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The "Loudness War" and the Future of Music

Posted by kdawson on from the turn-that-thing-down dept.

An anonymous reader notes an article up at IEEE Spectrum outlining the history and dangers of the accelerating tendency of music producers to increase the loudness and reduce the dynamic range of CDs. "The loudness war, what many audiophiles refer to as an assault on music (and ears), has been an open secret of the recording industry for nearly the past two decades and has garnered more attention in recent years as CDs have pushed the limits of loudness thanks to advances in digital technology. The 'war' refers to the competition among record companies to make louder and louder albums by compressing the dynamic range. But the loudness war could be doing more than simply pumping up the volume and angering aficionados — it could be responsible for halting technological advances in sound quality for years to come... From the mid 1980s to now, the average loudness of CDs increased by a factor of 10, and the peaks of songs are now one-tenth of what they used to be."

7 of 687 comments (clear)

  1. Example... by Suicidal+Gir · · Score: 5, Informative

    Here's a good video outlining what the record companies have been doing.

  2. More info by Rob+T+Firefly · · Score: 5, Informative

    Wikipedia has a decent article on the Loudness War, complete with interesting graphics of the same song from newer and older releases.

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    1. Re:More info by olip · · Score: 5, Informative

      And Slashdot had a decent discussion on the Loudness War 3 months ago, complete with the YouTube demo.

  3. Re:The alternative? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    Which knob do you adjust to increase the dynamic range and re-add the lost information?

    Oh that's right, you can't. You're right, it's not a tough choice is it?

  4. Re:I have the solution by Maxx169 · · Score: 5, Informative

    Wrong kind of compression. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dynamic_range_compres sion

  5. Re:What pisses me off by Pope · · Score: 5, Informative

    The expression is "Hear hear" you dumbass. Although in this case the expression is "HEAR! HEAR!"

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  6. You've never listened to modern turntables by Danathar · · Score: 5, Informative

    Have you listened to a modern pressed record played on a modern (made this year) turntable?

    I have a set of flac music files of the latest White Stripes Album. The hiss is almost inaudible, there are no clicks, pops or any of the other crap you would hear on a mid 70's turn table.

    Yes, the frequency range is nothing like a CD, but the dynamic range is SO much better. Plus on the CD version of the same album above is SO loud it actually clips (click sounds on loud points of the album).

    It's a sad state of affairs when the Vinyl version of a record sounds better than the CD.