This video, by mastering engineer Ian Shepherd, takes a look at how to make a song ‘louder’ – using mastering, multiband compression, EQ and limiting.
Besides looking at how to make a song loud, though, it looks at the pros and cons of chasing after loud tracks. Along the way, it demonstrates some of the compromises that are necessary to make a track louder and talks about why you might or might not want to make these compromises.
Shepherd also raises an interesting issue – ‘loudness potential’.
via masteringmedia
Well done, and smart stuff.
The title of this post annoyed me to no end – the loudness war and all. LOUD is better, right? Who needs dynamics.
But the vid isactually interesting enough; the author doesn’t suggest compressing the shit out of everything (that seems necessary for commercial success). I guess there are situations where you need to compromise to get commercial success.
Consumer
FYI – Shepherd is actually one of the leading critics of the ‘loudness wars’ idea. He came up with ‘Dynamic Range Day’:
http://productionadvice.co.uk/dynamic-range-day/
But he’s making the point that there’s a right way to increase the overall ‘loudness’ of your music, and that doing it involves a lot of judgement and compromise.
I think that that kind of loudness would be appropriate just for clubbs, If im listening music just to really listen, I would prefer a dynamic track but in clubb is ok to have that in your face punch with music, just consider that at that kind of loudness your ears gets fatigued and you stop listening your ear shuts down to protect itself
so in fact is just for the punch you feel in your body coming from subsonic material what you enjoy most in loud clubb tracks, also there is a potential to damage your ear so its just a trade off.