[tintin47]

I just saw a pitchfork tv feature on a band that I really enjoy, Dinosaur Jr. The link is here, if you want to watch. I will summarize it for those who don't like the band/ don't want to take the time to watch video for a few seconds of dialogue and just want to talk about the loudness war.

For a large portion of the feature, Dino Jr. and their producer/recording manager talk about how much effort they put into the sound, and they show the large banks of tube equipment and talk about matching it to get the sound they want. It is true. The guitars in their albums are fantastic, and I was really excited to hear that they cared about such things.

Then, the producer ruins everything by commenting that, after they finish the master tapes, they send them off to be mastered, where they just "transfer them to digital, and of course, make them LOUD". Why? Why can't we control the volume with the thingy on front of the amp? Please?

I know that the loudness war has been discussed, but I just thought that this is a weird look into the mind of the producers out there.

 

[krmathis]

Just one thing to say...

 

[kuviaq]

I would imagine in this case Dinosaur Jr. makes it loud to achieve the desired sound. All of their records have a loud/lo-fi sound. If you don't like the sound why do you say you like the band? I don't think this is a case of "Band makes a good recording, some recording exec makes them master it loud" that is generally the case in the loudness wars.

 

[amphead]

Then the sound is "normalized", and the expanded waveform is squashed producing even less clarity.

 

[Tridacnid]

But if the band wants that, then it is the way the music is meant to be.