The Loudness War

[jdandy]

A short tutorial on why compression destroys dynamics.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Gmex_4hreQ

[-E-]

Heh, guess they couldn't take a master recording of Mariah Carey for their demo...

Even on youtube the difference in meter jump was substantial between the two tracks...

[jdandy]

The loudness war is a serious problem for us high-end audio aficionados. Hopefully this trend will reverse itself as awareness grows.

[PHC1]

It's really a shame, just as the gear evolved to truly let you experience high fidelity sound, the music industry started to do the opposite with the recordings. If it wasn't for some carefully mastered audiophile grade recordings and some of the older music recorded well, I don't think high end audio would have had any future at all. Who want's to listen to a revealing system playing dynamic range compressed/ear scorching music? At best I can only "tolerate" many of the dynamic range compressed recordings but the "enjoyment" is not there....

[jdandy]

If you want to hear how this kind of compression can absolutely destroy what could have been a great recording, this CD, Don Henley - Building The Perfect Beast, is a classic example. There are some well written songs here, but the production makes them practically unlistenable. This is not just ear fatigue, this is audio torture.

[2112]

My favorite band Rush has also suffered this fate. Recordings before 1985 which were ADD are definitely not as detailed but buttery smooth, no harshness. The DDD recordings that followed became increasingly over compressed. I used to just refer to it as another "Harsh" sounding digital recording. On crappy equipment you really don't hear it as much.

Their last two albums are nearly unbearable in this respect. It is a shame as the music itself, especially the latest album is in my opinion spectacular. Of course on an I-pod, who cares. Why in the world do the engineers do this? Are they not aware? Do none of them listen to above average equipment? What gives? Are they saving $ by doing it this way???

I have been trying every trick I can think of to fix it on my end and I have come to the conclusion I can't.

[two dot]

Originally Posted by jdandy

If you want to hear how this kind of compression can absolutely destroy what could have been a great recording, this CD, Don Henley - Building The Perfect Beast, is a classic example. There are some well written songs here, but the production makes them practically unlistenable. This is not just ear fatigue, this is audio torture.

Maybe we should start a thread on the most un-listenable cd's...

[jdandy]

2112.......Once the peaks have be squashed, and the low levels have been increased, then mastered, it is over. You can not recreated the original dynamics. The damage is permanent.

[jdandy]

This is what amuses me about the record companies whining about lost sales, and decreasing revenue. They produce crappy products, no one buys them, and the record execs want to blame the Internet, file sharing, etc. All they would have to do is create a premium product, engineered and masterd for realistic dynamics and silence, price it fairly, and the CD buying public will knock the doors off the record stores to get it. The revenue is here, they are simply catering to the wrong notions.

[PHC1]

The dynamic range compression bodes well for the iPod users since the iPod can't possibly recreate the large dynamic swings anyway. You'd have to turn it way up to hear the soft passages and when the loud passage comes along, it would simply clip... So they make it loud to keep everything compressed and easy to reproduce with small earbud headphones... Sounds like crap of course as a byproduct of the process.