[kevin360]

I'm pretty sure it's true.  I had a first generation release of Hendrix Electric Ladyland (on two CD's), and I know that was taken from the LP mix.  I was pretty happy when the second generation release came out on a single CD.  They sounded way different.  Some of the early CD's do sound fine, but some do not.

I can accept 'taken from the LP mix', but without the RIAA pre-emphasis. Honestly, it would sound horrific. If I'm not mistaken, the RIAA EQ drops the bottom end by around 40dB and increases the top end by a similar amount. That's serious EQ. I have some pretty miserable sounding CDs, but nothing as awful as I imagine that would sound.

---

Hi Kev,
I'm pretty sure this was not the Japanese pressing but it was a really early version.  I also still have "Wish You Were Here" and it's not a great recording.  It also has all of the songs "together", you can't forward to the next one because there is only one official song on the CD...the whole album.  I hate this.

Cheers,

Jack

The old Japanese Pink Floyd CDs are easy to spot - inverse printed in black (the lettering is the naked CD. My original (as well as all of the subsequent releases of) WYWH has five selectable songs (I think it would suck to have it all one cut, even though that's one of those albums I always play start to finish). I lived in Germany when the CD hit the scene. Maybe, the U.S. got all of the early cheese.

---

In truth, I do have some pretty lousy CDs. I have some pretty lousy records too. Poor engineering will reveal itself regardless of the format, and I never understood the 'loudness wars' with digital material (it's precisely the wrong thing to do).

[mitch stl]

I can accept 'taken from the LP mix', but without the RIAA pre-emphasis. Honestly, it would sound horrific. If I'm not mistaken, the RIAA EQ drops the bottom end by around 40dB and increases the top end by a similar amount. That's serious EQ. I have some pretty miserable sounding CDs, but nothing as awful as I imagine that would sound.

I think people are confusing how the RIAA curve is applied to a LP versus how a master tape might be mixed differently for LP pressing.

The RIAA curve is applied when the master stamper disk is cut. Low bass is cut about 20 dB and the upper highs are boosted about 20 dB, giving the 40 dB swing. This is to keep the groove size manageable since bass without the cut would create a very short record with large, untrackable grooves. The highs are boosted to improve the S/N ratio.

When you play back a LP, an inverse of the cutting curve is applied. Bass is boosted 20 dB an highs are cut 20 dB. Hopefully, if the equipment on both ends accurately follows the RIAA standard, the result is a flat response.

However, the master audio tape mix is often adjusted to live with the various compromises inherent in the LP format. For example, very low bass may be filtered out of the master tape since, even with the RIAA curve, it affects groove size which in turn affects the length of the record and the volume used in the recording process.

In a CD, the maximum volume is more of an absolute, but does not change if the playing time is long or short, or the bass heavy or not. Of course, that can tempt people to do things they might not otherwise do. If you give toys to boys, they will play with them even when it makes no sense.

[squirrel_nut]

If I remember well, the sound stage is small, the treble is strong, the bass was short(not deep) and there is a two dimensional sound, a bit like paper or a bad FM station;

thats it!  like a bad FM station with extra treble. 
this is just an observation more than anything empirical, but could it be that many old recordings were mixed for the medium: LP and 8-track?  thats the way they sound to me. adjusted for the playback equipment of the day.

[FullRangeMan]

Talking about PF, I had 3 collections from them, of course the first one(older, from 1980s) is the worst sound, it had tons of compression, audible distortions etc...
Those CDs had nothing good or musical, I would sell this crap...

I read in a PF book the singles(before The Piper album) was recorded in a small rented studio(not EMI) and the crude sound was recorded that way to give a effect deliberately dirty.

Other thing awful to CD sound quality is PCM mastering using equips which add pre-ring and pos-ring distortion.

[kevin360]

I think people are confusing how the RIAA curve is applied to a LP versus how a master tape might be mixed differently for LP pressing...

Thanks for the clarification - I was quite clear on the why, but not so sure of the actual amount of boost/cut applied (20dB at each end is still quite severe). Hey, 18 minutes a side is awfully tough to abide.

At any rate, the requirements imposed by an LP specific mix are precisely what I agreed could be an issue, but I attempted to do it without exposing the obvious implication your detail reveals. In the dubious analog vs digital debate, the limitations of the LP format receive blame for creating less satisfactory digital versions than 'proper' mixes specific to the redbook format - hmm, that's juicy!

