But, the loudness war is not as bad as you took it to be.
Dynamic compression is NOT THAT bad. It take the loud parts and trims the peaks with a limiter. (NOT CUTTING, AS IN THE VIDEO) When you do this, the quite parts become louder.

There are many advantages to participating in the loudness war when creating a mix.
When you push the volume on the limiter, (With the right limiter setting of course) makes the recording flat (as in frequency response). When you push them, like say, Metallica’s Death Magnetic album, you get a very flat, and lush frequency response across the spectrum. If you push the recording the wrong way, you get no dynamics, no punch, and tons of distortion, just like the album I mentioned above and in the video that was used as a example.

I find that tweaking a recording to be flat across the spectrum with a 4-band compressor and a limiter works like magic rather than a equalizer and exciter, like most people use. Plus, when used right, you don’t even need to equalize the separate instruments. In my opinion, the loudness war is as good as it is bad. Bad if done horribly wrong, like the AC/DC remasters and most everything else that comes from Sterling Sound.

I have mastered and mixed many CD’s using a very interesting technique. I recorded the instruments, leveled the volume, put them all together, and ran a limiter, and a 4-band compressor on top of it all. All the instruments share the space in the spectrum, rather than eqing them to have only dominate certain spots on the spectrum. (Some people say that this causes frequencies to collide, but with a limiter, that rids that problem) With the limiter, pushing the volume as loud as it will go, while making sure absolutely no distortion occurs in each band, and a perfect limiter setting creates a VERY flat response, and sounds great on any system, while keeping the punch and clearity of the mix. This is how a mix should be done if you want to participate in the loudness war. No distortion filled noise. Distortion is what makes your head hurt from listening, not the volume. Punchy dynamics are created from the 4-band compressor.

You can still have excellent dynamics and clarity in a mix while participating in the loudness war. In the video above, the guy simply cut the waves, which created insane amounts of distortion, along with many other errors in the example.

Thanks!
-Kris

“It’s not only audiophiles who are being repulsed by it, but also millions and millions of regular music fans”,

Cant even enjoy a live Rock Concert anymore due to the “Loudness War Effect” Im telling you! Its everywhere, spreading like a virus!

I guess i have to use “Soft Clipping” for home listening and Earplugs for live concerts in the future.

It is through alienating this LARGE group of regular music fans (ie. buyers/potential-buyers) that the industry has run itself into the ground. For proof, check out the following links I found on amazon.com and a music-trading site. These are music CUSTOMERS, ticked off by the loudness war, sending out messages to other customers, warning people NOT to waste their money on particular CD releases/remasters, or even to bother listening to them:

http://www.amazon.com/tag/victim%20of%20the%20loudness%20war/products

http://www.amazon.com/gp/richpub/listmania/fullview/R120N2FPI04EV4/ref=tag_tdp_rb_elst

http://www.amazon.com/review/product/B000002AP1/ref=dp_top_cm_cr_acr_pop_hist_1?%5Fencoding=UTF8&filterBy=addOneStar

http://www.amazon.co.uk/review/product/B0000251W3?filterBy=addOneStar

http://www.sharoma.com/trading/loudness.htm

There’s something seductive about the huge levels of compression these days, where everything is in your face from the beginning, but after listening to the several songs that never change dynamically, it starts to sound pretty lifeless and fake.

It’s ironic that indie artists that no one cares are still free to have their masters done right, but that being on a major label or getting major airplay means having the life squeezed out of your dynamic range.

That was pretty funny reading the complaints about too much dynamic range in classical music. Manning the volume knob every time I want to listen to classical recordings drives me crazy!

Instead we opted for a great Studer machine to mix on and some wonderful Valve outboard gear and great transparent speakers to master on .. and yes it breathes a lot more than stuff I’ve just had put through a Waves type program.

When I asked him why, he replied “if you want it louder .. turn it up”