Loudness war
Encyclopedia
The loudness war or loudness race is a pejorative
term for the apparent competition to digitally master and release recordings with increasing loudness
.
The phenomenon was first reported with respect to mastering practices for 7" singles. The maximum peak level
of analog recordings such as these is limited by the specifications of electronic equipment along the chain from source to listener, including vinyl record and cassette
players.
With the advent of the Compact Disc
(CD), music is encoded to a digital format with a clearly defined maximum peak amplitude. Once the maximum amplitude of a CD is reached, loudness can be increased still further through signal processing
techniques such as dynamic range compression and equalization
. Engineers can apply an increasingly high ratio of compression to a recording until it more frequently peaks at the maximum amplitude. Extreme uses of dynamic range compression can introduce clipping
and other audible distortion. Modern albums that use such extreme dynamic range compression therefore sacrifice sound quality to loudness. The competitive escalation of loudness has led music fans and members of the musical press to refer to the affected albums as "victims of the loudness war".
As a result, the common practice of mastering music involved matching the highest peak of a recording at, or close to, digital full scale, and referring to digital levels along the lines of more familiar analog VU meters. When using VU meters, a certain point (usually −14 dB below the disc's maximum amplitude) was used in the same way as the saturation point (signified as 0 dB) of analog recording, with several dB of the CD's recording level reserved for amplitude exceeding the saturation point (often referred to as the "red zone", signified by a red bar in the meter display), because digital media cannot exceed 0 dBFS
. The average level of the average rock song during most of the decade was around −18 dBFS.
The concept of making music releases "hotter" began to appeal to people within the industry, in part because of how noticeably louder releases had become and also in part because the industry believed that customers preferred louder sounding CDs, even though that notion might not have been true. Engineers, musicians and labels each developed their own ideas of how CDs could be made louder. In 1994, the digital brickwall limiter with look-ahead (to pull down peak levels before they happened) was first mass-produced. While the increase in CD loudness was gradual throughout the 1990s, some opted to push the format to the limit, such as on Oasis's
widely popular album (What's the Story) Morning Glory?
, which averaged −8 dBFS on many of its tracks—a rare occurrence, especially in the year it was released (1995). In 1997, Iggy Pop assisted in the remix and remaster of the 1973 album Raw Power
by his former band The Stooges
, creating an album that, to this day, is arguably the loudest rock CD ever recorded. It has an average of −4 dBFS in places.
's Death Magnetic
album. The CD version of the recording has a high average loudness that pushes peaks beyond the point of digital clipping, resulting in distortion. These findings were reported by customers and music industry professionals. These findings were later covered in multiple international publications, including Rolling Stone
, The Wall Street Journal
, BBC Radio, Wired
, and The Guardian
. Ted Jensen
, a mastering engineer involved in the Death Magnetic recordings, subsequently criticized the approach employed during the production process. A version of the release without dynamic range compression was included in the downloadable content
for Guitar Hero III
.
In contrast, in late 2008 mastering engineer Bob Ludwig
offered three versions of the Guns N' Roses
album Chinese Democracy
for approval to co-producers Axl Rose
and Caram Costanzo, and they selected the one with the least compression. Ludwig wrote, "I was floored when I heard they decided to go with my full dynamics version and the loudness-for-loudness-sake versions be damned." Ludwig feels that the "fan and press backlash against the recent heavily compressed recordings finally set the context for someone to take a stand and return to putting music and dynamics above sheer level."
, Bowers & Wilkins
and Shure
as well as "name" engineers like Bob Ludwig. Shepherd cites research showing there is no connection between sales and "loudness", and that people prefer more dynamic music.
With music sales moving towards digital downloads and away from CDs, there is a possibility that the loudness war will be blunted by normalization technology such as ReplayGain and Apple's Sound Check. Some cloud-based
music services perform loudness normalization by default and may reduce the market pressure to hypercompress material.
Other proposals include the use of dynamic range expansion such as a system proposed by DTS which aims at restoring transients that have previously been reduced in dynamic range.
, Geoff Emerick
(noted for his work with The Beatles
from Revolver
to Abbey Road), and mastering engineers Doug Sax, Steve Hoffman, and many others, including music audiophiles, hi-fi enthusiasts, and fans. Musician Bob Dylan
has also condemned the practice, saying: "You listen to these modern records, they're atrocious, they have sound all over them. There's no definition of nothing, no vocal, no nothing, just like—static." Nonetheless, the compact disc editions of Dylan's more recent albums Modern Times
and Together Through Life
are examples of heavy dynamic range compression.
When music is broadcast by a radio station, the station will apply its own signal processing, which further reduces the dynamic range of the broadcast material to closely match levels of absolute amplitude, regardless of the original record loudness.
