Playback of recordings with TOO MUCH dynamic range, what do you do?

Becoming a classical music fan years ago taught me the importance of initial volume setting. I usually set the volume by scanning to a section that I know is loud, then setting the volume, then restarting the CD. It is a bit of a pain, but I hate adjusting the volume up and down as I listen. Of course, because classical music is often very dynamic, it might mean setting the initial volume so that you can barely hear the music. A quiet room is essential, I find. I close the windows, unplug the fridge, whatever it takes. A big part of the emotional effect of classical music lies in the extreme dynamics, so I try my best to set the right setting to hear it all.

To the OP, I would say that if the above doesn't work, then switch to headphones. Some of my best listening has been over headphones, much as I don't like them. A walk in nature listening to a symphony or a solo piano work is a wonderful experience.

And I might be wrong in this, but I suspect the bursts of sound/energy found in orchestral music are less bothersome to my neighbors than constant loud rock music.

 

My television and my car have settings to control this. I have "re-mastered" several CDs to a more comfortable listening range while working or listening to at night in my sun room. I'm the only night-owl in my house and don't always want to listen to the system in my studio/large listening room.

 

When I travel on the highway, I rarely listen to classical because of the dynamic range. I have never owned a car that was a quiet ride.

 

Distortion during the loud bits and perhaps a listening room that isn’t as quiet as the listener believes it to be? Set the “normal” level loud enough to overcome the environment, which you might not realize is noisy, only to be blown out by a climax that distorts the speakers. Maybe?

Whereas the live unamplified acoustic music isn’t really distorting at the source and it’s blowing into a much larger room, typically.

 

Khorn,

You do realize you're using one of the most dynamic loudspeakers out there, right? The reason audiophiles, such as myself, puts up with the compromises of a horn loaded loudspeaker system is the excellcent dynamics and clear volume at concert levels. Running everything through a limiter would be most absurd.

 

I can imagine this thread is a little depressing for mastering engineers (and recording engineers such as myself) who are fighting against squashed dynamics in today's music industry.

 

OP, I try to play all of the material I have at reference loudness level of 85dB, or -4dB from 89dB (ReplayGain reference value). This approach works perfectly for a large majority of albums/tracks except few extreme cases where track/album ReplayGain value is substantially higher than allowed gain (with no clipping result). Still these extreme tracks play, say, only 2...3dB quieter than others, which in case of extreme dynamics is not such big of a deal, IMO... Just engage track/album ReplayGain (with clipping prevention) plus -4dB pre-amplification in playback, & voila... BTW, similar routine works great in the car, too: all of my albums stored on the USB drive (MP3) & iPhone (FLAC) are also at reference loudness level of 89dB (or a tad lower for the likes of Dire Straits - Brothers In Arms), classical ones are at 85dB. My car player has no ReplayGain feature, but I play any album off the USB drive with almost no need to touch my volume knob.

 

Too much dynamic range. There’s something audiophiles don’t normally complain about

 

Buy the soundtrack of Star Wars Rogue One on LP or the 96/24 digital download and you'll experience it.

 

Some of my mercury living presence LPs have a graphic in the liner notes saying to play at maximum volume!

 

So do my Sunn O))) LPs. They all have a note that says "maximum volume yields maximum results".

 

That gives me a good idea:

Sunn covers rite of spring!

 

There are a lot of cuts on their discs that qualify. I find Thunder and Birdies an even greater test of dynamics. The only time I came close to hearing it the way it was meant to be was using a pair of VMPS speakers bi-amped with about 800 watts alone for the woofers.

John K.

 

I encounter this constantly (including about two minutes ago). Find a level that suits one passage and get blown out of the room by another. Part of it depends on the ambient noise level at the time (laundry running two rooms away). I get crazy straining to hear the really quiet bits! Yes, I listen mostly to classical...

 

For some classical recordings, I turn on Adaptive DRC on my Yamaha receiver. Or listen through headphones.

 

It'd be helpful if engineers could somehow compress the waves so all parts of the album had the same dynamics.

Haha gotcha!

 

I’m starting to think maybe it’s the price I have to pay for using such highly sensitive and efficient speakers capable of tremendous dynamics in a relatively small room.

When I sit down to “seriously listen” I make sure all appliances like fridge and ac or furnace fans are off. Also my system is dead quite as I can put my ear right against the mid and HF horn mouths at idle and they are dead quite. That way I have no reason to raise the volume to cover extraneous noise.
Fortunately most recoding I listen to don’t have that extreme of dynamic range.

 

If you thought the 1913 Paris riot was bad enough, imagine what will happen if Sunn O))) covered that track?! The entire city falls under complete anarchy?!

 

Isn't this simply a matter of the dynamics of the music?

What I mean is - quiet parts are supposed to be QUIET. If you set the volume at a point where the quiet section is essentially a "normal" level, then of course, when the loud section comes in it's going to be too loud.

The problem isn't the disc, or the music. The issue is you have the quiet passages louder - relatively - than they ought to be. Instead, simply accept that quiet passages are quiet.

I just bought a CD with DR19, with a peak at DR21, and a low of DR17. Marimba's have never sounded so good. But I suppose if you set the quiet passages at high volume, you'd be speaker shopping later in the day.

 

Normlize it or some kind of replay gain

 

Playback normalization does not make the music less dynamic. With normalization, the differences between the loudest parts of a track and the quietest parts of a track are still the same. The only difference is that the playback volume might be set differently from track to track or album to album. It's like if you know track A is loud and track B is quiet, you set the volume knob for track A, then before track B plays, you get up and adjust the volume knob. It just happens automatically. But the dynamic range of the music from quietest to loudest are maintained.

 

You have discovered why compression is used. Personally, I like wide dynamic range in music. But, I hate it when watching cable TV, watching YouTube, or on XM, where loudness laws don't apply.

Some hardware and software provide user switchable compressors for such situations, but it's not good for music. This is one of the reasons why average consumers like compressed music: the compression keeps everything all at one level. Most people like to set a volume level and forget it.

 

Not all tracks are recorded at the same volume. It's a place to start without messing with the dynamics. Unless he's wanting to use a limiter or compressor.