jdmccall
Super Member
Besides the diminished fidelity and overall sound quality that comes with the loudness wars, there is collateral damage in the form of listener's fatigue.
I was listening to a CD copy of The Ozark Mountain Daredevil's first album this morning, then followed that with the Pistol Annie's "Hell On Heels" CD. What a difference! While the Annie's CD did sound good, with strong bass and good clarity, it was so loud I had to reach for the volume...twice. It hurt my ears! By the time it's 30:09 running time was over, my listening session was too.
I can see the advantage of dynamic limiting in noisy environments and for background music; I guess that's what the industry is catering to...but not music lovers / audiophiles. We don't count, I guess. Shame there can't be a reasonable compromise that would be acceptable to all, or as I have long proposed -dynamic limiting in playback, not in recording. It would just need to be in the form of a button. Off or on. Everybody's happy. If only we lived in a perfect world!
I was listening to a CD copy of The Ozark Mountain Daredevil's first album this morning, then followed that with the Pistol Annie's "Hell On Heels" CD. What a difference! While the Annie's CD did sound good, with strong bass and good clarity, it was so loud I had to reach for the volume...twice. It hurt my ears! By the time it's 30:09 running time was over, my listening session was too.
I can see the advantage of dynamic limiting in noisy environments and for background music; I guess that's what the industry is catering to...but not music lovers / audiophiles. We don't count, I guess. Shame there can't be a reasonable compromise that would be acceptable to all, or as I have long proposed -dynamic limiting in playback, not in recording. It would just need to be in the form of a button. Off or on. Everybody's happy. If only we lived in a perfect world!