Opponents have also called for immediate changes in the music industry regarding the level of loudness. In August 2006, the vice-president of A&R
for One Haven Music, a Sony Music company, in an open letter decrying the loudness war, claimed that mastering engineers are being forced against their will or are preemptively making releases louder in order to get the attention of industry heads. Some bands are being petitioned by the public to re-release their music with less distortion.
The nonprofit organization Turn Me Up! was created by Charles Dye
, John Ralston
and Allen Wagner to certify albums that contain a suitable level of dynamic range and encourage the sale of quieter records by placing a "Turn Me Up!" sticker on albums that have a larger dynamic range. The group has not yet arrived at an objective method for determining what will be certified.
Hearing experts, such as a hearing researcher at House Ear Institute in Los Angeles, are also concerned that the loudness of new albums could possibly harm listeners' hearing, particularly that of children.
A 2-minute YouTube
video addressing this issue by audio engineer Matt Mayfield has been referenced by The Wall Street Journal
and The Chicago Tribune. Pro Sound Web quoted Mayfield: "When there is no quiet, there can be no loud."
The book Perfecting Sound Forever: An Aural History of Recorded Music (Faber, 2009), by Greg Milner presents the Loudness war in radio and music production as a central theme. The book Mastering Audio: The Art and the Science (2nd Edition, Focal Press, 2007), by Bob Katz
, includes a chapter about the origins of the loudness war and another suggesting methods of combatting the war, based on Katz's presentation at the 107th Audio Engineering Convention (1999) and his Audio Engineering Society Journal publication (2000).
s has also resulted in a loudness "arms race
". Loudness jumps between broadcast channels and between programmes within the same channel are a frequent source of audience complaints. The European Broadcasting Union is addressing this issue in the EBU PLOUD Group, which includes over 230 audio professionals, many from broadcasters and equipment manufacturers.
In August 2010 the EBU published EBU Recommendation R 128, which specifies a new way of metering and normalising audio, based on ITU-R BS.1770. It is accompanied by the EBU Loudness Metering specification EBU Tech 3341, which includes the so-called 'EBU Mode' to make meters interoperable. Also a Loudness Range descriptor is defined, in EBU Tech 3342, which helps audio mixers understand what loudness range their material consists of.
(i.e., little difference between loud and quiet sections), rendering it fatiguing and robbing it of emotional power.
Digital media cannot output signals higher than digital full scale
(0 dBFS
), so whenever the peak of a signal is pushed past this point, it results in the wave form becoming clipped. If clipping occurs too frequently in a recording, it can make the recording sound distorted.
In other cases, compression or limiting is used. While the resulting distortion is less obvious in the final product, when taken to severe levels, it can reduce the natural dynamics of other instruments within the recording and introduce other undesirable effects such as audible compression pumping.Most commonly noticed when the loudness of cymbals is heard to dip in time with the rest of the percussion.
Dynamic range or broadcast-style compression may be applied to the music to make the loudness in different song sections more uniform. This can make the recording more suitable for background listening or noisy environments but can also reduce the dynamic expressiveness of the song as a whole. Applied in the extreme, however, very aggressive compression or automatic gain control can cause "pumping" and "breathing" artifacts as the gain changes rapidly. In FM stereo broadcasting, so-called composite clippers have also been employed that provide a hard limit to the FM stereo composite signal.
Pejorative
Pejoratives , including name slurs, are words or grammatical forms that connote negativity and express contempt or distaste. A term can be regarded as pejorative in some social groups but not in others, e.g., hacker is a term used for computer criminals as well as quick and clever computer experts...
term for the apparent competition to digitally master and release recordings with increasing loudness
Loudness
Loudness is the quality of a sound that is primarily a psychological correlate of physical strength . More formally, it is defined as "that attribute of auditory sensation in terms of which sounds can be ordered on a scale extending from quiet to loud."Loudness, a subjective measure, is often...
.
The phenomenon was first reported with respect to mastering practices for 7" singles. The maximum peak level
Peak-reading
A peak-reading electrical instrument or meter is one which measures the peak value of a waveform, rather than its mean value or RMS value.As an example, when making audio recordings it is desirable to use a recording level that is just sufficient to reach the maximum capability of the recorder at...
of analog recordings such as these is limited by the specifications of electronic equipment along the chain from source to listener, including vinyl record and cassette
Compact Cassette
The Compact Cassette, often referred to as audio cassette, cassette tape, cassette, or simply tape, is a magnetic tape sound recording format. It was designed originally for dictation, but improvements in fidelity led the Compact Cassette to supplant the Stereo 8-track cartridge and reel-to-reel...
players.
With the advent of the Compact Disc
Compact Disc
The Compact Disc is an optical disc used to store digital data. It was originally developed to store and playback sound recordings exclusively, but later expanded to encompass data storage , write-once audio and data storage , rewritable media , Video Compact Discs , Super Video Compact Discs ,...
