The war of volume

[cobito]

You have probably heard about the "loudness war". It is the "trend" that consists of increasing the volume of the music to the point that losses occur and it leaves a dynamic range of pity.

The thing is that I am looking for sources or media in which music is distributed without this treatment. I have found this site in which the tracks of commercial records are analyzed and scored based on the dynamic range, but there the only thing that can be consulted is the (painful) state of the quality that is sold.

For the moment I have discovered that the editions in DVD-Audio in DTS format do not suffer this treatment, but the offer in this format is very limited. Do you know of any way to get music that has not suffered from the damned loudness war?

Thank you.

[Yorus]

I'm sorry I can't help you, but the topic has intrigued me, although I had heard something about it.
I've been looking at the link you provided to one of my favorite artists (Mike Oldfield) and it's surprising to see how the topic has deteriorated to the last album (Man on the rocks). It's true that I had noticed a significant increase in volume from Tubular Bells III and Millennium Bell, a time when I was unaware of this "trick".

Let's see if someone can help you.

[Sylver]

Without understanding much about the issue, I believe that if a particular music producer has mixed and mastered a song as the final version and its spectrum is wide due to compression (introduced on purpose as part of the composition), that is something that will always be there and will form part of the exclusivity of their work, regardless of whether or not the listener likes it.

Another thing is that third parties personally dedicate themselves to expanding the spectrum by introducing compression or duplicating tracks through overlapping (or more techniques that I am sure I do not know), as part of remasterizations of original songs or occasionally. In that case, you have to get hold of music in its original format, which is not overprocessed in this way, and that is usually the most expensive, because we are probably talking about authors whose music is already more than 30 or 40 years old.

If you are referring to locating particular authors whose "modus operandi" is not to break the limits of the channel, already leaving aside the release date, you have to investigate by ear in original music and start staying with those who do it best or who you like the most.

Another overwhelmingly relevant fact is the ability to listen to quality music in decent studio monitors, with a flat response, that do not color the bass, etc, etc. That is when you discover even the frequencies that are missing, the filters and compressions that are applied, and even discover instruments that are not appreciated in a home audio system.

From what I have read about the war of volume, it is not so much the format in which the audio is delivered, but what kind of production is behind it. If the producer has wanted to maintain decibels limited to half or three-quarters of the dynamic range, he will probably not distort in any case (and if the mix is well done). But if we are talking about a remasterization or simply that the author has released the final version of a song with brutal compression and a huge range, then there is nothing to do. There is only left to say that their music is good if we like it, but that in the mixing and mastering work they lacked some accuracy.

Regards

[Obione]

Without having read more than the first message, I'm going to comment that I have seen a certification promoted on the topic, but it was something very minority. Don't obsess over the topic, there are styles in which compressing is a sin and others in which without good compression you don't achieve the goal, it's not the same as an orchestra or jazz as techno.

Catch the music that you like, if it's a good musician, the normal thing is that they record in a good studio where they work well

[whoololon]

It's just that the thing has its own thing going on.
To give an example, I have the Queen discography on vinyl and several by JM Jarre, and yes it is noticeable and a lot when you listen to them on CD (I bought them back in the day because they said the sound was cleaner, that they were remastered and all that).
As Sylver says (that bastard is into everything ;D) it's a matter of the record companies and I would add part of the blame on the artist who "lets them do it". However, as protests against this practice grow, it could be that a more balanced format is returned to. After all, it would be cheaper for them.

[Sylver]

@whoololon:

It's that the thing has its own thing going on.
To give an example, I have on vinyl the discography of Queen and several of JM Jarre, and yes it is noticeable and a lot when you listen to them on CD (I bought them in their day because they said the sound was cleaner, that they were remastered and such).
As Sylver says (that bastard is into everything ;D) it's a matter of record companies and I would add part of the blame of the artist who "lets them do it". However, as protests against this practice grow, it could be that a more balanced format is returned to. After all, it would be cheaper for them.

I assure you very little! I learned almost all of this from a producer friend who told me about his problems when trying to get the maximum sound quality, and he was always fighting the temptation to put a compressor at the end of the mix to the whole thing to gain more "presence", which was nothing more than a crude sound inflation, and he knew it xD

In fact, when I started producing, (and I'm still at beta level) I also used the resource of inflating the sound at the end and, indeed, it ended up distorting when it came out beyond my equipment :mudo:

Regards