Is Louder Better?

GoodNicsTken writes "Rip Rowan over at prorec.com did an analysis of 5 different Rush CD's released from 1984 to 2002. The results show a definite trend in the recording/mastering style from each album. Rip contends that louder is not necessarily better as the record execs believe. The artist however, is often left with little choice in the matter."

Comments

Re:Limbaugh?

[Nagatzhul]

That would lend credence to the idiom that it takes one to know one.

This is news?

[Crixus]

Ummmm... this is news? People in the recording industry have known this for a decade.

For me (a recording engineer) I judge the sonics of the record on mix clarity. Can you hear ALL of the instruments ALL of the time? This generally has nothing to do with loudness. Were the sounds captured well? Again, this has nothing to do with loudness.

To me, this article sounds like an immature diatribe put forth by some kid with a pet peeve.

He says he LIKED the analog recordings that used TAPE compression to get things louder, as opposed to the modern way of using digital compression (in software or hardware forms).

Well I have bad news for him... TAPE compression is STILL compression, and it STILL distorts (often radically) the waveform into something different than the original input signal. So why is one better than the other? Perhaps he's answering a question that I already know the answer to (the whole analog vs. digital argument.)

Does this guy think that back in the analog "day" that analog compressors weren't put into the signal path when mastering the recordings to vinyl? Of course they were, and THOSE distorted the signals also.

I haven't heard the new Rush album, but now I'll have to. I suspect it sounds fine, and it's just had all of the dynamics squeezed out of it. Or maybe it was simply recorded and mixed like shit and would sound horrific whether or not is was mastered too loudly.

So is it the volume or the distortion that this guy doesn't like? Because if it's the distortion he'd better tell Lifeson to turn off those Marshalls. ;-)

Look, I like dynamics left in my recordings also, but there are FAR worse engineering crimes out there other than mastering too loudly.

What about those earlier Rush records where Peart's drum heads were taped up so much it sounded like he was beating Tupperware?

And to the guy who likes the way the records on Nuclear Blast sound and congratulates their european engineers? Well, I did two records for that label in a NY studio. Sorry, no European engineers were on those sessions at all.

Rich...