(CD), music is encoded to a digital format with a clearly defined maximum peak amplitude. Once the maximum amplitude of a CD is reached, loudness can be increased still further through signal processing
Signal processing
Signal processing is an area of systems engineering, electrical engineering and applied mathematics that deals with operations on or analysis of signals, in either discrete or continuous time...
techniques such as dynamic range compression and equalization
Equalization
Equalization, is the process of adjusting the balance between frequency components within an electronic signal. The most well known use of equalization is in sound recording and reproduction but there are many other applications in electronics and telecommunications. The circuit or equipment used...
. Engineers can apply an increasingly high ratio of compression to a recording until it more frequently peaks at the maximum amplitude. Extreme uses of dynamic range compression can introduce clipping
Clipping (audio)
Clipping is a form of waveform distortion that occurs when an amplifier is overdriven and attempts to deliver an output voltage or current beyond its maximum capability...
and other audible distortion. Modern albums that use such extreme dynamic range compression therefore sacrifice sound quality to loudness. The competitive escalation of loudness has led music fans and members of the musical press to refer to the affected albums as "victims of the loudness war".
History
The practice of focusing on loudness in mastering can be traced back to the introduction of the compact disc itself but also existed to some extent when vinyl was the primary released recording medium and when 7" singles were played on jukebox machines in clubs and bars. Jukeboxes were often set to a pre-determined level by the bar owner, yet any record that was mastered "hotter" than the others before or after it would gain the attention of the crowd. The song would stand out. Many record companies would print compilation records, and when artists and producers found their song was quieter than others on the compilation, they would insist that their song be remastered to be competitive. Also, many Motown records pushed the limits of how loud records could be made, and record labels there were "notorious for cutting some of the hottest 45s in the industry." However, because of the limitations of the vinyl format, loudness and compression on a released recording were restricted in order to make the physical medium playable—restrictions that do not exist on digital media such as CDs—and as a result, increasing loudness levels never reached the significance that they have in the CD era. In addition, modern computer-based digital audio effects processing allows mastering engineers to have greater control over the loudness of a song; for example, it gives them the ability to use a "brick wall" limiter which limits the level of an audio signal with no delay (hardware equivalents have a short delay caused by processing time).1980s
The stages of the CDs loudness increase are often split over the two-and-a-half decades of the medium's existence. Since CDs were not the primary medium for popular music until the late 1980s, there was little motivation for competitive loudness practices then. CD players were also very expensive and thus commonly exclusive to high-end systems that would show the shortcomings of higher recording levels.As a result, the common practice of mastering music involved matching the highest peak of a recording at, or close to, digital full scale, and referring to digital levels along the lines of more familiar analog VU meters. When using VU meters, a certain point (usually −14 dB below the disc's maximum amplitude) was used in the same way as the saturation point (signified as 0 dB) of analog recording, with several dB of the CD's recording level reserved for amplitude exceeding the saturation point (often referred to as the "red zone", signified by a red bar in the meter display), because digital media cannot exceed 0 dBFS
DBFS
Decibels relative to full scale, commonly abbreviated dBFS, measures decibel amplitude levels in digital systems such as pulse-code modulation which have a defined maximum available peak level....
. The average level of the average rock song during most of the decade was around −18 dBFS.
1990s
In the early 1990s, CDs with music louder level began to surface, and CD levels became more and more likely to bump up to the digital limitUp to 2 or 4 consecutive full-scale samples was considered acceptable resulting in recordings where the peaks on an average rock or beat-heavy pop CD hovered near 0 dBUsually in the range of −3 dB but only occasionally reached it.The concept of making music releases "hotter" began to appeal to people within the industry, in part because of how noticeably louder releases had become and also in part because the industry believed that customers preferred louder sounding CDs, even though that notion might not have been true. Engineers, musicians and labels each developed their own ideas of how CDs could be made louder. In 1994, the digital brickwall limiter with look-ahead (to pull down peak levels before they happened) was first mass-produced. While the increase in CD loudness was gradual throughout the 1990s, some opted to push the format to the limit, such as on Oasis's
Oasis (band)
Oasis were an English rock band formed in Manchester in 1991. Originally known as The Rain, the group was formed by Liam Gallagher , Paul "Bonehead" Arthurs , Paul "Guigsy" McGuigan and Tony McCarroll , who were soon joined by Liam's older brother Noel Gallagher...
widely popular album (What's the Story) Morning Glory?
(What's the Story) Morning Glory?
Morning Glory? is the second studio album by the English rock band Oasis. It was released on 2 October 1995 through Creation Records. The album was Oasis' most enduring commercial success, charting at number one in the UK and number four in the U.S...
