Dynamic Compression and The Loudness Wars

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Amidst the continually increasing levels of commercially distributed music, there is widespread concern that the sonic quality of today’s popular music is deteriorating. More than ever before, dynamic compression is utilized in mixing and mastering to make a song as loud as possible. The belief that “louder is better” has lead to these mixing and mastering practices that have since been coined as “The Loudness Wars”. The great irony in this matter is that in an age where technology thrives and our advancements in applied sciences have come so far, one should expect the quality of recorded music to be outstanding. However, as the trend of hyper-compression progresses, there is an undeniable regress in the sonic quality of commercial music. The motive behind all of this was simple: louder music, if perceived as better, will result in higher sales figures. However, there are many fatal flaws to this theory. This essay will examine the origins of the loudness wars, as well as short and long-term consequences that may arise as a result of hyper-compression and limiting.

While it is impossible to specify an exact date as to when the loudness wars began, we can study the trends of mastering over the past forty years, and, from our data, hypothesize when engineers began prioritizing loudness over quality. Before examining the levels of commercially distributed audio, the medium of recorded music must be taken into consideration. The earliest indications that loudness was prioritized in commercial music occurred on vinyl. In the 1940’s and 1950’s, 7” singles were extremely popular among bars, clubs and pubs housing jukeboxes. The jukebox would typically have a pre-set level for playback, so if records were mastered louder, they would...

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...evier/Focal, 2007. Print.

Henshall, March. "Vinyl vs CD In The Loudness War." Sound Matters. N.p., 7 Sept. 2007. Web. 10 Apr. 2014.

Lemere, Paul. "Music Machinery." Music Machinery. N.p., 29 Mar. 2009. Web. 25 Mar. 2014.

"The Loudness Wars: Why Music Sounds Worse." NPR. NPR, 31 Dec. 2009. Web. 9 Apr. 2014.

Owsinski, Bobby. The Mastering Engineer's Handbook: The Audio Mastering Handbook. Boston, MAT: Thomson Course Technology PTR, 2008. Print.

Owsinski, Bobby. The Mixing Engineer's Handbook. Boston: Thomson Course Technology, 2006. Print.

Vickers, Earl. "The Loudness War: Background, Speculation and Reccommendations." STMicroelectronics (n.d.): n. pag. Web.

"What Happened To Dynamic Range?" What Happened To Dynamic Range? N.p., n.d. Web. 1 Apr. 2014.

Wyner, Jonathan. Audio Mastering - Essential Practices. Winona: Leonard Corporation, Hal, 2013. Print.

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