[mitch stl]

LPs have incredible variability due to the compromises required of the format, but this is on top of the "editorial choices" made by the artist, recording engineer and producer in creating the tracks. This past week I just finished converting a set of about 20 LPs to CD for a friend. They ranged from a 1956 mono Epic pressing of a big band to some late 1980s 45 RPM 12" EPs. One thing for sure -- there was no consistency in sound to be found that was due to the fact that all of them were LPs.  They were just as variable in sound as CDs.

When you've got a full 12" side for a single 5 minute song you can get some pretty impressive bass and volume from the disk.

And one more clarification about the RIAA curve during recording. The master tape or digital file gets played with the final mix and the equalization they want the end listener to hear. That feeds into an amplifier which drives the cutter head which cuts the lacquer coated aluminum disk that is used to make the stampers. The RIAA curve is applied at the input to the cutter head amp and is a fixed device in the circuit.

[medium jim]

As already noted, it is the quality of the mastering.  It did take a little time for the recording industry to master the mastering for CD's, but once they did they sounded great. 

My first CDP was a Denon DCD1500 that lasted 15 or so years and I had no real problems with it, well until I replaced it with my tube CDP.

Too many of the modern CD's are so compressed that they have lost the vital dynamics, sad.

Jim

[Rclark]

In all fairness... that's a generalization, much like my thread title. There are a ton of great sounding modern recordings, regardless of format.

I think "all modern recordings suck" is overblown too.

[medium jim]

Not at all a generalization, as too many of the current production CD's are compressed to add volume.  In other words, it is a fact and not a generalization.  Just google Db wars for more info.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loudness_war

Jim

[Tyson]

All generalizations are inaccurate.  Including the one I just stated.  :O

[Rclark]

I've read that (loudness wars stuff), but I have to ask, how many modern cd's do you own? I think this problem is largely confined to certain pop-rock and pop genres that no one here listens to anyway.

 Moot.

[medium jim]

Please read:
a personal appeal from
Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales
Read now Loudness warFrom Wikipedia, the free encyclopediaJump to: navigation, search 
Different releases of Michael Jackson's song "Black or White" show increasing loudness over time.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.[1] 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. In extreme cases, clipping and other audible distortion is introduced to increase loudness further. Modern recordings that use extreme dynamic range compression and other measures to increase loudness 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".

Contents [hide]
1 History
1.1 1980s
1.2 1990s
1.3 2000s
1.4 2010s
2 Criticism
3 Loudness in broadcasting
4 Dynamic range reduction
5 Examples of "loud" albums
6 See also
7 Notes
8 References
9 External links
 

[edit] HistoryThe 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; according to one of their engineers, they were "notorious for cutting some of the hottest 45s in the industry."[2] 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.[3] In addition, modern computer-based digital audio effects processing allows mastering engineers to have greater control over the loudness of a song; for example a "brick wall" limiter is able to look ahead at upcoming signal to limit its level.[4]

[edit] 1980sThe 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 decibels relative to full scale (dBFS). The average level of the average rock song during most of the decade was around −18 dBFS.[citation needed]

[edit] 1990sIn the early 1990s, CDs with louder music levels began to surface, and CD levels became more and more likely to bump up to the digital limit[note 1] resulting in recordings where the peaks on an average rock or beat-heavy pop CD hovered near 0 dB[note 2] but only occasionally reached it.[5][not in citation given]

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.[6] Engineers, musicians and labels each developed their own ideas of how CDs could be made louder.[citation needed] 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[5]—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, arguably creating the loudest rock CD ever, reaching −4 dBFS in places.[5]

[edit] 2000s
As this waveform shows, the Guitar Hero downloadable version (bottom) is far less compressed than the CD release of Death Magnetic (top).Loud mastering practices caught media attention in 2008 with the release of Metallica'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,[7] The Wall Street Journal,[8] BBC Radio,[9] Wired,[10] and The Guardian.[11] Ted Jensen, a mastering engineer involved in the Death Magnetic recordings, subsequently criticized the approach employed during the production process.[12] A version of the release without dynamic range compression was included in the downloadable content for the video game Guitar Hero III.[13]

By 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."[14] 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."[14]