, which averaged −8 dBFS on many of its tracks—a rare occurrence, especially in the year it was released (1995). In 1997, Iggy Pop assisted in the remix and remaster of the 1973 album Raw Power
Raw Power
Raw Power is the third studio album by American rock band The Stooges. Though not initially commercially successful, Raw Power gained a cult fanbase in the years following its release and, like its predecessor , is generally considered an influential forerunner of punk rock.-Recording history:After...
by his former band The Stooges
The Stooges
The Stooges are an American rock band from Ann Arbor, Michigan first active from 1967 to 1974, and later reformed in 2003...
, creating an album that, to this day, is arguably the loudest rock CD ever recorded. It has an average of −4 dBFS in places.
2000s
Loud mastering practices caught media attention in 2008 with the release of MetallicaMetallica
Metallica is an American heavy metal band from Los Angeles, California. Formed in 1981 when James Hetfield responded to an advertisement that drummer Lars Ulrich had posted in a local newspaper. The current line-up features long-time lead guitarist Kirk Hammett and bassist Robert Trujillo ...
's Death Magnetic
Death Magnetic
Death Magnetic is the ninth studio album by the American heavy metal band Metallica. It was released on September 12, 2008 through Warner Bros. Records. It was the band's first album to feature bassist Robert Trujillo and the first to be produced by Rick Rubin, making this Metallica's first album...
album. The CD version of the recording has a high average loudness that pushes peaks beyond the point of digital clipping, resulting in distortion. These findings were reported by customers and music industry professionals. These findings were later covered in multiple international publications, including Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
, The Wall Street Journal
The Wall Street Journal
The Wall Street Journal is an American English-language international daily newspaper. It is published in New York City by Dow Jones & Company, a division of News Corporation, along with the Asian and European editions of the Journal....
, BBC Radio, Wired
Wired (magazine)
Wired is a full-color monthly American magazine and on-line periodical, published since January 1993, that reports on how new and developing technology affects culture, the economy, and politics...
, and The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
. Ted Jensen
Ted Jensen
Ted Jensen is an American recording engineer. Jensen is the chief mastering engineer at Sterling Sound. He started his career as a mastering engineer in 1976 and is currently the most active Mastering Engineer in the industry...
, a mastering engineer involved in the Death Magnetic recordings, subsequently criticized the approach employed during the production process. A version of the release without dynamic range compression was included in the downloadable content
Downloadable content
Downloadable content is official additional content for a video game distributed through the Internet. Downloadable content can be of several types, ranging from a single in-game outfit to an entirely new, extensive storyline, similarly to an expansion pack. As such, DLC may add new game modes,...
for Guitar Hero III
Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock
Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock is a music video game, the third main installment in the Guitar Hero series, and the fourth title overall...
.
In contrast, in late 2008 mastering engineer Bob Ludwig
Bob Ludwig
Bob Ludwig is an American mastering engineer.He is a well known and respected figure within the music industry. His name is credited on the covers of albums released across the world, and he has won numerous awards....
offered three versions of the Guns N' Roses
Guns N' Roses
Guns N' Roses is an American hard rock band, formed in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, in 1985. The band has released six studio albums, three EPs, and one live album...
album Chinese Democracy
Chinese Democracy
Chinese Democracy is the sixth studio album by American hard rock band Guns N' Roses, released in November 2008 on Geffen Records. It is the band's first studio album since "The Spaghetti Incident?" , released exactly 15 years before Chinese Democracy, and their first album of original studio...
for approval to co-producers Axl Rose
Axl Rose
W. Axl Rose is an American singer-songwriter and musician. He is the lead vocalist and only remaining original member of the hard rock band Guns N' Roses, with whom he enjoyed great success and recognition in the late 1980s and early 1990s, before disappearing from the public eye for several years...
and Caram Costanzo, and they selected the one with the least compression. Ludwig wrote, "I was floored when I heard they decided to go with my full dynamics version and the loudness-for-loudness-sake versions be damned." Ludwig feels that the "fan and press backlash against the recent heavily compressed recordings finally set the context for someone to take a stand and return to putting music and dynamics above sheer level."
2010s
In March 2010, mastering engineer Ian Shepherd organised the first Dynamic Range Day, a day of online activity intended to raise awareness of the issue and promote the idea that "Dynamic music sounds better". The day was a modest success and its follow-up in 2011 built on this, gaining industry support from companies like SSLSolid State Logic
Solid State Logic is a manufacturer of high-end mixing consoles and recording studio hardware headquartered in Begbroke, Oxfordshire, UK.- Company information :...
, Bowers & Wilkins
Bowers & Wilkins
Bowers & Wilkins is a British loudspeaker company that produces mid-range through reference quality hi-fi and home theater speakers. The company name is often abbreviated to just B&W.Joe Atkins is current owner and chairman...
and Shure
Shure
Shure Incorporated is an American corporation originally founded by Sidney N. Shure in Chicago, Illinois in 1925 as a supplier of radio parts kits. The company became a consumer and professional audio-electronics manufacturer of microphones, wireless microphone systems, phonograph cartridges,...
as well as "name" engineers like Bob Ludwig. Shepherd cites research showing there is no connection between sales and "loudness", and that people prefer more dynamic music.
