Are you NOT bothered by the "Loudness Wars" CD's? Do you listen to music loudly in general?

I don't want you to suffer.
Freeware? Any example?

 

I think the main one people use is called Audacity.

 

I'll take a quiet CD and either turn up the volume or drop into Audacity and amplify. Loud CD's cannot be fixed once it's done.

 

I absolutely hate them! For some select titles, however, sometimes there's no choice.

 

thank you very much.

 

Once you find a better version of one of those CDs and compare it with the Loudness Wars version, you might never look back. Most loud stuff isn't really crankable either - it just turns into distorted splatter. Get one of those old 80's Led Zeppelin CDs, crank it up and see what I mean.

 

Music first. I dont really notice it except in extreme cases and even then, if the musical good I don't care. But I'd prefer them not to be maxed out and have dynamics

 

If it's just jacked up louder, not over compressed and with no eccentric EQ - I would probably not worry, or rather I think there are bigger issues. I personally hate brightened mid to sound 'detailed'.

 

I am bothered a bit by it and used to be bothered by it a whole lot more. I guess I have come to accept that in a world where much of people's music listening occurs on MP3 players, phones, and via Bluetooth devices, the need for some compression becomes inevitable. Listening to music in the 70's on records necessitated limits on when you could do it (hence radios). Most people I know enjoy the ease of access to their music. And, though this may be heresy here, on a crowded subway, mass transit bus, or an airplane, judicious compression isn't the worst thing in the world for musical listening.

I don't usually like how recorded music sounds with a DR of 7 or less; a DR of 8-9 is not unacceptable .

 

As others have stated, I dont think the OP understands what "loudness" is in this case. Its not about volume knobs. Its about dynamics. When all the instruments are leveled up the same, clip and then information has to be cut off; you not only get horrible dynamics but lose musical information. Not sure why anyone would want that.

Do I have to tolerate it at times? Yes. Does it bother me? Yes.

Now if a an album is mastered well, depending on my mood and genre of music, I might crank it to 11 and wake up the neighbors. At least I have the option.

 

I voted "I dislike them in general". I will put up with them on occasions, but if I'm playing them on my laptop, and it goes from a quiet CD to a loud one, then the difference is quite shocking. It's gotten to the point where I begin to prefer albums mastered well even though I don't tend to prefer that music. Donna Summer's Cats Without Claws is one such case. It's hard to imagine the remaster sounding better than the original CD.

 

I'm usually relieved when I see DR8 minimum, I do not like loud CDs in general but I do listen to my music loud in general.

Loud CDs are fine in the background or in my crappy factory GM Cobalt system, but on my main rig I just find they don't sound good for very long at high volumes. Same for loud vinyl, the last Jane's Addiction album was clearly sourced from the loud CD and sounds like gash.

 

Problem with Loudness Wars is that they apply tons of compression AND limiting/clipping, to achieve the highest possible volume, squashing the life out of it. As opposed to use it to even out certain quiet/loud musical passages, ideal to listen in loud enviroments (ie. the car, on the iPod walking down the street).
So for example, I could take a classical music album with extreme volume swings (sometimes you can barely hear the orchestra, sometimes they'll blow up your speakers) and apply DRC to make things a little more even and still end up with a very nice sounding and dynamic album, like DR13. I only feel compelled to use if I think it's REALLY necessary, which happens very rarely.

Look, this is Supertramp's Crime of the Century (MFSL UDCD505), which is extremely dynamic (DR16):


Since it's impossible for me hear this properly on my portable player, so I applied compression and it ended up looking like this (DR 14):


Bottom line, it's ok to use it without butchering the whole thing.
Also, the music loudness is irrelevant to how loud you listen to music. Like, Paul's Memory Almost Full is brickwalled as hell and you can't crank it up 'cause it'll make your hears bleed.

 

I got sick by listening to Foo Fighters-Wasting Light at top volume but enjoyed the Chvrches and Haim albums which were plenty loud.

 

The thread officially ended with this post.

 

What makes me laugh is when people look at waveform samples and declare how inferior the mastering is, and boycott the release, without hearing any actual music.

 

Brick walled CDs stink. That's why I don't bother with new bands & even remasters of classic bands are with caution. BTW that 2010 remaster of Some Girls ....rubbish!

 

The problem as I see it is that a lot of modern music is already recorded with excessive amounts of analogue compression.
An extra layer of digital compression is a double whammy.

 

I agree. I like finding new music and there is an ample amount of good music being produced today, much of it is hard to listen to on a good system.

 

I parted ways with the Compact Disk format long ago, so I am not bothered by it at all.

 

That's because a brickwalled waveform lets you know what to expect. I have yet to hear a brickwalled waveform and think "Hey, that sound great!". It's like if you see someone coming at you with a knife, do you wait to see if he's going to stick you or do you use your better judgment and walk the other direction?

I've always thought this old video is a great example because it displays that when those opening snares are mashed, the punch of those notes are gone forever. He gives a very clear and streamlined example of what over-compression does to music:

 

Agreed. Or determine that the DR number is the only indicator of if something sounds good or not.

 

I dislike them in general. Of course it makes a difference how loud a CD actually is, a couple of clipped samples is not the same as a completely squashed, distorted CD. But to me any kind of limiting on CDs is totally unnecessary. While typing this I'm listening to Roy Orbison's "In Dreams" (recorded more than 50 years ago) and I'm thinking "why don't the new albums by Ode To The Quiet, Robert Plant, Jackson Browne, Beck or Suzanne Vega sound like this?". It's ridiculous.

 

Sure they can. Loudness has nothing to do with dynamic range. If something is cut too loud for you, and it doesn't result in actual clipping, then turning the volume down should make it sound the same as if it was recorded at a lower level.

Of course there is a potential problem with a loud cd and that would be if it is loud enough to overload some of your electronics.

Once again, and I realize most here get this, loudness has nothing to do with whether or not compression has been added. This term has been so incorrectly used around here that I feel it's important to mention this from time to time.

 

Of course you realize that the final mix of this album was run through a stereo limiter.