By Shawn Daley

This post is a follow up to The Loudness War: Why Should You Care?.

After looking over Part 1 of this series of posts, I’ve decided to show exact numbers in relation to loudness with the music James Pew, Freddy Gabrsek and I have worked on in recent months at Euphonic Sound Recording Studio.

I would like to share music from the two most recent artists we’ve released on Broken Window Records. First, an alternative punk band called 48 Caliber from Ajax Ontario.

Using the Offline TT Dynamic Range Meter plug in (which you can find at The Pleasurize Music Blog), I’ve analyzed the RMS value of the latest 48 Caliber EP “Say It Loud”. The RMS value, for those of you who are unaware, stands for root mean square. This will help us calculate the average loudness. The TT Dynamic Range Meter has the ability to calculate the RMS, Peak Value, and Dynamic Range of either an individual song, or a full album all at once.

Many modern recordings have been absolutely smashed with over compression and limiting, reducing the dynamic range, quality, and thus the listening experience. Freddy Gabrsek of Freddy’s Frets and Origin Audio Electronics has generously taken the time to calculate the DR and RMS values of some modern music. Most present-day recordings, especially those meant to be listened to loudly (hard rock, alternative, punk, metal songs etc.), have roughly 6 to 3 dB of dynamic range. More recent recordings by System Of A Down, Metallica, Bad Religion, Red Hot Chili Peppers, and Avenged Sevenfold (not to mention countless others) have registered individual songs at an RMS value of -4.0 to -6.5, and a DR of 6dB to 3dB of dynamic range, and in many cases 6dB is being generous. I thoroughly enjoy the songs these artists release, but listening to music containing such a dense spectrum of dynamic range is tiresome on the ears. The music loses definition after half an album of listening.

Back to 48 Caliber. The songs on the album “Say It Loud” have from 10dB to 8dB of dynamic range. These numbers are not exactly common (in the modern recording industry) for an alternative, fast punk group, and it DOES make a difference. This allows the listener to control the volume level, as opposed to the song it’s self controlling the volume. Turn it up loud, you’ll not hear distortion or suffer ear fatigue at the same rate you would with a “squashed” recording.

Another artist with whom we’ve recently wrapped up production is Andrea Gauster, a singer / songwriter from Peterborough Ontario. She falls into the Indie / Folk category. Many think that only rock and hip hop music are victims of The Loudness War. Paul McCartney, Sting, Lily Allen, R.E.M., and Keane have released albums plagued with over compression and limiting. Andrea’s newest EP, “Reverie”, registers a DR Rating of 10dB, and an RMS of -12.3 dB.

People like loudness. Not everyone, but plenty of us do. The key to enjoying loud music is simply retaining the ability to control the listening volume without losing resolution. Could you enjoy reading a book which turns the pages automatically and without your input? To a certain extent, you probably could, but why the hell would you want to?

Not only are over compressed recordings strenuous to listen to, but possibly a danger to our hearing.

According to a study in construction from the Directorate – General For Health And Consumers:

“In the preliminary report, the Scientific Committee highlights that users of MP3 players would exceed the occupational health limits if listening for one hour per day each week at high volume (exceeding 89 decibels). Users listening for longer periods risk a permanent hearing loss after 5 or more years (approximately 5-10% of the listeners).”

While listening to music infused wirth artificial loudness, the ammount of listening volume you’ll need to apply is miniscule. Because of this, we can’t enjoy music at high quality and full resolution. Recordings mastered with a higher dynamic range require us to actually turn the stereos up, controlling the level of volume we listen to and sustaining resolution.

Here are a few words of wisdom from renowned sound engineers and producers educated on the subject:

David Bendeth – Multi-Platinum Award Winning Producer:

The louder is better has ruined many good songs and left the listener with no dynamics. It has alienated people and all that has to happen here is for someone to set a new standard which will happen! Maybe I will try it.

Bob Ludwig – Grammy Award Winning Mastering Engineer

I’m thinking people are realizing that there is a musical price to pay to have your iPod on “shuffle” and have your song be the loudest thing. I admit, to put out something that won’t sound as loud as what comes before and after it on a iPod shuffle does take a certain amount of guts as a producer, but more and more producers and artists are getting back into dynamic range again.

Bob Katz – Acclaimed Author, Founder Of The “K-System” and Grammy Winning Mastering Engineer.

The war for loudness has only casualties and losers. Some CDs made in the year 2001 are 10 dB hotter than those made in 1990! But the system can’t take it…this is only obtained with horrendous amounts of compression and limiting. Can you take one of these CDs for more than 5 minutes? They sound fatiguing, overmodulated…..

Fact: Your CDs are hotter than anything made in 1990. They have reached the maximum level that they can and still maintain the sound quality. CDs cannot escalate because there is a limit. The waveforms of the top of the charts “hits” are shaped like 2 x 4s, sound fatiguing and unrelenting and have no relationship with the sound of a good album. No one is happy—-not the artists, not the producers… And on the radio? Still sound like crap, only worse.

The choice to listen to high quality music is up to you.

Check out 48 Caliber and Andrea Gauster on the Broken Window Records site to hear their music and learn more about them.

Technorati Tags: 48, advice, andrea, Caliber, compression, daley, dynamic, freddy, gabrsek, gauster, indie, james, Loudness, music, pew, range, recording, shawn, toronto, war

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This entry was posted on Monday, August 17th, 2009 at 9:21 am and is filed under Loudness Wars, Music Culture. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.