Louder is not better!

[guscave]

I just got done reading an article on April's edition of Recording Magazine about mastering (thanks Taxi). I could not disagree more with the writer (Scott Dorsey) about how we should sacrifice dynamic ranges in our music in order to achieve the loudest possible final product.For years I have heard producers and engineers complain about how the record labels are telling mastering houses to "crank it up", make the final master as louder if not louder than the other guy's album. This at the risk of killing the dynamics that were so carefully caught on the sessions and mix.I wrote a blog on this here: http://thesongwriterguy.wordpress.com/Personally, I feel that as professionals in the records industry we should adhere to a higher standard, and not take that cheap road which says" It's ok 'cause everyone is doing it.My 2cents...

[silvercord]

yup! right on Gus! I read the same article and i couldnt agreemore with him or you...i admit to being fooled by a louder soundso now when i a/b my mixes in Ozone 3, i make sure the loudnessmaximizer is off..i really get the feel of how the eq is, only 'till after that i can go wild with my db madness~im happy that recording magizine was shipped all the way toKorea...yay~peace geoff

[mazz]

Hey guys,That article was a totally tongue in cheek, April Fools joke!! Read it again with that in mind. The broad, sweeping statements in there were meant to parody the problems that exist in modern pop music and hopefully shed light on the absurdity of the loudness wars. I admit, when I first started reading he sucked me in but by the end I realized it was a practical joke.Go back and check it out again.Mazz

[avillaronga]

I agree with mazz, I also read it as a tongue-in-cheek article, although I wasn't sure at first. I think by the end when he says things like "Clipping also does us the service of rendering vocals unintelligible" or that we need lots of high end "so we can hear the leakage from the headphones of person next to you on the subway" it's pretty clear that he's not serious. Well, he is serious about making his point but using sarcasm as the medium to deliver it.Antonio

[guscave]

Well if it was an April fools piece, shame on me... , But there are some in the industry that still believe that these types of mastering techniques are ok. Here's a quote for Butch Vig from "Garbage" http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/ ... printwhere he mentions that we've raised the bar by using over-compression. I like Butch's work but I don't agree with him on this.

[andreh]

Ironically, in his article he actually expresses some valid techniques for creating super-loud masters. I always educate my clients about the importance of dynamics, but there still are (and probably will be for some time) situations that call for the loudest possible master.Fortunately, Taxi submissions are not usually included in this category. André

[andreh]

guscave-I don't think Butch meant that the quality bar has been raised by over-compression [over-limiting, actually], just that the "sound level" bar had been raised. And it doesn't seem as if he's enamoured by this, but that he accepts it as reality (which it is).Here's the actual quote:"Compression is a necessary evil. The artists I know want to sound competitive. You don't want your track to sound quieter or wimpier by comparison. We've raised the bar and you can't really step back." — Butch Vig, producer and Garbage mastermindAndré

[Casey H]

YOU MEAN IT'S NOT??

[ibanez468]

Jesus Christ Casey!

[guscave]

I understand how making it "louder" is the norm, and considering that most people are listening to music on small, cheap ear buds, I can see why the trend has been to "crank it up". My issue is that we're falling into an attitude of "it's ok to skimp on quality". Lately there has been an increase in vinyl record sales. Most of it does have to do with the nostalgia behind vinyl and it all might just be a fad, but a lot of these kids buying vinyl today are noticing the better quality in the recordings. That's a good thing because I'd hate to see a whole generation grow up thinking that what's happening in the mastering houses today is the best there is.