[edit] 2010sIn March 2010, mastering engineer Ian Shepherd organised the first Dynamic Range Day,[15] 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 SSL, Bowers & Wilkins and Shure[16] as well as engineers like Bob Ludwig. Shepherd cites research showing there is no connection between sales and "loudness", and that people prefer more dynamic music.[17][18]

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.[19] Some cloud-based music services perform loudness normalization by default and may reduce the market pressure to hypercompress material.[20]

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.[21]

[edit] CriticismThis practice has been condemned by several recording industry professionals including Alan Parsons, Geoff Emerick[22] (noted for his work with The Beatles from Revolver to Abbey Road), and mastering engineers Doug Sax,[2] 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.[23]

When music is broadcast over radio, the station applies its own signal processing, further reducing the dynamic range of the material to closely match levels of absolute amplitude, regardless of the original recording's loudness.[24]

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.[3] Some bands are being petitioned by the public to re-release their music with less distortion.[22]

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[25] and encourage the sale of quieter records by placing a "Turn Me Up!" sticker on albums that have a larger dynamic range.[26] The group has not yet arrived at an objective method for determining what will be certified.[27]

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.[26]

A 2-minute YouTube video addressing this issue by audio engineer Matt Mayfield[28] has been referenced by The Wall Street Journal[29] and The Chicago Tribune.[30] Pro Sound Web quoted Mayfield: "When there is no quiet, there can be no loud."[31]

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).[32]

[edit] Loudness in broadcastingBroadcasting is also a participant in the loudness war. Competition for listeners between radio stations and competition for clients between recording studios[dubious – discuss] has also resulted in a loudness "arms race".[33] Loudness jumps between broadcast channels and between programmes within the same channel, and between programmes and intervening adverts are a frequent source of audience complaints.[citation needed] 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.

[edit] Dynamic range reductionMain article: Dynamic range compression
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 range (i.e., little difference between loud and quiet sections), rendering it fatiguing and robbing it of emotional power.[34]

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 in a recording, it makes 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.[note 3][35][36]

Dynamic range or broadcast-style compression may be applied to the music to make the loudness in different song sections more uniform.[34] 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.[37]

[edit] Examples of "loud" albumsSome of the albums that have been criticized for their sound quality include the following:

Artist Album
Arctic Monkeys Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not[5]
Bob Dylan Modern Times[23]
Together Through Life[23]
Christina Aguilera Back to Basics [3]
The Cure 4:13 Dream[38]
Depeche Mode Playing the Angel[39]
The Flaming Lips At War with the Mystics[5][note 4]
Lily Allen Alright, Still[40]
Los Lonely Boys Sacred[3]
Metallica Death Magnetic[41][note 5]
Miranda Lambert Revolution[42][43]
Oasis (What's the Story) Morning Glory?[5]
Paul McCartney Memory Almost Full[44]
Paul Simon Surprise[45]
Queens of the Stone Age Songs for the Deaf[5]
Red Hot Chili Peppers Californication[3][5]
Rush Vapor Trails[46]
The Stooges Raw Power[45]

view 

[medium jim]

continued:

