[SubNormal J3]

Disclaimer: I don't profess to be an expert on digital sound, but I think I know enough to carry a discussion about this. Correct me if any of these statements are incorrect.

Okay. So I'm sure most of us have heard the speech about digital recordings becoming more and more maximized over the last decades. If you haven't, here's a good explanation:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Gmex_4hreQ

I can see what this guy is saying, and I can easily here a difference between my old CDs from the late eighties and the digital recordings of today. However, I'd like to here the other side of the argument. I thought I'd ask the justification for the dynamic compression seen on most ReMixes on the site. It seems logical to me that more dynamics and clarity are ideal, but I'm sitting on the fence for this discussion. Albeit, leaning towards the argument for more dynamics. Is maximizing a necessary evil or is there more to it than that?

Other arguments for maximizing are that it is easier to here the music in a noisy environment. That makes sense to me, but it seems as more of a byproduct of maximizing rather than the reason for it.

Do any producers out there have some more concrete reasons for why they maximize music? I don't mean to question anyone's production style. I'm just really interested in this whole phenomenon.

[Kenogu Labz]

As far as I'm aware, expanding the amplitude of a wave does not change its inherent form, as long as the amplitude is expanded identically along its length. No damage is done, nor data lost when the waveform is maximized. The whole point is to push up to the clip-limit without breaking it. This allows the volume to be maximized without changing the sound.

Whether it's a wise idea or not is another issue altogether, which I'll leave for the sound production folks to handle.

[Theophany]

It really depends what kind of music you're talking about. As they say, every mix is different. If you're talking about metal or trance, I like the option of cranking my music up. When it comes to pop, a loudness war was inevitable imo because that's nature of pop: be louder and more in your face than competing acts and get more attention. If you're talking about more mellow genres, dynamics are more important to me because I'm listening for detail and musicianship. However, even on more mellow tracks I will tend to push the limit as far as it can go without messing up the dynamics. There's nothing more lame than an awesome track that's mixed way lower than you're used to hearing.

In a way, I feel like there's no going back for the time being because people like me have been conditioned for certain loudness volumes.

[Kenogu Labz]

Also keep in mind that maximizing creates a standard for audio; on a CD with tracks of varying dynamic ranges, it's handy to have a volume level that will stay fairly constant between tracks, so that the listener can set that volume level quiet or loud, as desired, and not have to change that setting between tracks.

[zircon]

This is a hotly discussed topic on almost all forums related to music production. My perspective is that there's nothing wrong with using compression and limiting (maximizing is just a form of this) to even out your music. In fact, using compression + limiting on an entire mix can really glue it together, making it sound more cohesive. In dance music, the pumping effect sometimes caused by OVER-compression is at times desirable. However, most importantly, I like to listen to music (including my own) at a single volume level. I'm OK with turning up (or down) the volume between two songs from two different CDs, but I shouldn't have to turn up my volume to hear an intro and turn it down in the chorus.

[Brandon Strader]

We will win the loudness war.

[MojoHamster]

It's an interesting topic.

The production on Smashing Pumpkin's record Siamese Dream often felt too quiet to me. Stuff that's recorded closer to the clip threshold always felt more punchy (which is kinda ironic since that guy was talking about recordings losing punch).

Hard limiting and compression does effectively lower the dynamic potential of a recording, by lowering the possible number of volume intervals in a sound wave.

When used artistically in the fashion Zircon mentioned, it's a good thing. When it's used too often to paper over poorly performed live instrument tracks, then it's a bad thing. In that instance it would be better to hand edit any offending peaks delicately.

I think people also hate turning up their stuff for quiet part then getting bombarded by sound. Music exists in a different environment in today's world too. Whether it's outside during a noisy commute through an mp3 player, or in the background while you're fraggin noobs on an fps, or literally on an OST, you're always fighting for audible superiority with many sources.

Perhaps there is a market for audiophile style re-masterings for the headphones wearing vinyl junkie. As long as the raws are recorded pure, it's simple enough to mix two versions.

Capitalism is choice after all.

[vega12]

zircon is right in that sometimes the effect on the sound that comes from over-compression is sometimes desirable, but in many cases it's just done poorly. Like in rock music, sure the electric guitars are often distorted and sound good that way, but when compression of the whole track causes the voice to start distorting in the chorus, and the bass to be much quieter than the guitars, then it's done wrong. Other times the large amplitude of the bass is maintained during compression, but then at louder bass parts noticeable clipping comes in. I used to think these things I hear in my headphones were due to MP3 bitrates, but I've confirmed in multiple cases that the original CD audio also suffers from these problems.

Originally Posted by Kenogu Labz

As far as I'm aware, expanding the amplitude of a wave does not change its inherent form, as long as the amplitude is expanded identically along its length. No damage is done, nor data lost when the waveform is maximized. The whole point is to push up to the clip-limit without breaking it. This allows the volume to be maximized without changing the sound.

What you're talking about is totally okay, but dynamic range compression reduces dynamics by bumping up only the quiet parts, and leaving those near maxed parts alone. This doesn't introduce actual hard clipping, but distorts the sound towards clipping, and in cases where it's poorly done there is actual clipping introduced.

EDIT: Oh yeah, and zircon I would also point out that, while I'm sure you are already aware of this, some musical styles sound okay with flatish volume levels, but the world of jazz and classical for instance are a world of dynamics, and clearly compression of these genres would ruin the music.

[SubNormal J3]

I can see both sides of the argument. For me, if I want to listen to older albums, I try to track down older remasters on CD instead of the newly remastered anthologies. I really enjoy listening to CDs from the late eighties and early nineties. I have a CD recording of The Doobie Brother's "Minute By Minute" album that has fantastic dynamics. I here the argument that it's a pain to have to change the volume between an intro and a chorus, but this album had the same average volume throughout so it was a matter of adjusting the volume relative to other albums only. What set it apart from more modern remasters is that every instrument came through because there was so much room in the waveform. I kind of get a little kick of OCD when I'm searching for older CDs because I love the sound of the older remasters and don't want to accidentally get a newer remaster (which has happened all too often and I don't have enough money to replace them). For modern music, you don't really have a choice. I bought Earth, Wind & Fire's latest album: "Illumination" (2005). It was fantastic, but it seemed to me that the maximizing had left several unpleasant artifacts. I noticed the same thing with Sting's latest Christmas album compared to the first CD issue of "The Dream of the Blue Turtles." It's just fascinating to me how digital audio has changed the industry.

[Gario]

Originally Posted by zircon

I'm OK with turning up (or down) the volume between two songs from two different CDs, but I shouldn't have to turn up my volume to hear an intro and turn it down in the chorus.

Mmm... Depending on the genre, turning up the music when it's quiet and down the music when it's loud completely ruins the music. I'd be careful with that habit, since it could be eliminating a purposeful element in the music.

I can't speak for a lot of music, but if you do that with classical/romantic/modern music, you're really, really missing the point of those styles.