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In
2001, mastering engineer, Bob Speer, wrote the following
article about the abuses of compression
in modern
recordings. The article (with several updates) is as relevant today
as it
was then.
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| What
Happened To Dynamic Range? |
By
Mastering Engineer, Bob Speer |
What
happened to dynamic range? That's a question that
should be asked of record labels, producers, artists, and
last but not least, recording and mastering engineers.
The question needs to be asked because we're the ones
responsible for what's happened to our music. Much of
the music we listen to today is nothing more than distortion
with a beat. Great music is suffering because it
lacks dynamic range. When music lacks dynamic range, it
lacks punch, emotion, and clarity. The record labels
blame digital downloads, MP3s, CD burners, and others for
the lack of CD sales. While there is some truth to
their constant whining, they only have themselves to blame
for the steady decline in CD sales. The record labels
need to reevaluate what they consider to be good music.
Much of the music being produced today isn't music at all.
It's best described as anti-music. It's anti-music
because the life is being squashed out of it through over
compression during the tracking, mixing, and mastering
stages. It's simply, non musical. It's no wonder that
consumers don't want to pay for the CDs being produced
today. They're over priced and they sound bad.
In 2005, CD music sales in the U.S. slid to their
lowest level since 1996, ending all hopes that the music
industry's downward sales trend may have bottomed out.
This is according to sales data released by Nielsen
SoundScan, a tracking firm that measures point of sale
purchases across the U.S. Although there was a slight
upturn in sales in 2004, total CD sales fell 7.2 percent
from 2004 to 618.9 million units in 2005, the lowest since
1996, when they were 616.6 million. It's time for all
of us in the music industry to wake up! Our
musical heritage is being threatened by this wave of
anti-music.
What is dynamic range anyway? Dynamic range is the
difference between the softest and loudest sounds we can
hear. Or, to put it another way, the difference
between the softest and loudest sounds in a recording.
Dynamic range is measured in decibels (dB). For
comparison, the typical dynamic range for a cassette
recording is around 60 dB, while CDs can reach a dynamic
range of 96dB.
For years we've tried to recreate the excitement of a live
performance by trying to maintain as wide a dynamic range as
possible. This has always been difficult with analog
recording. We had to keep the softest signals above
the noise floor while keeping the loudest signals below the
level of distortion. To keep the soft signals from
being buried in tape hiss, we had to record with as high a
level as possible. To keep our loud signals from
distorting, we had to compress the signal which resulted in
a restricted dynamic range. As the years went by, many
improvements were made in recorder and tape technology.
This, along with various types of tape noise reduction
systems, helped to improve the dynamic range of our
recordings, but it was still limiting.
Then one day we awoke to a new technology, "digital
recording." Wow, now with a dynamic range of over
90 dB, our recordings could almost rival a live performance.
Well, in theory, yes. However, the music industry had
other ideas.
Rather than use this new technology to take advantage of
it's wide dynamic range, the music industry went in the
opposite direction. They decided that louder is
better. Suddenly, we found ourselves in a race to see
whose CD was the loudest. The only way to make CDs
louder was to keep compressing the signal more and more.
That's where we are today. Everyone's trying to make
their CD sound louder than everyone else's. The term
that is used for this process is called, hot. Yes,
most of today's music is recorded hot. The net result,
distortion with a beat.
In December, 2001, several prominent individuals in the
recording industry served on a panel to judge the best
engineered CD for the Grammy's. After listening to
over 200 CDs, they couldn't find a single CD worthy of a
Grammy based on the criteria they were given.
Everything they listened to was squashed to death with heavy
amounts compression. What they wound up doing was
selecting the CD that had the least amount of engineering.
In reality, the winner didn't win because of great
engineering, he won simply because he had messed with the
signal the least. On second thought, that was great
engineering. For the record, the winner that year was
Norah Jones' CD, "Come Away With Me."
Here's a quote from Roger
Nichols, one of the participants
on that panel. "Last month, I listened to all the
CDs submitted
to NARAS for consideration in the 'Best Engineered
Non-Classical' Grammy category. We listened to about 3
to 4 cuts
from the 267 albums that were submitted. Every single
CD was squashed to death with no dynamic range. The
Finalizers
and plug-ins were cranked to 'eleven' so that their CD would
be the loudest. Not one attempted to take advantage of
the
dynamic range or cleanliness of digital recording."
- Roger Nichols Grammy winning engineer for Steely
Dan, Beach Boys and
more. EQ
Magazine January, 2002,
issue.
The Myth Of Radio-Ready CDs. (mastering loud for radio)
Radio ready is an ambiguous term created by marketing
professionals whose goal is to sell a product or service.
It's in your best interest to be an informed artist or
producer. Radio is the great leveler. It takes
songs that are soft and dynamic, and brings them up in level
to compete with the so called loud songs. In doing so,
the dynamics of these songs are greatly reduced. But that's
not all. Radio compressors are designed to drive peaks
down. They will view a loud song as one huge peak and
will
reduce it's overall level. This can make a loud song
lower in level than a properly mastered recording.
Loud songs don't sound louder on the radio. They sound
softer and distorted. The exact opposite of what was
intended. So, why do many believe their CD needs
to be mastered loud to sound good on the radio? It's
because of the enthusiasm of ignorance. Recordings need no special
processing to sound good on the radio. Mastering music
specifically for radio (making it loud) only serves to make
it sound worse. Also see: What
Happens When My Song Is Played On The Radio?.
There's no excitement in today's music. There's no
texture, and certainly no reason to buy it. Many
people today accept this hot sound because that's all they
know. They weren't brought up on music that sounds
"musical." I can't believe what we've done
to our music. We've somehow allowed radio, with it's
limited dynamic range and frequency response, to become the
standard for what sounds good. We want the CDs we buy
to sound like they do on the radio. What happened to
recreating the excitement of a live performance? Does
any of this make sense? Is it possible that we've
moved forward with our technology, but backward in our
thinking? The loudness wars have been with us for a
long time. With analog, there was a loudness limit.
Digital technology, however, has given the music industry the
tools to destroy it's own product. And it's doing a
good job!
If You're Producing Music, Don't Fall For The Loud CD Trap.
Below is an animation showing how the level of CDs
has increased over the years due to the loudness wars. We have gone from the
dynamic CDs of 1985, to the distorted, solid block (wall of
sound) CDs of 2007. In the animation, the average
level of 1985, has become the peak level of 2007. The
musical information between the average and peak levels of 1985, has not been magically pushed down into the waveform
in 2007. Because of "Brick Wall Limiting,"
the musical information has been clipped off, eliminated,
and it's gone forever. |
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We need to reconsider what the average level of CDs should be. I believe we
should go back to the level of 1990. This would give us a healthy level as
well as enough headroom to generate the musical peaks that would
reestablish what's missing in today's music (punch, emotion, and
clarity).
There's one question that artists, producers, and record
labels should ask themselves before they even hit the record button.
Is it better to produce music that listeners will want to turn up,
or produce music that listeners will want to turn down?
Hopefully, one day we'll wake up from this
nightmare. Then we can record, mix, and master music the way
it was meant to be.
It's high time we took advantage of what digital technology has
given us. The ability to make recordings without noise or
distortion, while at the same time preserving the natural dynamics
of our music!
Say it with me, very loud. "BRING
BACK DYNAMIC RANGE!"
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| Additional
Resources Regarding CDs, Music, & Dynamic Range. |
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