With music sales moving towards digital downloads and away from CDs, there is a possibility that the loudness war will be blunted by normalization technology such as ReplayGain and Apple's Sound Check. Some cloud-based
Cloud computing
Cloud computing is the delivery of computing as a service rather than a product, whereby shared resources, software, and information are provided to computers and other devices as a utility over a network ....
music services perform loudness normalization by default and may reduce the market pressure to hypercompress material.
Other proposals include the use of dynamic range expansion such as a system proposed by DTS which aims at restoring transients that have previously been reduced in dynamic range.
Criticism
This practice has been condemned by several recording industry professionals including Alan ParsonsAlan Parsons
Alan Parsons is a British audio engineer, musician, and record producer. He was involved with the production of several significant albums, including The Beatles' Abbey Road and Let It Be, as well as Pink Floyd's The Dark Side of the Moon for which Pink Floyd credit him as an important contributor...
, Geoff Emerick
Geoff Emerick
Geoffrey Emerick is an English recording studio audio engineer, who is best known for his work with The Beatles' albums Revolver, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, The Beatles and Abbey Road...
(noted for his work with The Beatles
The Beatles
The Beatles were an English rock band, active throughout the 1960s and one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. Formed in Liverpool, by 1962 the group consisted of John Lennon , Paul McCartney , George Harrison and Ringo Starr...
from Revolver
Revolver (album)
Revolver is the seventh studio album by the English rock group The Beatles, released on 5 August 1966 on the Parlophone label and produced by George Martin. Many of the tracks on Revolver are marked by an electric guitar-rock sound, in contrast with their previous LP, the folk rock inspired Rubber...
to Abbey Road), and mastering engineers Doug Sax, Steve Hoffman, and many others, including music audiophiles, hi-fi enthusiasts, and fans. Musician Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...
has also condemned the practice, saying: "You listen to these modern records, they're atrocious, they have sound all over them. There's no definition of nothing, no vocal, no nothing, just like—static." Nonetheless, the compact disc editions of Dylan's more recent albums Modern Times
Modern Times (Bob Dylan album)
Modern Times is singer-songwriter Bob Dylan's 32nd studio album, released by Columbia Records in August 2006. The album was Dylan's third straight to be met with nearly universal praise from fans and critics...
and Together Through Life
Together Through Life
Together Through Life is the 33rd studio album by Bob Dylan, released on April 28, 2009, on Columbia Records. The album debuted at number one in several countries, including the U.S. and the UK...
are examples of heavy dynamic range compression.
When music is broadcast by a radio station, the station will apply its own signal processing, which further reduces the dynamic range of the broadcast material to closely match levels of absolute amplitude, regardless of the original record loudness.
Opponents have also called for immediate changes in the music industry regarding the level of loudness. In August 2006, the vice-president of A&R
A&R
Artists and repertoire is the division of a record label that is responsible for talent scouting and overseeing the artistic development of recording artists. It also acts as a liaison between artists and the record label.- Finding talent :...
for One Haven Music, a Sony Music company, in an open letter decrying the loudness war, claimed that mastering engineers are being forced against their will or are preemptively making releases louder in order to get the attention of industry heads. Some bands are being petitioned by the public to re-release their music with less distortion.
The nonprofit organization Turn Me Up! was created by Charles Dye
Charles Dye
Charles Dye is a Grammy-nominated and Latin Grammy-winning record producer, engineer and mixer from Hollywood, Florida, USA.-Grammy:In 2001, Dye received a Latin Grammy for Best Engineered Album for Thalía's Arrasando....
, John Ralston
John Ralston (musician)
John Ralston is an American acoustic/electric guitarist singer and songwriter. He is originally from Lake Worth, Florida, and is a member of the band Legends Of Rodeo , which is currently on an indefinite hiatus. He has released two full length albums, two EPs, and just released his third solo...
and Allen Wagner to certify albums that contain a suitable level of dynamic range and encourage the sale of quieter records by placing a "Turn Me Up!" sticker on albums that have a larger dynamic range. The group has not yet arrived at an objective method for determining what will be certified.
Hearing experts, such as a hearing researcher at House Ear Institute in Los Angeles, are also concerned that the loudness of new albums could possibly harm listeners' hearing, particularly that of children.
A 2-minute YouTube
YouTube
YouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....
video addressing this issue by audio engineer Matt Mayfield has been referenced by The Wall Street Journal
The Wall Street Journal
The Wall Street Journal is an American English-language international daily newspaper. It is published in New York City by Dow Jones & Company, a division of News Corporation, along with the Asian and European editions of the Journal....
and The Chicago Tribune. Pro Sound Web quoted Mayfield: "When there is no quiet, there can be no loud."
