2008 Woodie Awards
Loudness war stirs quiet revolution by audio engineers
Kathryn Masterson (MCT)
Issue date: 1/11/08 Section: Arts & Entertainment
To Death Cab for Cutie guitarist Chris Walla, fighting on the front line of music's "loudness wars" can feel like a lonely battle.
Walla, who produces albums for indie rock groups in addition to his own, doesn't want to follow the trend of recording albums as loud as possible simply because other bands are doing so. The music loses something when pushed to extreme volumes, Walla said, sacrificing its nuances and emotion for attention-grabbing sound.
"I really feel I'm on an island a lot of time," Walla said. "I don't get the sense the world sees this as a problem."
Walla does have some company on his side. A number of sound engineers and artists are taking a hard look at the effects of the so-called loudness war and producing albums at lower volumes. One producer who says he made loud records for years has started an organization called Turn Me Up, which aims to show artists, music labels and fans that louder doesn't always mean better.
"There's a happy medium, and CDs have gone much too far," said Bob Katz, a sound engineer in Florida. Music that is digitally altered to be louder isn't as enjoyable to listen to, he said, noting, "It's relentlessly, fatiguing[ly] loud. The punch is gone, the impact is gone."
How much louder are recordings now? Engineer Charles Dye, co-founder of Turn Me Up with artist John Ralston, estimates that records today are 6 to 8 decibels louder than they were 15 years ago, the equivalent of about a quarter turn of a volume knob. Katz said some music that is heavily compressed has gone up almost 20 decibels in 20 years.
Advances in recording technology have allowed sound engineers and producers to raise recordings' overall volume by compressing the dynamics of the audio during the mixing process. The compression technique removes the peaks and valleys, making all parts of a song equally loud.
It's something the average person might not even notice, unless they listened to a recording from 1992 next to one made in 2007. People are used to being bombarded by sound, from movies and blaring TV commercials to their iPods cranked up to drown out background noise on the bus or street.
Walla, who produces albums for indie rock groups in addition to his own, doesn't want to follow the trend of recording albums as loud as possible simply because other bands are doing so. The music loses something when pushed to extreme volumes, Walla said, sacrificing its nuances and emotion for attention-grabbing sound.
"I really feel I'm on an island a lot of time," Walla said. "I don't get the sense the world sees this as a problem."
Walla does have some company on his side. A number of sound engineers and artists are taking a hard look at the effects of the so-called loudness war and producing albums at lower volumes. One producer who says he made loud records for years has started an organization called Turn Me Up, which aims to show artists, music labels and fans that louder doesn't always mean better.
"There's a happy medium, and CDs have gone much too far," said Bob Katz, a sound engineer in Florida. Music that is digitally altered to be louder isn't as enjoyable to listen to, he said, noting, "It's relentlessly, fatiguing[ly] loud. The punch is gone, the impact is gone."
How much louder are recordings now? Engineer Charles Dye, co-founder of Turn Me Up with artist John Ralston, estimates that records today are 6 to 8 decibels louder than they were 15 years ago, the equivalent of about a quarter turn of a volume knob. Katz said some music that is heavily compressed has gone up almost 20 decibels in 20 years.
Advances in recording technology have allowed sound engineers and producers to raise recordings' overall volume by compressing the dynamics of the audio during the mixing process. The compression technique removes the peaks and valleys, making all parts of a song equally loud.
It's something the average person might not even notice, unless they listened to a recording from 1992 next to one made in 2007. People are used to being bombarded by sound, from movies and blaring TV commercials to their iPods cranked up to drown out background noise on the bus or street.
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