"The Loudness War" or Whatever

As someone who likes to write about, think about and - above all - listen to sound, I think the so-called "loudness war" is a fascinating subject. For those of you not in the know, the idea is that musical recordings have gotten louder over the past 20-30 years as producers have started using more dynamic range compression. The result, some claim, is that recordings are being "ruined," and sound "less musical" because they have less dynamic range. Or so the critics allege. This awesome Sound on Sound article points out that, to quote Albert Nimzicki in Independence Day, "that's not entirely accurate."

SOS's research found that true, proper dynamic range isn't actually changing at all, but that crest factors seem to be decreasing; that is, the overall loudness of recordings is closer to their peak loudness. To put it simply, recordings are louder overall, as opposed to being loud in certain sections. So the critics are still somewhat right. But what does that really mean for sound quality? Do these metrics mean music is being ruined? I propose that we approach sound quality... well, qualitatively, dammit.

While there are certainly egregious abuses of loudness, the ultimate goal of any engineer or producer is to make something that sounds good. So I think loudness, timbre and dynamics should all be judged contextually. Some records make sense as loud, distorted assaults on the ears, like Jay Reatard's Blood Visions or anything by Death Grips. Justice uses absurd limiting on their basslines, but they do it in an artistically interesting way. For me, limiting goes wrong when the music is more nuanced, like My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy or Sleigh Bells' Treats. Treats is an interesting case, because you could make the argument that - like the others I've mentioned - it's supposed to be loud and aggressive. But Treats also has a certain rhythmic, stomp-and-clap sensibility, and I think the excessive limiting detracts from that. Similarly, I think too much limiting ruins the dynamics of the intricate arrangements and variations in Kanye's most recent effort. While it's nice not to have to adjust your volume, there's a balance that needs to be struck and sense to be made.