The book Perfecting Sound Forever: An Aural History of Recorded Music (Faber, 2009), by Greg Milner presents the Loudness war in radio and music production as a central theme. The book Mastering Audio: The Art and the Science (2nd Edition, Focal Press, 2007), by Bob Katz
Bob Katz
Bob Katz is an audio mastering engineer who is known for his book on audio mastering. Katz has mastered three Grammy award-winning albums and one nominated album. He has received acclaim from audiophiles and his book on mastering has received acclaim, and some reviewers consider it the "definitive...
, includes a chapter about the origins of the loudness war and another suggesting methods of combatting the war, based on Katz's presentation at the 107th Audio Engineering Convention (1999) and his Audio Engineering Society Journal publication (2000).
Loudness in broadcasting
Broadcasting also has its loudness wars. Competition for listeners between radio stations and competition for clients between recording studioRecording studio
A recording studio is a facility for sound recording and mixing. Ideally both the recording and monitoring spaces are specially designed by an acoustician to achieve optimum acoustic properties...
s has also resulted in a loudness "arms race
Arms race
The term arms race, in its original usage, describes a competition between two or more parties for the best armed forces. Each party competes to produce larger numbers of weapons, greater armies, or superior military technology in a technological escalation...
". Loudness jumps between broadcast channels and between programmes within the same channel are a frequent source of audience complaints. The European Broadcasting Union is addressing this issue in the EBU PLOUD Group, which includes over 230 audio professionals, many from broadcasters and equipment manufacturers.
In August 2010 the EBU published EBU Recommendation R 128, which specifies a new way of metering and normalising audio, based on ITU-R BS.1770. It is accompanied by the EBU Loudness Metering specification EBU Tech 3341, which includes the so-called 'EBU Mode' to make meters interoperable. Also a Loudness Range descriptor is defined, in EBU Tech 3342, which helps audio mixers understand what loudness range their material consists of.
Dynamic range reduction
The practice of increasing music releases' loudness to match competing releases can have two effects. Since there is a maximum loudness level available to recording (as opposed to playback, in which the loudness is limited by the playback speakers and amplifiers), boosting the overall loudness of a song or track eventually creates a piece that is maximally and uniformly loud from beginning to end. This creates music with a small dynamic rangeDynamic range
Dynamic range, abbreviated DR or DNR, is the ratio between the largest and smallest possible values of a changeable quantity, such as in sound and light. It is measured as a ratio, or as a base-10 or base-2 logarithmic value.-Dynamic range and human perception:The human senses of sight and...
(i.e., little difference between loud and quiet sections), rendering it fatiguing and robbing it of emotional power.
Digital media cannot output signals higher than digital full scale
Full scale
In electronics and signal processing, full scale or full code represents the maximum amplitude a system can present.-Electronics and signal processing:...
(0 dBFS
DBFS
Decibels relative to full scale, commonly abbreviated dBFS, measures decibel amplitude levels in digital systems such as pulse-code modulation which have a defined maximum available peak level....
), so whenever the peak of a signal is pushed past this point, it results in the wave form becoming clipped. If clipping occurs too frequently in a recording, it can make the recording sound distorted.
In other cases, compression or limiting is used. While the resulting distortion is less obvious in the final product, when taken to severe levels, it can reduce the natural dynamics of other instruments within the recording and introduce other undesirable effects such as audible compression pumping.Most commonly noticed when the loudness of cymbals is heard to dip in time with the rest of the percussion.
Dynamic range or broadcast-style compression may be applied to the music to make the loudness in different song sections more uniform. This can make the recording more suitable for background listening or noisy environments but can also reduce the dynamic expressiveness of the song as a whole. Applied in the extreme, however, very aggressive compression or automatic gain control can cause "pumping" and "breathing" artifacts as the gain changes rapidly. In FM stereo broadcasting, so-called composite clippers have also been employed that provide a hard limit to the FM stereo composite signal.
