The Loudness Wars

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The Loudness Wars

• Austin Community College
• Commercial Music Management
• February 2, 2006
• Instructor Alex Keller

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Objective

• Today we will answer these questions
• ? What are the loudness wars?
• ? Who are the players?
• ? How did the loudness wars start?
• Why is hypercompression a bad idea?
• What can you do?

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What are the loudness wars?

• The phrase loudness wars refers to the practice
  of trying to make songs sound louder through use
  of compression, limiting and normalization. Its
  a war because producers and AR people are
  pressured or inspired to make their song louder
  than everyone elses.
• Though most of the competition happens during the
  mastering process, the loudness wars effect
  mixing practices also.

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What are the loudness wars?

• The main goal of the loudness wars is to make
  songs apparently louder than anyone elses
• The casualty in the loudness wars is the music.
• Changes arent as dramatic (dynamic range)
• Its not as listenable (fatiguing)
• It sounds bad (distorted)

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Who are the players?

• Originally mastering engineers handled cutting
  LPs on a lathe (using EQ and compression to make
  sure no problems occurred)
• These days mastering engineers are the last step
  in the creative process of making a finished
  recording, handling the sequencing, final
  processing and editing.
• Mastering engineers are still the first step in
  the replication process, by preparing the
  material so that no problems occur during
  replication.
• Mastering engineers are on the front lines of the
  loudness wars - some volunteers and some drafted
  against their will - using compression and
  limiting to make songs sound as loud as possible

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Who are the players?

• Mix engineers take a finished multitrack
  recording and sum it to a 2-track mix
• Mix engineers are often pressured by AR,
  producers and artists to heavily compress a
  finished 2-track mix to make it sound radio
  ready
• That final step usually does (and should) happen
  in mastering

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Who are the players?

• Record labels front the money for projects, and
  handle promotion and distribution.
• In order to guarantee the success of a CD release
  record labels will often push for an unreasonably
  loud finished product

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Who are the players?

• AR stands for Artists and Repertoire
• AR departments represent the record companies.
• They recruit new artists and manage the projects
  of contracted artists
• AR departments can give the artist and
  production staff more creative control, depending
  on the contract and success of the artist
• In order to guarantee the success of a CD release
  AR staff will often push for an unreasonably
  loud finished product

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Who are the players?

• Producers wear a number of different hats,
  depending on the artist, record company, AR
  staff, and technical staff.
• A producer can be accountable for
• the quality of the finished product
• the project budget
• Some producers push to have their material
  hypercompressed in mastering - some try to
  present a finished product that is listenable.

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How did the loudness wars start?

• Back in the LP days, the louder a record was, the
  shorter playing time you had, because louder
  records needed wider grooves - which started the
  tradition of 3 1/2 minute pop songs.
• Record labels wanted their releases to be louder
  than others to draw attention to them.
• Labels would also release new material on
  compilations - promoting song-to-song loudness
  competition
• Motown records in the 1960s (especially 45 RPM
  singles) were known for being especially loud.
• Production staff liked making recordings loud,
  due to the inherent noise floor of analog media

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How did the loudness wars start?

• CDs have a fixed length, no matter how wide the
  dynamic range is.
• For a brief time (until the 90s) production staff
  used that dynamic range very well
• However, the practice of wanting one recording to
  be louder than the next stayed around.

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How did the loudness wars start?

• Goals of the loudness wars
• Competition with other recordings on the radio
• Competition with other recordings in CD changers
• Making a recording listenable without having to
  constantly adjust the volume, or scaring the
  neighbors
• Making a recording listenable in the car
• MP3 conversion works better on louder material

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Why is hypercompression a bad idea?

• The latest Tool record, Lateralus 2001, is not
  that loud, says Lambert. But you know what?
  Nobody cares. It didn't affect sales of the
  record, it sounds awesome and, as a fan, you're
  going to listen to it for years. Some records
  will work really loud others wear on you They
  sound great the first two times, but then you
  just stop listening because they fatigue your
  ear. I know that and the engineers know that, but
  the consumer doesn't know why they're not
  listening to those records anymore.
• Joe Lambert

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Why is hypercompression a bad idea?

• When any signal is compressed, the loudest parts
  of that signal become quieter, and the quietest
  parts of that signal become louder
• Compressors can also introduce harmonic artifacts
  - distortion - to a signal
• The more the signal is compressed, the more
  distortion is introduced
• Music with distorted components - guitars, bass,
  vocals - can be very listenable
• Music with distortion across the whole mix can be
  very fatiguing to the ear

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Why is hypercompression a bad idea?

• It gets worse...
• Compression is only one of the techniques
  employed in the loudness wars
• The most important one is limiting - as in the
  Waves L2 limiter, which is an excellent tool if
  not abused.
• When signal is limited, it is only allowed to get
  as loud as the threshold and no further -
  creating signal clipping, which we hear as
  odd-harmonic distortion
• Even well-designed limiters create harmonic
  distortion when they are used

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Why is hypercompression a bad idea?

• But wait, theres more!
• The main goal of hypercompression is to make a
  recording louder than the last one on the radio
• However, FM radio uses heavy compression on a
  signal before it is encoded
• So a hypercompressed song wont be any louder
  than hypercompressed one
• But, because the broadcast compressors will make
  the quieter parts of the sound (odd-harmonic
  distortion) even louder, it will sound a lot
  worse...!