[edit] See alsoAlignment level
Audio noise measurement
Audio quality measurement
Headroom
Loudness
Loudness monitoring
Needle drop
Overproduction
Pitch inflation
Programme level
Remaster
Up to eleven
[edit] Notes1.^ Up to 2 or 4 consecutive full-scale samples was considered acceptable
2.^ Usually in the range of −3 dB
3.^ Most commonly noticed when the loudness of cymbals is heard to dip in time with the rest of the percussion.
4.^ Won Grammy Award in 2007 for Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical
5.^ The Guitar Hero version of this album does not suffer from the same quality issues.
[edit] References1.^ "The Loudness Wars: Why Music Sounds Worse". NPR. 31 December 2009. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=122114058&sc=nl&cc=mn-20100102. Retrieved 2010-09-02.
2.^ a b The Big Squeeze: Mastering engineers debate music's loudness wars, Mix Magazine, 1 December 2005, http://mixonline.com/mag/audio_big_squeeze/, retrieved 2010-09-02
3.^ a b c d e Joe Gross (2006-10-02), Everything Louder Than Everything Else, Austin 360, http://www.austin360.com/music/content/music/stories/xl/2006/09/28cover.html, retrieved 2010-11-24
4.^ Mark Donahue, The Loudness War, Performer, http://performermag.com/Archives/loudness.php, retrieved 2010-11-24
5.^ a b c d e f g h Southall, Nick. Imperfect Sound Forever . Stylus Magazine. 2006-05-01. Retrieved on 2007-05-15.
6.^ Viney, Dave (December 2008). The Obsession With Compression. p. 54. http://dl.dropbox.com/u/8441718/DRD/project%20dissertation.pdf. Retrieved 24 July 2011. "there is no evidence of any significant correlation between loudness (& implied compression) and commercial success"
7.^ Kreps, Daniel (2008-09-18). "Fans Complain After "Death Magnetic" Sounds Better on "Guitar Hero" Than CD". Rolling Stone. http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/fans-complain-after-death-magnetic-sounds-better-on-guitar-hero-than-cd-20080918. Retrieved 2011-03-15.
8.^ Smith, Ethan (2008-09-25). "Even Heavy-Metal Fans Complain That Today's Music Is Too Loud!!!". Wall Street Journal. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122228767729272339.html. Retrieved 2008-10-17.
9.^ "'Death Magnetic' Sound Quality Controversy Focus Of BBC RADIO 4 Report". BlabberMouth.net. 2008-10-10. http://www.roadrunnerrecords.com/blabbermouth.net/news.aspx?mode=Article&newsitemID=106612. Retrieved 2008-10-17.
10.^ Van Buskirk, Eliot (2008-09-16). "Analysis: Metallica's Death Magnetic Sounds Better in Guitar Hero". Wired. http://blog.wired.com/music/2008/09/does-metallicas.html. Retrieved 2008-09-17.
11.^ Michaels, Sean (2008-10-01). "Death Magnetic 'loudness war' rages on". London: The Guardian. http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2008/oct/01/metallica.popandrock. Retrieved 2008-10-17.
12.^ Michaels, Sean (2008-09-17). "Metallica album latest victim in 'loudness war'?". London: The Guardian. http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2008/sep/17/metallica.guitar.hero.loudness.war. Retrieved 2008-09-17.
13.^ Vinnicombe, Chris (2008-09-16). "Death Magnetic Sounds Better in Guitar Hero". MusicRadar. http://www.musicradar.com/news/guitars/blog-death-magnetic-sounds-better-in-guitar-hero-173961. Retrieved 2008-09-18.
14.^ a b Ludwig, Bob (November 25, 2008). "Guns ‘N Roses: Dynamics and quality win the Loudness Wars". Loudness Wars. Gateway Mastering. http://www.gatewaymastering.com/gateway_LoudnessWars.asp. Retrieved March 29, 2010.
15.^ Dynamic Range Day Official Site
16.^ Dynamic Range Day heralds new movement against loudness, Pro Sound News, February 22, 2011
17.^ Earl Vickers (November 4, 2010). "The Loudness War: Background, Speculation and Recommendations". AES 2010: Paper Sessions: Loudness and Dynamics. San Francisco: Audio Engineering Society. http://www.sfxmachine.com/docs/loudnesswar/loudness_war.pdf. Retrieved July 14, 2011.
18.^ Earl Vickers. "The Loudness War: Background, Speculation and Recommendations – Additional material". http://www.sfxmachine.com/docs/loudnesswar. Retrieved 2012-02-08.
19.^ Greg Reierson (2011-02-08), The Loudness War is Over, Mix, http://mixonline.com/mixline/reierson_loudness_war_0802/index.html
20.^ Ian Shepherd (2009-10-23). "How Spotify will end the Loudness Wars". RecordProduction.com. http://recordproduction.com/blog/2009/10/how-spotify-will-end-the-loudness-wars/.
