CDs Mastered With the Volume too Low

I was thinking of the Rhino Best of Wisdom Pickett but a lot of WEA CD from the 80s and early 90s

 

ZZ Top - Eliminator: German first CD pressing, damn too low

 

again WEA....

 

Springos Magic.

 

Yeah, but, a lot of them really pull you in when you crank them up.

 

The Nightfly.

 

Rossington Collins Band - Anytime, Anyplace, Anywhere

 

Sounds fine to me.

Zappa - Them Or Us

 

Charlie McCoy, Little Maggie from his 'Beam Me Up Charlie' CD released in 1989. About the lowest I have experienced in my collection.

 

Sign O' The Times by Prince

 

this CD is mastered so low I couldn't believe it! had to crank the volume just to hear it! crazy..

 

The RCA Station To Station, US edition (catalog number starts with PCD1) has something like 8 dB of headroom for the majority of the disc. When you bump it up, it's no sonic marvel. I believe all pre-remaster Fables Of The Reconstruction discs by R.E.M. are also ridiculously quiet - though that one sounds pretty damn good when cranked, like the other early R.E.M. discs (it's just quieter).

The Flaming Lips are known for using digital clipping as an instrument - so it's kind of ironic that the original CD of their debut album Hear It Is is so quiet I wonder if I'll actually need to compress it myself when I go to remaster it for my level-matched library!

 

That's virtually the same as the first release of Frankie goes to Hollywood's "Welcome to the pleasuredome".

First time I played it I thought there was something wrong with my hi-fi.

 

again WEA, ALL of the pre Symbol Prince CDs are mastered too low. The worst to me is Dirty Mind

 

The Police - Ghost in the Machine (Original US DADC pressing). Great sound despite the low volume!

 

I'll take a CD mastered like Sign O The Times any day over one mastered like Magic (Springsteen) or Memory Almost Full (McCartney), which have ridiculous amounts of clipping on them. If it's quiet, you can always turn up the volume (or even "remaster" the music to your own specifications), but when there's clipping and actual musical information is lost, there's nothing you can do to replace it.

 

You shouldn't have too.

 

10,000 Maniacs - In My Tribe Original issue. You really need to turn it up a lot to get it to a decent volume.
Paul McCartney - All The Best Original issue. Have to turn this up 4 or 5 notches above what I normally play my CDs at and it's still not loud.

 

I've recorded in studios and left with a disc that was mastered elsewhere. I did at the time appreciate how the mastering filled out the sound, but the real work was done in the recording studio. As for my personal out of control collection, I could care less if a CD or Record is quiet. I just don't want an obnoxious, loud, distorted overly in your face mastering. I believe in having a fairly loud stereo, and I do. There are some records where I really crank the amp to get loud, but in the end they all do.

 

Dan Fogelberg - Phoenix
In most of the songs the peaks are between -7dB and -9dB.
Album details - Dynamic Range Database

 

What exactly is 'too low? My amp has a volume control. Most times I leave it alone, sometimes I adjust it.

 

Now, some of them are too loud. What you gonna do.

I believe eons ago Steve H posted about why they were so quiet.

 

It sounds fantastic. But it's mastered very quiet.

 

I'd much rather too quiet than too loud.

 

Too low? What would be the problem with that? Just turn the volume up.