What is ruining music isn't rap, it isn't emo, it isn't pop, it is this...

[CrushedHope]

YouTube - The Loudness War

Discuss.

[TriforceOfDeath]

I agree, it really damages the quality of great music and even the music of today is damaged when it is mixed by a producer

[Coma Black]

0.o

Hmm, strong points.

[zeldask8r]

wow, that does suck, really bad. Why are they making CD's louder? that seems like a silly idea when our car stereos, stereos and mp3 players already can blast music at deafening levels.

this is why the music industry is failing, and also becuase the internet ruins everything like a black plague.

[UZ!]

Saw this movie ages ago, and it still stands today. This is why when I start producing music, I plan to do all the mixing and whatnot myself.

Seriously, have these asshats ever heard of dynamics?

[sea]

I should note that boosting levels like that doesn't always butcher audio quality, but it can if you do a poor job of it. Loudness in itself isn't bad; it's just volume. The problem arises when you compress the hell out of something and apply extra effects everywhere. Unfortunately, that's more common than it should be.

[raventt]

True, and the result may actually be better
A particular genre of music can't ruin music, but, this can

[Nolan]

Bad production and mixing is something that can certainly downgrade the quality of music. There's way more than just this that is afflicting music. The overuse of autotune is also giving me a headache, especially in the modern R&B genre. The gradual switch to pure digital recording is also making music sound flatter in a lot of cases (flat as in...like two dimensional, in a way).

[Coma Black]

Originally Posted by Galedeep

Bad production and mixing is something that can certainly downgrade the quality of music. There's way more than just this that is afflicting music. The overuse of autotune is also giving me a headache, especially in the modern R&B genre. The gradual switch to pure digital recording is also making music sound flatter in a lot of cases (flat as in...like two dimensional, in a way).

I blame Rock Band and GH.

"It can always be much louder."

"The louder the better!!!"

Bull.

Whenever your surfing the net (Youtube to be specific), you turn the window up all the way and adjust the speaker accordingly. You get all the sound, but you can regulate the levels you hear on your own volume controls. In older recordings, you cranked it up and the mixer adjusted the, well mixing.

Now they play as quiet and humanly possible, turn up the condenser and boost it in the mixdown. Just like Biblo put it:

"Thin...stretched...like btter scraped over too much bread."

[Hoopy Frood]

Originally Posted by Coma Black

I blame Rock Band and GH.

"It can always be much louder."

"The louder the better!!!"

Bull.

A lot of that is a reference to Spinal Tap.

"Turn it up to 11!"

[morval]

Originally Posted by Galedeep

Bad production and mixing is something that can certainly downgrade the quality of music. There's way more than just this that is afflicting music. The overuse of autotune is also giving me a headache, especially in the modern R&B genre. The gradual switch to pure digital recording is also making music sound flatter in a lot of cases (flat as in...like two dimensional, in a way).

auto tune *giggles*

you can always tell the shmucks who use autotune in recording when they show up in a live performance and cant stay on pitch at all, but the CD is somehow just amazing coughcoldplaycoughcough.

I haven't read up on this lately, but didn't vinel lack many of the lower range frequencies, while techniques today have almost all the low frequencies but cut out many high frequencies above the human range of listening?

If you've ever heard of the phillips issued "super audio cd" I think it includes all frequencies of sound, not just human spectrum of hearing ranges. (overtone series affects things inside and out of the human range of hearing)

[Margar]

Originally Posted by morval

auto tune *giggles*

you can always tell the shmucks who use autotune in recording when they show up in a live performance and cant stay on pitch at all, but the CD is somehow just amazing coughcoldplaycoughcough.

I haven't read up on this lately, but didn't vinel lack many of the lower range frequencies, while techniques today have almost all the low frequencies but cut out many high frequencies above the human range of listening?

If you've ever heard of the phillips issued "super audio cd" I think it includes all frequencies of sound, not just human spectrum of hearing ranges. (overtone series affects things inside and out of the human range of hearing)

or *coughsnoopdoggcoughcough*

[Nolan]

Snoop Dogg is actually using a vocoder, if you are referring to "Sensual Seduction." Creates the effect intentionally, to a larger extent. Akon and Chris Brown are two artists who just autotune the crap out of their voices.

Lots of artists use autotune to correct one or two notes rather than do a retake of a track, but you can always tell if you know what to listen for. I don't have a problem with a little autotune correct one note, but when a huge chunk of a song has been autotuned it's like...what's the point?

[DocStellar]

Wow, that was a waist of my time... how is that ruining the music industry? and since when was it being ruined?

[Asci]

Originally Posted by xxRaxx

Wow, that was a waist of my time... how is that ruining the music industry? and since when was it being ruined?

*smacks with a ruler*

Pay attention to the video, children.

[ImReallyLink]

That's horrible. It completely kills the feel of the music. If people want it louder, then they should either go to a live performance or learn to turn up the volume.

Originally Posted by Galedeep

I don't have a problem with a little autotune correct one note, but when a huge chunk of a song has been autotuned it's like...what's the point?

Some artists like the electronic sound (I hate it, but that's just me). Others need it to not sound like crap on their studio recordings, and thus should not be singing.

[F3]

This has been going on little by little for a very long time. Listen to albums from 70's through present day and you'll hear the leveling get more aggressive over the years.

I would extend the blame for this to radio for demanding three-minute tour-de-forces of production. Last year's worst offender was probably the Foo Fighters and their aural soup known as "The Pretender."

On the topic of autotuning, see: Chris Cornell circa 2003.
Like hell he can sing something like Cochise. Dude sounds like he's dying live.

[Latex Glove]

Oh dear god...

I'm speechless.