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The Loudness War - your experiences - Page 5

post #61 of 138
1/23/10 at 10:07am
A song from Julian Casablancas' album.



Ouch!
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post #62 of 138
1/24/10 at 8:24pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ham Sandwich View Post
I recall reading about a music instructor who found that students preferred the sound of lossy compression (MP3) to lossless. Are you perhaps getting dynamics compression (the loudness war kind of compression) confused with lossy compression in the news article?
good catch! yes, I guess (since I cannot find in my browser history a recent link that would corroborate my memory) you might be right. - I'll try to compensate by mentioning an earlier thread here that linked to the Rolling Stone article on loudness wars, which also had posted sound samples.
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post #63 of 138
1/24/10 at 8:44pm
My personal experience is basically the same experience as most have discussed earlier in this thread...I know that I understood the problem better after reading this recent NPR article...

The Loudness Wars: Why Music Sounds Worse : NPR
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post #64 of 138
1/24/10 at 8:52pm
Being a fan of a LOT of different 70s, 80s, early 90s rock has allowed me to (very recently, actually) go back and "re-define" my catalog by finding and purchasing early pressings of my favorite albums. I have countless CDs now that I bought on Amazon marketplace in the $1 to $10 range that just blows remastered versions out of the water.

Things I notice most when I directly compare an original CD vs. the +9 db modern day remaster:

1. The highs come back. What the heck? Who would have thought that a CD mastered 20 years ago would have more clarity and detail...
2. SMOOTH. Now this could go either way, depending on the EQ of the original master. In most cases though, the harshness of the over-processed modern remaster just melts away.
3. Of course, we can't forget dynamics. It honestly just brings the recording to life. Everything is there. It sounds _right_.

But hey, what do we know?
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post #65 of 138
1/25/10 at 8:38pm
here's one y'all might find hilarious...

destruktor - nailed



and yes it has clipped peaks too...

here's what it looks like amplified so the peaks are at -.01dB
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post #66 of 138
1/25/10 at 10:18pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Vkamicht View Post
Being a fan of a LOT of different 70s, 80s, early 90s rock has allowed me to (very recently, actually) go back and "re-define" my catalog by finding and purchasing early pressings of my favorite albums. I have countless CDs now that I bought on Amazon marketplace in the $1 to $10 range that just blows remastered versions out of the water.
+1. My favorite classic pressing that I've found is a Japanese first pressing of Megadeth's Peace Sells. It blows away my original copy, and absolutely slaughters the pathetic remaster from a couple of years ago.
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post #67 of 138
1/26/10 at 6:12pm
That Destruktor graph looks like one from my Oasis - (What's the Story) Morning Glory? CD.
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post #68 of 138
1/26/10 at 9:23pm
Muse and Bloc Party albums sound really loud to me, would actually buy them if they were not so loud.
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post #69 of 138
4/21/10 at 7:10am
I realize it's an oldish thread, but I couldn't justify making a new one when there is a perfectly good one right here.

I always noticed loud albums, but having recently been listening to some vinyl rips then going back and listening to

06. Leaves' Eyes - Secret [Lovelorn ]

http://i39.tinypic.com/invpte.png

I can't listen to it anymore, I like the music, but how can anyone justify buying that?
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post #70 of 138
4/21/10 at 7:22am
If this adding of loudness happens also with Classical, Jazz, Soul and Funk I really have to go for old and or (for example) Japanese pressings. For House I don't mind, it's House and sounds better when (a bit) louder. Contemporary Pop and Rock, depends on the production for loud over produced music can sound terrible with the wrong settings and headphones.
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post #71 of 138
4/21/10 at 2:41pm
Loudness war can also attribute to people having crappy equipment.
MP3 players and the included free earbuds.

And someone not paying attention to the music just it jumped out better being loud so its better.


Ironically with all this loudness insanity.
Iron Maiden A Matter Of Life and Death (2006 album) wasn't even mastered because the engineer did it but thought after compression,eqing etc.. the original recording was far better and it didn't need fixing so he told the producer/band and they agreed.
On cheap/bad headphones the albums production seems pretty disappointing but with good headphones and a amp and its wow it sounds so much better.
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post #72 of 138
4/21/10 at 3:11pm
a few more fun examples

Darkthrone - F.O.A.D. 2007
Darkthrone - Dark Thrones and Black Flags 2008
Nunslaughter - Hex 2007
Nunslaughter - Black 2010
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post #73 of 138
4/22/10 at 7:20am
OneRepublic - All the right Moves. It doesn't sound terrible but I've seen them mention that they don't like their music to be over produced and prefer having it sound more like it would if it was live...

BNL - It's Only Me. Absolutely no crispness in this song at all, it sounds terrible.
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post #74 of 138
4/23/10 at 9:04pm
My newer pressed CDs do sound louder, for House I don't mind but yesterday I listened to 'Automatic For The People' by REM on 1992 pressing through the CD-player and DF, softer but better for the ears, lovely sound.

Good live remasters though sound amazing, regardless of the pressing year. I listened to music for a Bertolt Brecht piece by the Willem Beuker Kollektief, pure enjoyment .
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post #75 of 138
4/24/10 at 12:43am
there are only so many variables in music. frequency, timing, amplitude, etc.

and, if any one of those variables is held constant for a duration, then it becomes very taxing on the ears. fatiguing, even.

with brickwalled music, amplitude is held to basically within 10% of maximum. (except of course the 2 second pause between tracks.)

producers and record execs are afriad that if the music gets quiet for a moment, that folks will stop listening... what a shame. they should have more faith in us listeners.

also, i read somewhere that consumers believed quiet recordings to be of diy or homemade nature, and louder recordings to be of professional quality.
this perception turned out to be a dangerous thing in the hands of record execs.
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