It's been almost five years since I posted my first entry about the Loudness Wars. It's still one of my most popular posts. I've gained a lot of knowledge since then, and wanted to address some things from that first post, as well as add some new thoughts.
- One thing about my early Loudness War-related posts that probably makes people groan is my use of wave forms. I try not to over-rely on them these days, using my ears to ultimately decide which recording or mastering I like better. In my defense, most of the wave forms I posted early on actually demonstrated where I thought one mastering was overwhelmingly superior to another, except maybe in the case of Fear Factory's "Zero Signal", which I'll talk more about later.
- I'm not even sure if I buy into the notion that old analog compressors sound better than digital compressors/limiters. I think a lot of old compressed records sound plenty crappy. My ears are honestly not well enough trained to notice if older compression sounds "warmer" or whatever than newer compression.
- I've debated for a while if "clipping" should officially be considered a part of the Loudness War, since it complicates things for people who are trying to learn about it, sort of like how Super 35 made explaining film aspect ratios to the uninitiated more complicated. In this case, by "clipping" I mean pushing the music over the 0 dBFS threshold, or if you're looking at Dynamic Range Database results, it peaks over. What complicates matters is that you can have good dynamic range music that clips, and severely brickwalled music that doesn't. While clipping isn't always a factor in dynamic range, I have decided that it does have its place in the Loudness War.
- I finally bought Oasis's "(What's The Story) Morning Glory?", namely the original mastering. What's funny to me about that CD is that while it is horribly compressed and definitely the worst mastering of its time, it's not technically loud, since the highest peak is -2.16. It turns out that this only applies to the U.S. version of the CD, it's maxed out in the rest of the world. You can read about the recording and mastering of "Definitely Maybe" and "(What's The Story) Morning Glory?" here, and there's a little info about the mastering and remastering here. Thpse Oasis albums are a prime example of how the Loudness War is as much about overuse of compression in the recording or mixing stages as it is in the mastering stage. Although the remasters are still loud, they're supposed to sound better than the original CDs.
- I had mentioned that Fear Factory's "Demanufacture" album was really brickwalled for a 1995 release. Not only is it brickwalled, it also clips. However, it's nowhere near as badly compressed as the Oasis albums mentioned above, nor as bad as Red Hot Chili Peppers' "One Hot Minute". As for the comparisons between the "Demanufacture" and "Mortal Kombat" versions of "Zero Signal", I do like the sound of the "Demanufacture" version better. I don't know what the source of the "Mortal Kombat" version was, so I don't know if it was compressed from a far more dynamic version, or if it was sourced from the George Marino "Demanufacture" mastering and maybe compressed further. The "Mortal Kombat" soundtrack overall has a decent amount of dynamic range. I have to give "Mortal Kombat" mastering engineer Kevin Hodge credit for trying to balance out Metal songs with EDM songs, and not pushing it to 0 dBFS.
From "The Loudness War, continued":
- One reason for remastering is that analog-to-digital convertors have come a long way since the 1980s. I bought the remaster for Nine Inch Nails' "Pretty Hate Machine", and it's so smashed that I don't think any benefits from a new A/D conversion are audible. I got it because I figured it would be better for car listening than the original CD, but I don't think it is. The only thing that makes the remaster worth keeping is that "Sanctified" and "Something I Can Never Have" are more in line volume-wise with the rest of the album, which I think actually was Trent's intention, instead of having them significantly quieter due to the peaks. The downside is that now that those peaks have been chopped off, the effects on those songs aren't as cool.
- I bought the "Mastered for iTunes" remastering of Metallica's "Death Magnetic. While it's still more compressed than I'd like to see, it sounds significantly better than the original CD! In fact, it seems that quite a few iTunes and high res download versions of albums are better mastered than the CDs. Some have much better dynamic range. Earache Records even has Full Dynamic Range remasters of their classic albums on Bandcamp.com. Others, like Fitz and the Tantrums' "More Than Just A Dream", only have marginally better dynamic range. I still love physical product, but the occasionally better mastering combined with a finite living space does make downloading a more appetizing option.
- I was happy to discover an audiophile site for metalheads, Metal-Fi. Check it out!
Now for some newer thoughts.
- Daft Punk won the Loudness War with their "Random Access Memories" album. It proved that you can have a hit album, hit song, and win awards, without having to smash every track to oblivion. One thing that's generally not mentioned is that it also shows that dynamic records actually make it more possible to make songs that are really, REALLY loud (see "Contact"). However, like the Lord of the Rings-inspired meme says, "One does not simply end the Loudness War." While there seems to be more reasonably dynamic albums coming out, there are still too many artists putting out super-squashed music.
- And while there are still entirely too many super-Squashed Metal albums coming out, Metal seems to be taking baby steps towards more dynamic sound. The latest albums from Lamb of God, Slayer, and Anthrax all come in at DR6, with only one song from the Slayer album coming in at DR5. There's a band I saw last year called Night Demon whose 2015 album, "Curse of the Damned", comes in at DR7. Their eponymous titled debut EP rates a DR10! I recommend Night Demon if you like old New Wave of British Heavy Metal bands like Diamond Head or Saxon. And the new Iron Maiden album rates at DR8. For further reading, check out the Angry Metal-Fi's (crosspost of Metal-Fi and Angry Metal Guy) Best and Worst Sounding Records of 2015.
