A LOT of people have asked about this article, which unfortunately went away due to some server issues a while back. But we're in the process of restoring articles manually from the "old days", and this one was essential.
Basically, this article has been everywhere. You could find this article being handed out at audio colleges, Wired.com and linked to by literally hundreds of other websites. It's an article describing the problem with the loudness wars, among other things.
http://www.prorec.com/2013/05/over-the- ... c-article/
Rip Rowan is the author of this article, just FYI. So I don't take credit for it. But it's now back for you to read again, in case you wanted to!
There is a followup article on this as well, and that will be posted soon.
We also have our two part interview with Bob Katz to check out if you want to as well. I talked with Bob for about an hour and he was incredibly informative and knows his stuff!
http://www.prorec.com/2012/03/bob-katz- ... ew-part-1/
http://www.prorec.com/2012/03/bob-katz- ... ew-part-2/
Enjoy!
Brent
"Over The Limit"- Revisiting the Loudness War- classic ProRec article, plus Bob Katz interview
-
- KVRAF
- Topic Starter
- 16154 posts since 2 Dec, 2003 from Nashville, TN
Thanks! Lots more classic articles, and plenty of new stuff coming as well. We have articles dating back to 1998, so many are very out of date, but all the relevant ones will return.
I think people would be surprised just how squashed their music is. Check back soon for the second article, which I'll hopefully get back up this week.
Brent
I think people would be surprised just how squashed their music is. Check back soon for the second article, which I'll hopefully get back up this week.
Brent
My host is better than your host
-
- KVRist
- 353 posts since 22 Feb, 2004
The trend of the loudness war mastering likely came from radio in the first place. Radio has a tremendous psychological power on people. In spite of the fact that radio should be near irrelevant in this day and age, it's still looked upon as some sort of great validator. If something is played on the radio, then it is by definition percieved as professional. And if music on the radio sounds completely squashed to begin with, then this is the "professional" sound people strive to have on their music.
But I think dynamics is only part of the story in this. A very, very understated artifact which results from brickwalling is the introduction of IM distortion on everything. It's really hard to find information on this on the web, everything I get is just way too academic and almost never put in a musical context. Demonstrating what happens when you brickwall 2 different sine wave frequencies together is simple enough, but it's harder to explain what this does on a complete song.
But I think dynamics is only part of the story in this. A very, very understated artifact which results from brickwalling is the introduction of IM distortion on everything. It's really hard to find information on this on the web, everything I get is just way too academic and almost never put in a musical context. Demonstrating what happens when you brickwall 2 different sine wave frequencies together is simple enough, but it's harder to explain what this does on a complete song.
-
- KVRAF
- 21348 posts since 26 Jul, 2005 from Gone
You mean on previous albums? Looks like it's not really the case for some prior to Vapor Trails from the graphic at the bottom of the article, or at least not to the point that it looks anywhere near as bad as Vapor Trails. Got to say that I noticed a big difference between vinyl and CD for some of their albums, particularly where apparently loud pieces got quite a bit quieter in comparison - which points to squashing somewhat. An example would be Fly By Night - the staccato bass after the quiet intro to 'In the End' was really loud on vinyl but came down a lot in volume by the time it made it to CD.koolkeys wrote:I think people would be surprised just how squashed their music is.
Actually, I believe I read their own comments about Vapor Trails somewhere, and they took the blame themselves for running everything so hot while recording to digital media, so they know it can't really be repaired much by remastering. Can't remember where, but I'm sure they put their hands up and accepted blame for most of it.
-
- KVRAF
- Topic Starter
- 16154 posts since 2 Dec, 2003 from Nashville, TN
Sorry, when I said "their", I was referring to the listener's music collection, not Rush specifically. I just meant that listeners would be surprised how squashed a lot of music in their collection really is.robojam wrote:You mean on previous albums? Looks like it's not really the case for some prior to Vapor Trails from the graphic at the bottom of the article, or at least not to the point that it looks anywhere near as bad as Vapor Trails. Got to say that I noticed a big difference between vinyl and CD for some of their albums, particularly where apparently loud pieces got quite a bit quieter in comparison - which points to squashing somewhat. An example would be Fly By Night - the staccato bass after the quiet intro to 'In the End' was really loud on vinyl but came down a lot in volume by the time it made it to CD.koolkeys wrote:I think people would be surprised just how squashed their music is.
Actually, I believe I read their own comments about Vapor Trails somewhere, and they took the blame themselves for running everything so hot while recording to digital media, so they know it can't really be repaired much by remastering. Can't remember where, but I'm sure they put their hands up and accepted blame for most of it.
Brent
My host is better than your host
-
- KVRAF
- 26033 posts since 20 Oct, 2007 from gonesville
the first conversation I ever had with an audio engineer, forty years ago, he moaned that - with the advent of [producing for] FM radio which was still a bit novel - 'they're compressing the shit out of everything these days'. 
-
- KVRAF
- 3321 posts since 2 Jul, 2007
What's even more egregious is the way a LOT of the "remastering" jobs on classic recording have been punched up for loudness and bass for today's standards, without regard to the integrity of the original recordings.
Listen to some of the "remastering" savagery performed on the Led Zeppelin CDs.
But then again, there is the Iggy remix of "Raw Power" where Iggy just turned everything up to 11 - and it worked. (Still didn't get rid of some of the blatant Bowie-isms, but I guess that is for another lifetime.)
Listen to some of the "remastering" savagery performed on the Led Zeppelin CDs.
But then again, there is the Iggy remix of "Raw Power" where Iggy just turned everything up to 11 - and it worked. (Still didn't get rid of some of the blatant Bowie-isms, but I guess that is for another lifetime.)
-
- KVRAF
- 21348 posts since 26 Jul, 2005 from Gone
Ah, but Raw Power is one of those that was recorded in the red too. Although many prefer Bowie's mix, I actually prefer Iggy's because is it so f**ked up - that was the point of the album.
I think the remix/remaster has actually been replaced now by a new remaster of Bowie's mix as the standard release...
I think the remix/remaster has actually been replaced now by a new remaster of Bowie's mix as the standard release...
-
- KVRAF
- Topic Starter
- 16154 posts since 2 Dec, 2003 from Nashville, TN
Our hosting was having some issues, so those who tried to access the article in the last few hours may not have seen it. It's back up now, for those who asked!
Brent
Brent
My host is better than your host
-
- KVRAF
- Topic Starter
- 16154 posts since 2 Dec, 2003 from Nashville, TN
For those interested in the field of mastering, since this is related, we also have our two part interview with Bob Katz:
http://www.prorec.com/2012/03/bob-katz- ... ew-part-1/
http://www.prorec.com/2012/03/bob-katz- ... ew-part-2/
http://www.prorec.com/2012/03/bob-katz- ... ew-part-1/
http://www.prorec.com/2012/03/bob-katz- ... ew-part-2/
My host is better than your host