Loudness war!

trogluddite · 13 Nov 2011

Thanks for posting. I had heard about some of the reported incidents at Abu Ghraib etc., but had no idea the practice was so widespread. Music has brought me such joy - truly sad to think of the sick minds that would want to twist it into a weapon.

stw · 14 Nov 2011

http://www.spex.de/2010/03/18/massive-a ... deografie/

for german GEMA restricted access victims... 😝

MichaelBenjamin · 15 Nov 2011

you can watch blocked videos also through this: http://hidemyass.com/

Jay · 15 Nov 2011

Hmm nastie peices of work doing this to any human being in this day and age!

this is interesting http://www.dailytech.com/American+Milit ... e12512.htm

and a lot of info on this horrid practice here (Warning its a long read!) http://www.sibetrans.com/trans/a152/mus ... -as-weapon

Best Regards Jay

infuzion · 19 Nov 2011

from a DJ perspective: http://www.djtechtools.com/2011/11/16/s ... eal-story/

MegaHurtz · 19 Nov 2011

Find to be the amount of limiting on commercials rather annoying. Afaik the never being solved debate was going on about 7 years ago. Still nobody is really going to do anything about it. Find the whole "loudness war" title a bit exaggerated as well, since theres hardly anything going on.

Disco_Steve · 20 Nov 2011

That's because the war ended long ago - and everyone lost 🙁 it is like nuclear war for audio, there can never be a winner. 🙁

This is quite cool, but a big long and slow

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=pl ... 9Fb3rWNWDA

Acrobat · 22 Nov 2011

Yeah, some records are really ruined by this practice, I have bought deUS' "Vantage Point" which has a terrible smashed sounds, and there was really no reason for that, it makes my ears bleed even at low volume. Horrible mastering. 😝

trogluddite · 23 Nov 2011

Acrobat wrote: terrible smashed sounds

What is most frustrating is that the original reasoning behind this practice is pure hogwash these days... Always the same excuses are trotted out - "make sure the music can be heard when listening in a noisy environment"; "make sure my tune is as loud as everyone else's". But even the smallest mobile device has enough DSP power these days for 'squish it to oblivion' to be a user controlled setting, and anything transmitted on TV/Radio generally has the optimod turned up to 11 by the broadcaster.

Acrobat · 23 Nov 2011

trogluddite wrote: and anything transmitted on TV/Radio generally has the optimod turned up to 11 by the broadcaster.

optimod? 😕

Acrobat · 23 Nov 2011

Acrobat wrote: .... it makes my ears bleed even at low volume. Horrible mastering. 😝

I should have said "nice record - horrible mastering", I should be more PCorrect sometimes... 😉 I tried myself and a friend of mine to replicate the big big big correct compression and limiting settings but failed most of the times even with the best software tools, I read Bob Katz and other famous engineers tips but nothing, then I simply gave up as I am mainly a musician and research, not an angineering producer afterall. There must be some secret tricks, anyway. Some Masonic ritual tricks. 😉

trogluddite · 24 Nov 2011

Acrobat wrote: optimod?

Well, I don't know for sure that this is the exact kit used these days, but 'optimod' = 'optimum modulation' - basically a form of extreme multiband compression/limiting; designed originally to make sure that AM radio signals were modulated to the maximum extent to maximise the signal strength (and hence get better reception over the widest radius).

Even with the latest digital radio broadcasts (PCM, so always max radio modulation), heavy compression/limiting is still used (certainly here in the UK). Partly, this is done so that the authorities can multiplex more (crap) channels within the same radio bandwidth to get more license fees from broadcasters - i.e. they digitally compress the signals more heavily, so that the audio still needs tinkering with to get the best out of the compression algorithms. This annoyed a lot of people, as we were promised that the switch to DAB would give us better quality radio - but it hasn't - just more (low audio quality) commercial radio stations, all playing the same cliched 'classic tracks'.

cyto · 25 Nov 2011

Acrobat wrote: There must be some secret tricks, anyway. Some Masonic ritual tricks. 😉

http://www.fmh-child.org/Spellbound/Spellbound4.html - this comic reveals all of the secrets. Start down toward the bottom of the link's page and continue on to the next few pages. It will tell you exactly how a record is made.

-cyto

stw · 25 Nov 2011

cyto wrote: Acrobat wrote: There must be some secret tricks, anyway. Some Masonic ritual tricks. 😉

http://www.fmh-child.org/Spellbound/Spellbound4.html - this comic reveals all of the secrets. Start down toward the bottom of the link's page and continue on to the next few pages. It will tell you exactly how a record is made.

-cyto

Wow, that's really enlightening... 😈