Are the loudness wars over?*

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by Diorama, Sep 5, 2017.

Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.
  1. Diorama

    Diorama Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Ireland
    I keep hearing how the loudness wars are over but each new cd I get sounds awful for the most part. It's super limited and compressed.
    Did Oasis in a way start it? Maybe was before that but I do remember when Whats The Story came out when I was a child how loud it was.
     
  2. c-eling

    c-eling They're made of light,We never would have guessed

    I've never heard that's it's over.
    Loudness and crappy recording began way before Oasis
    Ton's of topics on the matter, here's just one of many...
    The Loudness War - developments
     
    nosliw and bleachershane like this.
  3. Diorama

    Diorama Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Ireland
    Well I should re-phrase that. I first was aware when I was a kid of the loudness of Oasis, didn't have a clue about mastering etc.
    I hear many mastering engineers and ones I know saying it's over. I think not.
     
    Dynamic Ranger likes this.
  4. c-eling

    c-eling They're made of light,We never would have guessed

    None of the 2017 new releases I've purchased this year have given to that indication.
     
  5. AlanDistro

    AlanDistro Forum Resident

    Location:
    Sandy, OR
    I wish. Some artists are better than others, of course. But for the most part, any new release standard redbook I buy, I assume it's DR6 unless I've heard otherwise beforehand.
     
    Bluebair, mattright, Purple and 4 others like this.
  6. I just bought Elias Dris, Gold in the Ashes and to my surprise it sounds really good. I was very pleased as its not available on Vinyl. Most albums on cd that i have purchased this year still seem too loud and compressed. Such a shame given how much we spend on our rigs!!
     
  7. Diorama

    Diorama Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Ireland
    I know it's a shame. I think the problem is the better rig you have the more you notice the awful artifacts within what the mastering is doing.
     
  8. and there in lies the problem!! So bloody annoying
     
  9. Holy Diver

    Holy Diver Senior Member

    Location:
    USA
  10. ricks

    ricks Senior Member

    Location:
    127.0.0.1:443
    "Whatever you do don't mention the war"

    There is no war. It ended a long time ago and regardless of the info mentioned in this thread those who appreciate Dynamic Range or lifelike sound lost badly, and no one in the public at large cares - I repeat NO ONE outside this forum actually cares.
     
    Last edited: Sep 5, 2017
  11. Ham Sandwich

    Ham Sandwich Senior Member

    Location:
    Sherwood, OR, USA
    The new 2017 album by The War On Drugs is actually a war on dynamic range. Squashed.
    The loudness war is not over.
    There is no reprieve.
     
  12. qwerty

    qwerty A resident of the SH_Forums.

    We are not going to wake up one morning and find the loudness war instantly over, with every release from that morning mastered correctly.

    If it does change, it will be a slow change, over many years (decades?). And even then, there will be the re-releasing of brickwalled CDs so that they "are the same as they were back in the day", or because the people responsible are too lazy or just don't care.

    We have to learn to live with this ugly reality, and to do what we can do to bring about this change. But it will be slow change.
     
  13. Diorama

    Diorama Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Ireland
    I shall never get tired of these Morpheus meme's
     
  14. Raf

    Raf Senior Member

    Location:
    Toronto, Ontario
    No they isn't.
     
  15. Klassik

    Klassik Guerilla BeatLOLogist

    Location:
    United Kingdom
    It's over now cos I just turned the volume down on my dansette. See? Simple.
     
  16. Nielsoe

    Nielsoe Forum Resident

    Location:
    Aalborg, Denmark
    So you're saying that every single audiophile in the entire world is a SH forum member? A couple of my freinds are audiophiles but non SH members, but they sure as h*ll do care about the loudness war!
     
    JulesRules likes this.
  17. PlushFieldHarpy

    PlushFieldHarpy Forum Resident

    Location:
    Indiana
    And no one actually cares about music, either. Connected?
     
    Purple, Bluebair, bzfgt and 1 other person like this.
  18. sandimascharvel

    sandimascharvel Forum Resident

    Location:
    NJ USA
    I had read that it's over a while ago. It's certainly not although some have paid attention.

    Bob Ludwig helped convince Agemged Sevenfold to make their last album with better mastering when he presented different masterings to them. I think it came in at a DR of 12 on CD.

    Here's a great interview with Bob-
    Interview: Bob Ludwig of Gateway Mastering Studios

    He talks about the loudness wars, dynamics, detail and the good old days. He also says some of his clients hold Death Magnetic as the standard for how an album should be mastered. He says a lot of bands and A&R people aren't educated enough on the subject. That seems to be the continuing problem.

    Among those who continue to brickwall:

    Def Leppard's recent Hysteria box set, which could have made an improvement on the album and b-sides, was brickwalled like every other remaster and recent release of theirs.

    Iron Maiden's hi res remasters were unfortunately brickwalled.

    Ozzy's hi res issues and CD remasters including the most recent Blizzard of Ozz and Diary of a Madman 30th Anniversary issues were sadly brickwalled.

    I would have loved to have upgraded from my old CD's of all of the above but those old CD's remain the best sounding.

    Some things I bought recently came out with decent DR's:

    Kiss' hi res remasters were good (not in the green zone but still good).

    Van Halen's hi res were good, but oddly only the 192/24 versions; the 96/24 and CD versions were brickwalled.

    Black Sabbath's remasters were good.

    Rush's 2015 remasters were good although I've read complaints about audible watermarking by Universal.

    Hopefully more will pay attention.
     
    clhboa and nosliw like this.
  19. testikoff

    testikoff Seasoned n00b

    The war is over: loudness won... :(
     
    bataclan2002, bobcat, Jam757 and 21 others like this.
  20. bullmkt3

    bullmkt3 Forum Resident

    I received my Steve Winwood Greatest Hits Live CD on Friday. The quality of the recording was awful. Sounded like an MP3 recorded on a CD. Compression galore.
     
    Picca and c-eling like this.
  21. c-eling

    c-eling They're made of light,We never would have guessed

    The review I was waiting for, thanks :cheers:
     
  22. Lemon Curry

    Lemon Curry (A) Face In The Crowd

    Location:
    Mahwah, NJ
    Agree the war is over and agree that very few people actually care.

    No record company wants their songs to stick out as not being as loud as the song before or after.
     
    D-rock, andrewskyDE and pghmusiclover like this.
  23. dkmonroe

    dkmonroe A completely self-taught idiot

    Location:
    Atlanta
    He's using exaggeration to make what should be a very obvious point - very few people have ever been truly concerned about loudness in mastering. I think he's essentially correct - the war is over and loudness won, at least for the future. Some reissues of classics have been mastered without a view to blowing your doors off but I expect any brand new release to be jacked up in its digital form.
     
  24. pghmusiclover

    pghmusiclover Senior Member

    (some on the forum don't care either... just sayin'...)
     
  25. Nielsoe

    Nielsoe Forum Resident

    Location:
    Aalborg, Denmark
    I agree more or less. I just had to react on the "I repeat NO ONE outside of this forum" line... Furthermore I'm not a quitter. Or perhaps I'm just a dreamer. Anyhow, I'll go on being a pain and complain!!
     
Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.

Share This Page

molar-endocrine