Yeah, i'm slowly backing away from the loudness too.. i mean, when there is no dynamic difference between a blastbeat part and the breakdown after it, then i'm calling it quits...
smy1
Member
I printed almost the same text into my new CD "FH3". The songs are only somewhere between -15db RMS and -13db RMS (depending on the style of the track) but sound MUCH better. The mastering engineer compressed it too much in the first mastering, so I had him redo it all. The CD is now as loud as CDs made in 1990 ...
I am, however, in the process of making a special "iPod Pack" mp3 version, which will be available for download and will be quite a bit louder, so it fits better into your playlists. Something for everyone these days
I am, however, in the process of making a special "iPod Pack" mp3 version, which will be available for download and will be quite a bit louder, so it fits better into your playlists. Something for everyone these days
Exocaster
Nozzle
- Aug 29, 2005
- 709
- 0
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That is ace.
I'm not too surprised by that; Jon Schaffer is an old-school guy and a huge gearhead.the only downside to having lots of dynamics is that you have to constantly adjust volume. i was djing some music for a friends party, and noticed some songs i would set to a decent level, then a louder part would come, and it was clip central.
smy1
Member
That's why you normally DJ with peaks at -6db or -9db ...
What I usually do is "calibrate" the system before the party with one of my own tracks that is insanely loud and smashed. I play it and set the gain on the mixer to hit -9db as a max. I then raise the volume on the power amps to the level that I want the music to be in the club. If I play older/softer tracks, I have a lot of headroom to adjust and make them louder because I know that I have 9db above the loudest possible songs ...
thanks for the tip!
unfortunately im using a shitty beringer 350 watt p.a head that for can only go so loud before the output meter clips 
i have a 1000 w. crown power amp, but i need to get a mixer and shit for it. then i will be slaying mafuckas!!! lol
"Evil" Aidy
Mörti Viventi
New Iced Earth sounds awesome, I was pleasantly suprised when I could hear that it wasn't compressed to hell.
Iced Earth ftw!
Iced Earth ftw!
paladin shredder
Member
Their previous release "Framing Armageddon" was also quite dynamic. i love the production on those two cds.
Andy Sneap
Metal Guru
the pressure usually comes from either band or label. I think there is a happy compromise around -9 /10 db. It can glue the mix together nicely sometimes but I usually go by the rule if I hear limiting damaging the mix I'll pull it back.
Ermz
¯\(°_o)/¯
This is one of the reasons I use a mastering house - to shift blame if there's a volume issue. Kind of damned if you do, damned if you don't.
I've no huge desire to go back to -15dB or whatever. Like Andy, I think the happy compromise is around -9/-10. You have to keep in mind that you're also fighting the noise floor in some crapper systems, so having the consumer turn up the volume too much may not be desirable.
The pressure does seem to come mainly from the bands and labels. The mastering houses themselves always seem quite happy to go quieter, if anything. Go figure they're the ones at the forefront of this 'kill the loudness war' advocacy. What a whacked out industry we're in.
I've no huge desire to go back to -15dB or whatever. Like Andy, I think the happy compromise is around -9/-10. You have to keep in mind that you're also fighting the noise floor in some crapper systems, so having the consumer turn up the volume too much may not be desirable.
The pressure does seem to come mainly from the bands and labels. The mastering houses themselves always seem quite happy to go quieter, if anything. Go figure they're the ones at the forefront of this 'kill the loudness war' advocacy. What a whacked out industry we're in.
Glenn Fricker
Very Metal &Very Bad News
It would be nice if AES could come up with some sort of standard....
....and figure out a way for the labels to buy into it.
....and figure out a way for the labels to buy into it.
Torniojaws
They call me Juha
The problem with setting a standard is because there already exists MASSIVE amounts of "screwed-up" albums. A lot of consumers don't care or even know about the Loudness War or what it means, so they'll just say things like "oh, that-and-that album has so poor sound, it's too quiet compared to my copy of Red Hot Chili Peppers' Californication.." 
So the only real solution, which will probably never happen, would be to have all (even cheapo, and that's where the problems arise) CD/DVD/mp3 etc players play everything at the same standard level of perceived volume, measured while playing. That way you could play those late 80's CDs at the same perceived volume as modern sausage records. Otherwise people will complain about the volume changing all the time and having to constantly adjust the volume knob.
So the only real solution, which will probably never happen, would be to have all (even cheapo, and that's where the problems arise) CD/DVD/mp3 etc players play everything at the same standard level of perceived volume, measured while playing. That way you could play those late 80's CDs at the same perceived volume as modern sausage records. Otherwise people will complain about the volume changing all the time and having to constantly adjust the volume knob.
Skaldir
formerly known as Unicorn
-Noodles-
3 Initals Mixer
- Dec 20, 2007
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Notuern
Bloody vaginal belch
- Oct 20, 2007
- 3,625
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Ive already backed away from it.
Now all my recordings peaks at -6db, its amazing how much more depth it adds to the bottom of the mix.
Edit:
Erh, might want to ad that they average about -14.
smy1
Member
Notuern: where do you get a benefit from peaking at -6?
I hit the master bus at -12/-14, but then go through a chain of plugins which raise the volume again ...
I hit the master bus at -12/-14, but then go through a chain of plugins which raise the volume again ...