CD recorded at too high a volume

[Canada]

CD's are recorded at a much higher volume than Blu ray's and even DVD's why? By rcording them as such a high volume you can't turn up your volume when listning to CD's there for not getting as good a bass response out of tower speakers. Can some one clue me in to why? I have no clue why they do it.

[Clark Kent]

An unfortunate trend in mastering for the cd format in the last decade is for cd's to be mastered very loud with little dynamic range. See

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loudness_war

[tbizzle]

Originally Posted by Clark Kent

An unfortunate trend in mastering for the cd format in the last decade is for cd's to be mastered very loud with little dynamic range. See

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loudness_war

I heard that Metallicas' new album was one of the worst yet.

[Canada]

Originally Posted by Clark Kent

An unfortunate trend in mastering for the cd format in the last decade is for cd's to be mastered very loud with little dynamic range. See

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loudness_war

What a shame

[Sir Terrence]

While movies have standards for mixing and mastering, music only has no such standards. In the absence of standards, unfortunately you are going to hear a lot of bad mixing and mastering practices.

I have refused job after job because the artist or the producer wanted me to mix or master at levels that I thought were unlistenable. I was asked to apply so much compression that is killed the music just to make it playable on radio. I refused to do these projects, but my business or lively hood was not on the line. Other engineers and mastering professionals are not in that boat.

[Audiophile_At_Birth]

Metallica's latest CD WAS a wreck. The Day that Never Comes has got to be the worst mastering of a single/song in recent years. I thought it was just a bad CD, but after listening to my friends, what do you know...it still sucks.

[Mr.White]

MFSL Gold CD's have always sounded incredible,they know how to make quality product,Pink Floyd's "Dark Side Of The Moon" is a fave of mine as is Cream's "Disreali Gears" with BOTH stereo and mono sides(so much dynamic range!) Sure they cost more,but they sound sweet,DCC Gold Discs are also awesome(Cream's "Wheels of Fire" is the bomb!) I've found that the older pressings of CD's seem to have more dynamic range than the louder new releases,maybe I'm just old fashioned. Just an opinion

[Canada]

I know I listened to Top Gun (first CD I ever had) and Def Lepards Greatest Hits it had a lot more Dynamic Range than Nelly Furtado's Loose. I want a fair bit of bass in my music, but I don't want music so loud it will damage my hearing or wreck my new B&W speakers, but the speakers are supposed to play loud.

That's why I am thinking about getting a Rotel receiver.

[Hep]

This is first I have heard of this practice...it is a sad day indeed, and I'm not sure if I am better off knowing this. I guess with this knowledge I can now make better decisions when it comes to buying remastered albums.

[ausamerika]

Originally Posted by Hep

This is first I have heard of this practice...it is a sad day indeed, and I'm not sure if I am better off knowing this. I guess with this knowledge I can now make better decisions when it comes to buying remastered albums.

I run every album I want to purchase through the search engine in the forums at www.stevehoffman.tv

The guys there are the kind of guys that'll buy a dozen different releases of the same album to find the one that sounds the best, and they really know what they're talking about.

[Hep]

Originally Posted by ausamerika

I run every album I want to purchase through the search engine in the forums at www.stevehoffman.tv

The guys there are the kind of guys that'll buy a dozen different releases of the same album to find the one that sounds the best, and they really know what they're talking about.

Thanks, that will be a useful tool for me.

[Galley]

Chinese Democracy is one of the few recent albums that bucks the loudness trend.

The trial disc I submitted to the producers had 3 versions: The one I personally liked had no compression that was used just for loudness, only compression that was needed for great sounding rock and roll. Then, knowing how competitive everything is these days, I made two more masterings, one with more compression and another with yet more compression, but even the loudest one wasn’t remotely as loud as some recent CDs. Hoping that at least one of these would satisfy Axl and Caram Costanzo, the co-producers of the record, I was floored when I heard they decided to go with my full dynamics version and the loudness-for-loudness-sake versions be damned.

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