21.^ Martin Walsh, Edward Stein, Jean-Marc Jot, DTS, Inc. (May 13, 2011). "Adaptive Dynamics Enhancement". AES 2011: Paper Sessions: Production and Broadcast. London: Audio Engineering Society. http://www.aes.org/events/130/papers/?ID=2637. Retrieved May 20, 2011.
22.^ a b Adam, Sherwin (2007-06-07), Why music really is getting louder, The Times, http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/music/article1878724.ece, retrieved 2007-06-12
23.^ a b c Curnyn, Sean (September 3, 2009). "Tears of Rage: The Great Bob Dylan Audio Scandal." Retrieved on March 2, 2010.
24.^ What Happens To My Recording When It's Played On The Radio? also available from the AES library
25.^ Will the loudness wars result in quieter CDs?, The Guardian, January 10, 2008
26.^ a b Emery, Chris (November 25, 2007). "Audio gain in volume signals loss for listeners". The Baltimore Sun. http://articles.baltimoresun.com/2007-11-25/news/0711250027_1_hearing-loss-sound-engineer-seldon-plan. Retrieved September 2, 2010.
27.^ Turn Me Up! About Us. Retrieved on August 13, 2009.
28.^ Mayfield, Matt. "The Loudness War". http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Gmex_4hreQ.
29.^ Even Heavy-Metal Fans Complain That Today's Music Is Too Loud!!!, The Wall St. Journal, September 25, 2008
30.^ Loudness war stirs quiet revolution by audio engineers, Chicago Tribune, January 4, 2008
31.^ "Video: The Loudness Wars Exposed: "When there is no quiet, there can be no loud."". Study Hall. Pro Sound Web. March 30, 2011. http://www.prosoundweb.com/article/video_the_loudness_wars_exposed/. Retrieved April 4, 2011.
32.^ Integrated Approach to Metering, Monitoring and Leveling Practices
33.^ "Interview with Inovonics CEO Jim Wood at Radioworld". Archived from the original on September 20, 2009. http://web.archive.org/web/20041104073923/http://www.rwonline.com/reference-room/special-report/03_rwf_wood.shtml.
34.^ a b Robert Levine (2007-12-27), The Death of High Fidelity, Rolling Stone, archived from the original on 2008-07-24, http://web.archive.org/web/20080724194200/http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/17777619/the_death_of_high_fidelity
35.^ Jay Kadis (2008). "Dynamic Range Processing and Digital Effects". Archived from the original on 2010-09-02. http://www.webcitation.org/5sS2s5ZkW.
36.^ Paul White (January 2001). "Advanced Compression Techniques: Part 2". http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/jan01/articles/advanced.asp. Retrieved 2010-09-02.
37.^ "Orban FM Radio Products Optimod-FM 5300 Signal Flow". Orban. http://www.orban.com/products/radio/fm/5300/signal_flow/. Retrieved 2010-11-24.
38.^ Doran, John (2008-09-27). "Review The Cure 4:13 Dream". The Quietus. http://thequietus.com/articles/00617-the-cure.
39.^ Stagg, Brian (2005-10-20). "Depeche Mode - Playing The Angel - Another victim of the loudness race". http://brianstagg.co.uk/p_t_a_clipressed/.
40.^ Levine, Robert. "The Death of High Fidelity: In the age of MP3s, sound quality is worse than ever". Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on July 1, 2008. http://web.archive.org/web/20080701220047/http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/17777619/the_death_of_high_fidelity/print. Retrieved December 1, 2010.
41.^ "Metallica Face Criticism Over Sound Quality of "Death Magnetic"". Rolling Stone. http://www.rollingstone.com/rockdaily/index.php/2008/10/01/metallica-faces-criticism-over-sound-quality-of-death-magnetic/.
42.^ Neal, Chris (2009-09-14). "Everything Louder Than Everything Else". The 9513. http://www.the9513.com/everything-louder-than-everything-else/.
43.^ Country Weekly Magazine review from October 19, 2009
44.^ Anderson, Tim (2008-01-10). "Will the loudness wars result in quieter CDs?". The Guardian. http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2008/jan/10/digitalmusic.
45.^ a b Anderson, Tim (January 18, 2007). "How CDs are remastering the art of noise." Retrieved on March 12, 2012.
46.^ Rowan, Rip (August 31, 2002). "Over The Limit". ProRec.com. Archived from the original on June 10, 2008. http://web.archive.org/web/20080610184821/http://www.prorec.com/Articles/tabid/109/EntryID/247/Default.aspx. Retrieved May 21, 2010.
[edit] External links This article's use of external links may not follow Wikipedia's policies or guidelines. Please improve this article by removing excessive or inappropriate external links, and converting useful links where appropriate into footnote references. (June 2011) 

