I’d never heard about the loudness war before, but I have wondered recently why albums I bought only ten years ago sound so faint when their songs show up on my iPod. Remastering albums from the ’80s and earlier seems logical, but why weren’t albums from 1997 boosted to the right levels to begin with? Or have I simply been brainwashed by the stormtroopers of the loudness war?

By Mulberry Panda 96 on 04.29.07 7:49 pm

You’re obviously brainwashed! Those albums from 1997 are probably perfect.

This really bothers me. I think the loudness war affects the way popular songs are regarded - if it doesn’t pass the car-stereo test, it’s dead… Loud=fresh=bullshit. It removes all the nuances, it distorts reality - four bars of bass and hi-hats shouldn’t be as loud as when the full ensemble joins in - it removes a vital quality from music production and it’s sad.

By Terje on 04.29.07 10:38 pm

Maybe we’re complaining about different things. I definitely don’t think every instrument should be at the same level, or that the instruments should be as upfront as the vocals. (I did kind of hope when I bought the reissue of Lou Reed’s “Transformer” a few years ago that his vocals wouldn’t be as buried as they were on my original copy, but it turns out that was intentional.)

I just don’t get why my copy of the Lemonheads’ “car button cloth” from 1996 has to be turned up to, say, 7 on my stereo to sound like it’s at the same volume as the 2007 Sly and the Family Stone reissues I just bought, which sound loud enough at 3. Why don’t the people in charge of music mastering set the dial at 11, so to speak, all the time?

By Mulberry Panda 96 on 05.04.07 10:52 pm

We probably are. I agree that it can be frustrating with the varying volume levels.

But you know, in 1984, if you had a cd with a really quiet song building up with a big crescendo at the end, you had to turn up the volume to 11 to hear the first part, and when the crescendo starts, you get a proper sound explosion.

If that was today though, they’d turn up the volume on the entire track. So now you can hear the entire track in your car stereo or mp3-player without touching the volume. But when the crescendo appears, it’s an anti-climax - because they can’t go any louder. And that’s what I’m complaining about.

By Terje on 05.04.07 11:19 pm

Ahh … I see what you mean. When you listen to the second half of Eric Carmen’s “All by Myself,” Terje, you want to be literally moved by Eric’s orgasmic rush of anguished loneliness. I don’t blame you.

By Mulberry Panda 96 on 05.05.07 6:00 pm

Exactly! Good example.

By Terje on 05.05.07 6:26 pm