THE PRICE OF LOUDNESS

Is louder better? That debate is raging all over the audio world. While the debate continues, there is no question that overall, recorded music has been getting louder over the past 20 or 30 years.

On vinyl, levels had to be kept lower since louder meant wider grooves and less audio per album. Smart, resourceful people back in those ancient times used the volume knob on their stereo to achieve a desired listening level. Those people had to be resourceful since they spent most of their time running from flesh eating dinosaurs.

Rumor has it that audio playback and listening devices today still have these volume knobs. Why the loudness competition in recording and mastering studios then?

Part of it is driven by artists and part by engineers. Another part is driven by information that says if a person hears the exact same song at different levels, he'll always say the louder version sounds better. We've never seen that study but, that info gets thrown around a lot. Human ears tend to hear more highs and lows as volume increases so, it's certainly not a wild concept. Boomy bass and crisp high end seem to sound good to most folks.

The debate rages on with no end in site. Levels will probably get louder as long as someone is making gear that will accommodate. What does that mean? Who knows but, as audio people we should at least understand the basic principle that more loudness means your audio will be affected in other ways. Trying to get the loudness and sound you hear on high budget recordings in your (project) studio comes at a price.

Mastering studios have mondo expensive and sophisticated gear which most radio or project studio producers will never see or be able to afford. The big guys are in a world of their own and the rest are forced to do what they can with whatever plug ins they can afford or crack.

A very popular loudness tool for a long time has been the Waves L2 limiter. Great plug right? Yes, but the harder you push it, the more it goes all Freddy Kruger on your audio. Limiters limit, it's that simple. More limiting means a ceiling that your audio can't get through. Your audio will sound crunchy and you may notice a loss in top end.

Adding loudness with eq and compression have their effects as well. When you boost eq you add distortion in upper harmonic frequencies. Some say a little of that is good. Hard to know where the line is since too much can smear the sound. Gotta use your ears.

With compression, more equals less dynamic range. Also, there's the pumping. A little might be good but too much could drive listeners nuts.

In the midst of the loudness war are many produers who feel that boosting loudness is simply unnecessary and frivolous trickery. They also believe it's counter to good audio. They would prefer that listeners kick it old school and adjust the volume control to determine level while the audio source remains truer to its origins. It makes for great discussion over a few microbrews. The way it's going, it may join politics and religion in the list of topics most likely to start a fight.