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
Very extensive discussion of contemporary rock and pop music examples of the loudness war (tvtropes.org)
Wickham, Chris (26 July 2012). "Pop music too loud and all sounds the same: official". Reuters. http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/07/26/us-science-music-idUSBRE86P0R820120726.
"Measuring the Evolution of Contemporary Western Popular Music" Scientific Reports 2 26 July 2012 doi:10.1038/srep00521 http://www.nature.com/srep/2012/120726/srep00521/full/srep00521.html. Retrieved 26 July 2012
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[Rclark]

well, thankfully, the loudness wars appear to be over.

I think they were format independant, so CD is not the culprit, rather the scapegoat. The dynamic range was whipped and abused and contorted for nefarious means. Compact Disc did not cause bad recordings. Bad recorders caused bad recordings. Compact Disc is an unimpeachable medium when properly used and when played back via a worthy player.

[medium jim]

well, thankfully, the loudness wars appear to be over.

I think they were format independant, so CD is not the culprit, rather the scapegoat. The dynamic range was whipped and abused and contorted for nefarious means. Compact Disc did not cause bad recordings. Bad recorders caused bad recordings. Compact Disc is an unimpeachable medium when properly used and when played back via a worthy player.

And we go full circle to the point that I've always noted, a well mastered cd will sound good no matter when it was produced!  There are good or better recorded or mastered cd's from the beginning to now.  As pointed out early in this thread, it was the first generation of CDP's that were not up to snuff. 

Jim

[mitch stl]

well, thankfully, the loudness wars appear to be over.

Boy, that's news to me. Any number of recently released albums I've bought have suffered greatly from this problem: Fiona Apple, Imelda May, Clairy Browne (great music but this may be the worst recording ever) and Tedeschi Trucks for a few examples. Even the recent Norah Jones albums suffer - what the hell does she, of all people, need with an overly compressed, overly loud album?

Even albums that are sonically acceptable are still much hotter than they used to be. I work a lot in Adobe Audition and it is interesting what one sees. Take an older LP for example and when you look at a recording with steady and heavy drum strikes, you'll see a natural variation in amplitude between each beat. Switch to a modern pop or rock recording - even one that seems to sound OK - and you'll see a precise uniformity in the loudness of that drum strike that is ONLY accomplished by recording that layer of the track too loud and then using a digital limiter function.

That's one reason that a lot of the older material, particularly the stuff recorded on an analog open reel, sounds so much more "organic". It simply hasn't been processed as much.

They can just as easily record that way today, but they don't. It's out of fashion in the pop/rock world.

I sure hope the loudness wars are starting to fade in the record industry, but I'm still not ready to place any large bets on the subject.

[fredgarvin]

I see no evidence of slow down in the loudness wars either.  It is beginning to be discussed more and one can only hope for the execs to catch the hint. Hi fidelity will probably remain a niche product, unfortunately. I'm looking forward to Neil Young's PONO.

[James Lehman]

I think dynamic compression is unfortunately a big part of the pop music genre. Think about the way most people hear new music for the first time. It used to be almost totally FM radio or TV and then came music streaming and iPods. These mediums don't have the signal to noise ratio or bandwidth to support true hifi. People think that louder is better in a relative sense. People don't want to have to adjust the volume for every song. Louder songs stand out. I remember years ago trying to explain to a friend how to use a 10 band EQ. It's import to adjust the output of the EQ such that when you switch it in and out there isn't a real noticeable difference in apparent loudness, so you don't clip. He said, but it sounds better! I said so turn up your master volume!

[jimdgoulding]

For those who may not know, Mapleshade CD's are usually stellar sounding.  You can read about how they are made at the Mapleshade site.  They don't compress anything and are well miked.  Natalie Merchant's newest and most ambitious CD is some of the same soundwise.  Shirley Horne's "You Won't Forget Me" was made in 1991 on Verve and is in the stellar sound category.  Those of you uncomfortable with or new to jazz oughta straight up get this.  You'll see.         

[SteveFord]

That's one reason that a lot of the older material, particularly the stuff recorded on an analog open reel, sounds so much more "organic". It simply hasn't been processed as much.
They can just as easily record that way today, but they don't. It's out of fashion in the pop/rock world.

This is veering off topic but I can see why analog tape has gone out of fashion.
I was over at a buddy's house a few weeks ago and he was giving me an overview of Pro Tools for a solo album he's working on.

Two things he said stick out:
The number of tracks you can have in the mix is limited only by your processing power
and
I'll give up the ambiance of tape for the convenience of being able to do this ("this" meaning ease of recording and mixing).

I've gotta admit, Pro Tools is pretty slick.
That being said, his preferred format for music storage is 45 rpm.