Examples of "loud" albums
Some of the albums that have been criticized for their sound quality include the following:| Artist | Album |
|---|---|
| Arctic Monkeys Arctic Monkeys Arctic Monkeys are an English indie rock band. Formed in 2002 in High Green, a suburb of Sheffield, the band currently consists of Alex Turner , Jamie Cook , Nick O'Malley and Matt Helders... |
Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not is the debut album by English indie rock band Arctic Monkeys, released on 23 January 2006. The album became the UK's fastest selling debut album, shifting over 360,000 copies in its first week, and remains the fastest selling debut album by a band. It... |
| Bob Dylan Bob Dylan Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly... |
Modern Times Modern Times (Bob Dylan album) Modern Times is singer-songwriter Bob Dylan's 32nd studio album, released by Columbia Records in August 2006. The album was Dylan's third straight to be met with nearly universal praise from fans and critics... |
| Together Through Life Together Through Life Together Through Life is the 33rd studio album by Bob Dylan, released on April 28, 2009, on Columbia Records. The album debuted at number one in several countries, including the U.S. and the UK... |
|
| Christina Aguilera Christina Aguilera Christina María Aguilera is an American recording artist and actress. Aguilera first appeared on national television in 1990 as a contestant on the Star Search program, and went on to star in Disney Channel's television series The Mickey Mouse Club from 1993–1994... |
Back to Basics Back to Basics (Christina Aguilera album) Back to Basics is the third studio album by American recording artist Christina Aguilera, first released on August 10, 2006 by RCA Records... |
| The Cure The Cure The Cure are an English rock band formed in Crawley, West Sussex in 1976. The band has experienced several line-up changes, with frontman, vocalist, guitarist and principal songwriter Robert Smith being the only constant member... |
4:13 Dream |
| The Flaming Lips The Flaming Lips The Flaming Lips are an American alternative rock band, formed in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma in 1983.Melodically, their sound contains lush, multi-layered, psychedelic rock arrangements, but lyrically their compositions show elements of space rock, including unusual song and album titles—such as "What... |
At War with the Mystics At War with the Mystics -At War with the Mystics 5.1:Like The Soft Bulletin and Yoshimi, At War with the Mystics was released as a special edition 5.1 CD+DVD-Audio mix on October 24, 2006... Won Grammy Award in 2007 for Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical |
| Lily Allen Lily Allen Lily Rose Beatrice Cooper , better known as Lily Allen, is an English recording artist and fashion designer. She is the daughter of actor and musician Keith Allen and film producer Alison Owen. In her teenage years, her musical tastes evolved from glam rock to alternative... |
Alright, Still Alright, Still Alright, Still is the debut album by British pop singer-songwriter Lily Allen, released on 14 July 2006 by Regal Recordings . Recording the album began with sessions between Allen and production duo Future Cut, and Allen's work garnered publicity on the Internet as she posted demos to her MySpace... |
| Los Lonely Boys Los Lonely Boys Los Lonely Boys is a Chicano rock power trio from San Angelo, Texas. They play a style of music they call "Texican Rock n' Roll," combining elements of rock and roll, Texas blues, brown eyed soul, country, and Tejano.... |
Sacred |
| Metallica Metallica Metallica is an American heavy metal band from Los Angeles, California. Formed in 1981 when James Hetfield responded to an advertisement that drummer Lars Ulrich had posted in a local newspaper. The current line-up features long-time lead guitarist Kirk Hammett and bassist Robert Trujillo ... |
Death Magnetic Death Magnetic Death Magnetic is the ninth studio album by the American heavy metal band Metallica. It was released on September 12, 2008 through Warner Bros. Records. It was the band's first album to feature bassist Robert Trujillo and the first to be produced by Rick Rubin, making this Metallica's first album... The Guitar Hero version of this album does not suffer from the same quality issues. |
| Miranda Lambert Miranda Lambert Miranda Lambert is an American country music artist who gained fame as a finalist on the 2003 season of Nashville Star, where she finished in third place and later signed to Epic Records. Lambert made her debut with the release of "Me and Charlie Talking", the first single from her 2005 debut... |
Revolution Revolution (Miranda Lambert album) Upon its release, Revolution received general acclaim from most music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 85, based on 11 reviews, which indicates "universal acclaim".Rolling Stone magazine... |
| Oasis Oasis (band) Oasis were an English rock band formed in Manchester in 1991. Originally known as The Rain, the group was formed by Liam Gallagher , Paul "Bonehead" Arthurs , Paul "Guigsy" McGuigan and Tony McCarroll , who were soon joined by Liam's older brother Noel Gallagher... |
(What's the Story) Morning Glory? (What's the Story) Morning Glory? Morning Glory? is the second studio album by the English rock band Oasis. It was released on 2 October 1995 through Creation Records. The album was Oasis' most enduring commercial success, charting at number one in the UK and number four in the U.S... |
| Paul McCartney Paul McCartney Sir James Paul McCartney, MBE, Hon RAM, FRCM is an English musician, singer-songwriter and composer. Formerly of The Beatles and Wings , McCartney is listed in Guinness World Records as the "most successful musician and composer in popular music history", with 60 gold discs and sales of 100... |