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Why is hypercompression a bad idea?

• Satellite radio
• With the popularity of satellite/HD radio, a
  digital format, pre-broadcast compression isnt
  as much of an issue, but its still there -
  enough to make a hypercompressed signal about as
  loud as one that is not.

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What can you do?

• You need to earn a living and make listenable
  music.
• Learn how to explain the problem with
  hypercompression to your clients.
• Keep a few A/B comparisons of hypercompressed
  music vs well-produced music around to play for
  clients.
• Play a hypercompressed version, then play a
  non-hypercompressed version and turn up the
  volume - it will sound better, clearer, less
  harsh.

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What can you do?

• Mix engineers
• Always work at 24 bit for the extended dynamic
  range
• Turn up the monitors and turn your mix levels
  down! In 24 bit, peaking between -2 and -24 dBFS
  is plenty hot.
• Resist bus compression - if you do it use it
  (gently) from the beginning, not at the end, so
  that your EQ and effects reflect it.
• Ride those faders instead of compressing for a
  single loud spot
• Use the K-System for monitoring your mixes!

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What can you do?

• Mix engineers
• Provide stems to the mastering engineer.
• Mastering from stems prevents overcompressing to
  bring up a single element.
• Your mastering engineer will love you...
• final mix
• versions with the vocal up 1-2 dB and down 1-2 dB
  
• mix without lead vocal
• mix with no vocals
• lead vocal with processing
• dry lead vocal

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What can you do?

• Mastering engineers
• Communicate with your client!
• Use limiting as it was intended - to limit peaks,
  not program material.
• Compare your masters to high-quality finished
  material.
• Use the K-System for monitoring!

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What can you do?

• The K-System
• Developed by mastering engineer Bob Katz
• Set your VU meters to -20 dBFS for dynamic
  material, or set to -14 dBFS for louder material,
  and mix to 0 VU
• Set signal at your 0 VU to 83 dB SPL, and mark
  your control room knob - that is where you should
  listen, consistently.
• The K-System allows you enough headroom to
• preserve dynamics
• work at a comfortable level, without ear fatigue
• You will also get to know your monitor situation
  a lot better!

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Listening examples

• Smells like teen spirit - Nirvana - 1991
• P Butch Vig M Howie Weinberg

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Listening examples

• You know youre right - Nirvana - 2002
• P Butch Vig M Bob Ludwig

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Listening examples

• Rid of me - PJ Harvey - 1993
• E Steve Albini M John Loder

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Listening examples

• Buddy Holly - Weezer - 1994
• P Ric Ocasek M George Marino

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Listening examples

• Beverly Hills - Weezer - 2005
• P Rick Rubin M Vlado Meller

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Listening examples

• Pale September - Fiona Apple - 1996
• P Andres Slater M Ted Jensen

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Listening examples

• Waltz - Fiona Apple - 2005
• P Mike Elizondo M Brian Gardner

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Listening examples

• Vitamin X - Scala - 1997
• M Sam Purkin

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Listening examples

• Sugar - System of a Down - 1998
• P Rick Rubin M Vlado Meller

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Listening examples

• Hypnotized - System of a Down - 2005
• P Rick Rubin M Vlado Meller

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Listening examples

• The way I am - Eminem - 2000
• P Mark Bass M Brian Gardner

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Listening examples

• Cleaning out my closet - Eminem - 2000
• P Mark Bass M Brian Gardner

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Listening examples

• Dirty deeds - AC/DC - Remast 2003
• P George Young M George Marino

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Listening examples

• Stiff upper lip - AC/DC - 2000
• P George Young M George Marino

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Bibliography

• Diament, Barry. What is Mastering? Barry
  Diament Audio. http//www.barrydiamentaudio.com/ma
  stering.htm. Accessed 01.26.06.
• Diament, Barry. Declaring an End to the Loudness
  Wars. Barry Diament Audio. http//www.barrydiamen
  taudio.com/loudness.htm. Accessed 01.26.06.
• Donahue, Mark. Current Trends in Mastering The
  Loudness War. Performer Magazine. June 2003.
• Foti, Frank. Audio Processing HD Radio.
  BroadcastPapers.com. http//www.broadcastpapers.co
  m/radio/OmniaHDRadio10.htm. Accessed 01.26.06.
• Foti, Frank. What Happens to my Recording When
  Its Played on the Radio? BroadcastPapers.com.
  http//www.broadcastpapers.com/radio/OmniaWhatHapp
  ens01.htm. Accessed 01.26.06.
• Katz, Bob.Level Practices in Digital Audio.
  Digital Domain. http//digido.com/portal/pmodule_i
  d11/pmdmodefullscreen/pageadder_page_id36/.
  Accessed 01.26.06.
• Jones, Sarah. Dynamics are Dead, Long Live
  Dynamics. Mix Magazine Online.
  http//mixonline.com/mag/audio_big_squeeze/.
  Accessed 01.26.06.
• Reierson, Greg. Loudness and Level Practices.
  Powerhouse Mastering. http//www.power-house.com/p
  ages/level2/audM/level3/gregspks.htm. Accessed
  01.26.06.