The Loudness Wars

There is a horrible thing happening right now in the world of audio production, and this is the overuse of compression. This has actually been going on for sometime, it all probably started when some dumb chuck decided that he would make his music stand out on the radio by making it louder than the other music, or some advertiser decided to raise the audio levels to draw attention to his ads. If you have ever been at home watching TV and suddenly been blasted out of your seat by some commercial that comes blaring out of your speakers louder than holy hell then you know what I am talking about. This is an annoying marketing scheme that was designed to get the attention of the consumers, and the most irritating part about it is that it works. Products are generally more sucessful on the market when they are backed by loud advertisments, and people are more likely to pay more attention to the louder radio stations. Its not they're fault, its a sort of subconsious thing. People don't consiously think "Oh I wanna listen to this because its louder" they are just naturally more drawn to it, like flies being drawn to bright lights. Music that is louder seems to sound better, and commercials that are louder just seem to be more interesting. Audio producers know this, which is why they try to make they're work louder than everyone else. Thus the loudness wars.

There is a big problem with making audio so loud, however. When you raise the levels on an audio wavefile too high, you cause the peaks (the loudest sounds) to clip, which results in distortion and very unpleasant sounding audio. The solution to this proplem is compression. Compressing a wavefile is like squishing it, you are making it so the peaks can't go too far above a certain threshold thus eliminating clipping and allowing you to raise the levels and make the overall wavefile louder than it was before without it distorting. The problem with this is you are stripping away the dynamic range of the waveform when you compress the peaks. A lot of the sounds character lives inside those peaks, and when you compress them down you are reducing the unique tones that the peaks provide. This is why overcompression is such a bad thing, it really takes away from the overall sound quality. However, sound quality seems to be becoming less of a priority than sound volume, and these days lots of audio producers are compressing the crap out of they're audio just to make it louder.

What irritates me the most about all this is that if I wan't whatever Im listening to to be louder all I have to do is turn up the volume on my stereo. But compression is irreversable, if something is too compressed I can't un-compress it (unless of course I have the orignal project file). Thats why the loudness wars seem so idiotic to me. For commercials and advertising it is more understandable, but why people make they're music sound like shit by compressing it to death just so they can make it loud just seems like sheer stupidity to me. If its not loud enough, TURN UP THE VOLUME ON YOUR STEREO!! Don't compress it and then make it louder, your are ruining the sound quality! A good example of overcompression is Metallica's new album Death Magnetic. Rick Rubin (Metallica's producer) compressed those songs like his life depended on it, and when the Mastering Engineer recieved the tracks they were brick walled. The Mastering Engineer (I forget his name) even said he didn't want to be associated with this album because of how bad the compression is. I'd really like to know how the guys of Metallica feel about the way they're album was produced. Ever time I read a Metallica interview its always Lars (Metallica's drummer) who talks about the issues of compression regarding the album, and I really don't care what Lars has to say because he's an idiot. Lars of course is a big advocate of the album's production, saying stupid shit like "Of course its loud, its a Metallica album!" But again loudness is not the issue, if I want it to be louder I'll just turn up my stereo. Its the overcompression that is the problem. I would really want to hear what Kirk Hammet (Metallica's guitarist) has to say about it, he seems to me like the guy in the band with a reasonable amount of intellegence. But of course, its always stupid Lars in the interviews.

Not all bands however are succumbing to the methods of overcompression. I've noticed its mainly the more mainstream groups that get it the worst, probably due to pressure from the record labels and such. Bands like Iced Earth have taken a strong stand against compression, in they're single "I walk amoung you" they state in the linear notes: ''This is a dynamic metal record! Play it loud!!! (We refuse to ruin our production by compressing the hell out of it so that it’s mastered at ridiculous volumes! That kills the vibe and dynamics of the mix. Just turn it up on your stereo!)”

I have to stress that compression is by no means a bad thing, it is a very powerful and useful tool that when used effectively can yield great results. But as I always say, everything in moderation. Too much of a good thing can sometimes become bad, and compression is no exception.