Memory Almost Full Memory Almost Full Memory Almost Full is the 14th studio album by Paul McCartney, released in the United Kingdom on 4 June 2007 and in the United States a day later. The album was the first release on Starbucks' Hear Music label... |
| Pearl Jam Pearl Jam Pearl Jam is an American rock band that formed in Seattle, Washington, in 1990. Since its inception, the band's line-up has included Eddie Vedder , Jeff Ament , Stone Gossard , and Mike McCready... |
Ten (2009 remaster) |
| Queens of the Stone Age Queens of the Stone Age Queens of the Stone Age is an American rock band from Palm Desert, California, United States, formed in 1997. The band's line-up has always included founding member Josh Homme , with the current line-up including longtime members Troy Van Leeuwen and Joey Castillo , alongside Michael Shuman and... |
Songs for the Deaf Songs for the Deaf -Production and release:In September 2002, Josh Homme explained the band's goals with the release of the album:In the same month, Nick Oliveri explained the band's aims in an interview with retail company HMV:... |
| Red Hot Chili Peppers Red Hot Chili Peppers Red Hot Chili Peppers is an American rock band, formed in Los Angeles in 1983. The group's musical style primarily consists of rock with an emphasis on funk, as well as elements from other genres such as punk, hip hop and psychedelic rock... |
Californication Californication (album) Californication is the seventh studio album by American rock band Red Hot Chili Peppers, released on June 8, 1999 on Warner Bros. Records. Produced by Rick Rubin, Californication marked the return of John Frusciante, who had previously appeared on Mother's Milk and Blood Sugar Sex Magik, to replace... |
| Rush Rush (band) Rush is a Canadian rock band formed in August 1968, in the Willowdale neighbourhood of Toronto, Ontario. The band is composed of bassist, keyboardist, and lead vocalist Geddy Lee, guitarist Alex Lifeson, and drummer and lyricist Neil Peart... |
Vapor Trails Vapor Trails -Personnel:* Geddy Lee - bass guitar, vocals* Alex Lifeson - electric and acoustic guitars, mandola* Neil Peart - drums, percussion-Album:Billboard Music Charts -Singles:... |
See also
- Alignment levelAlignment levelThe alignment level in an audio signal chain or on an audio recording is a defined anchor point that represents a reasonable or typical level...
- Audio noise measurementAudio noise measurementAudio noise measurement is carried out when assessing the quality of audio equipment, such as is used in recording studios, broadcast studios, and in the home ....
- Audio quality measurementAudio quality measurementAudio quality measurement seeks to quantify the various forms of corruption present in an audio system or device. The results of such measurement are used to maintain standards in broadcasting, to compile specifications, and to compare pieces of equipment....
- Headroom
- LoudnessLoudnessLoudness is the quality of a sound that is primarily a psychological correlate of physical strength . More formally, it is defined as "that attribute of auditory sensation in terms of which sounds can be ordered on a scale extending from quiet to loud."Loudness, a subjective measure, is often...
- Loudness monitoringLoudness monitoringLoudness monitoring of programme levels is needed in radio and television broadcasting, as well as in audio post production. Traditional methods of measuring signal levels such as the Peak programme meter, and VU meter do not give the subjectively valid measure of loudness which many would argue is...
- Needle dropNeedle drop (audio)A needle drop is a common term used to describe a version of a music album that has been transferred from a vinyl record to digital audio or other formats...
- OverproductionOverproduction (music)Overproduction is the excessive use of audio effects, layering, or digital manipulation in music production.-Uses of the term:It is not always clear what critics mean by "overproduction," but there are at least a few common uses of the term:...
- Pitch inflation
- Programme levelProgramme levelProgramme level refers to the signal level that an audio source is transmitted or recorded at, and is important in audio if listeners of Compact Discs , radio and television are to get the best experience, without excessive noise in quiet periods or distortion of loud sounds...
- RemasterRemasterRemaster is a word marketed mostly in the digital audio age, although the remastering process has existed since recording began...
- Up to elevenUp to eleven"Up to eleven" or "these go to eleven" is an idiom from popular culture which has come to refer to anything being exploited to its utmost abilities, or apparently exceeding them, such as a sound volume control. Similarly, the expression "turning it up to eleven" refers to the act of taking...
External links
- EBU Recommendation R 128
- EBU Tech 3341
- EBU Tech 3342
- EBU Recommendation R68-2000
- AES Convention Paper 5538 On Leveling and Loudness Problems at Broadcast Studios
- AES: An Integrated Approach to Metering, Monitoring, and Leveling Practices (PDF)
- Video based on AES Convention Paper 8175: The Loudness War: Background, Speculation and Recommendations
- Video Explanation of Loudness War (YouTube)
- Declaring an end to the loudness wars – by one of its earliest opponents, producer/engineer Barry Diament
- The Future of Music: Tearing Down the Wall of Noise
- Turn Me Up! – An organization working to give artists back the choice to release more dynamic records
- Justice For Audio – Opposing the Destruction of Great Music
- loudness-war.info – includes extensive album database with dynamic range ratings
- Level and distortion in digital broadcasting
- On the way to Loudness Nirvana – Audio levelling with EBU R 128
- NUGEN Audio's VisLM software loudness meter, including measurement of ITU-R BS.1770/1, and 'EBU Mode'
- UK chart analysis by Last.fm: Survival of the Flattest