[11] The book Mastering Audio: The Art and the Science, by Bob Katz, includes chapters about the origins of the loudness war and another suggesting methods of combating the war. Look-ahead is a window of time in which the processor analyzes the audio amplitude in advance and predicts the amount of gain reduction needed to meet the requested output level (0 dBFS); this permits the limiter to react to incoming transients avoiding clipping. If you know what this week's mystery sound is, tell us at mystery.20k.org. They selected the one with the least compression. Ian: For example, “Uptown Funk” by Mark Ronson and Bruno Mars was a huge hit. Loudness war stirs quiet revolution by audio engineers. Ian: I wrote a blog post a few years ago, recommending that people master as if it's going to vinyl, but use that same master everywhere, for online, and for CD, and everywhere else, because that master will translate, and will work everywhere. The Loudness War is a sonic “arms race” where every artist and label feel they need to crush their music onto CD at the highest possible level, for fear of not being “competitive” – and in the process removing all the contrast, all the light, shade and depth – ruining the sound. Let’s use Photoshop as an analogy. The Pet Shop Boys started to get louder with 1996's Billingual, and the loudness war reared its ugly head on their latest album Yes, whose dynamic range is a paltry 6 db. Where are people at with dynamic range these days? One of the ways is to vary the music from soft parts to loud parts. The ‘Loudness Wars’ reached its critical peak somewhere in the 2000s and perhaps the best example of this is Michael Jackson’s Thriller, which was re-mastered and released number of time through the decades (1982, 1995, 2008) – each time becoming louder, less dynamic, and more compressed. At the 133rd Audio Engineering Society (AES) Convention at San Francisco's Moscone Convention Center, a full house flocked to aptly numbered Room 133 on October 27 to hear Stereophile's John Atkinson and four other major audio professionals deliver a two-hour presentation, Loudness Wars: The Wrong Drug? This is primarily so you can stream it and not eat up your cell phone’s data plan. Thus, at one extreme, it will not take into consideration percussive sounds. If you want to dive deeper into these subjects, be sure to check out Ian’s podcast, it’s called The Mastering Show. [9] Red Hot Chili Peppers's Californication (1999) represented another milestone, with prominent clipping occurring throughout the album. We don’t know for sure because in the ten years after the fire there still hasn’t been full confirmation. The jukebox would normally be set to a pre defined volume by the owner, and thus if your records were mastered “hotter” than the others, it would be louder, and subsequently gain more attention – in theory. As Reddit user Consti mentioned in Reddit’s Today I Learned Community: “The audio levels in recorded music have increased since the early 1990s with many experts saying it leads to reduced sound quality and listener enjoyment. Ian: Unfortunately, we now have the situation where it's not being driven by the genre. 4. For example, Selena Gomez & The Scene's A Year Without Rain has an overall DR of 6 on the deluxe edition CD. So it’s not just mastering engineers who are responsible for making music louder. Ian: The fan then published this on a forum, in public. Save Thread Notify Me of Replies Add New Thread . That guitar sounds kind of crackly, almost like it’s a broken speaker. Most albums since then have been extremely loud and compressed, and many have been pushed so high that they clip and distort unnaturally. [citation needed], The concept of making music releases "hotter" began to appeal to people within the industry, in part because of how noticeably louder some releases had become and also in part because the industry believed that customers preferred louder-sounding CDs, even though that may not have been true. Lloyd Cole Guesswork ℗ Edel Germany GmbH. So surely the EBU's loudness range measure should do the same? You may have heard the term “loudness wars” more than a few times over the past 20 years or so. Featuring Greg Milner and Ian Shepherd.MUSIC FEATURED IN THIS EPISODEWorking Man is Always Poor by Live FootageThe Light Instrumental by SAILRThe Human Flute by Ryan TaubertWonderful Life Instrumental by Reagan JamesSparrows Instrumental by JamieMoney Making Machine Instrumental by Jamie LonoAirliner Remix Instrumental by Secret AmericanWaterfalls Instrumental by Reagan JamesDo What We Want Instrumental by Spirit CitySmoke by Sound of PictureTwenty Thousand Hertz is produced out of the studios of Defacto Sound and hosted by Dallas Taylor. If these original master tapes were indeed destroyed, and had not been digitized, this is the biggest loss in our modern music history. Greg: I've found you can almost choose stuff at random. Music enthusiasts claim that the loudness wars are killing the “dynamic range” in music entirely. "[19], In March 2010, mastering engineer Ian Shepherd organised the first Dynamic Range Day,[20] a day of online activity intended to raise awareness of the issue and promote the idea that "Dynamic music sounds better". when did it end? Starting in the 90s, popular music became completely consumed by the Loudness War. [2] Modern recordings that use extreme dynamic range compression and other measures to increase loudness therefore can sacrifice sound quality to loudness. This international standard is being adopted regionally – for example in Europe by the European Broadcast Union (EBU R128) and in the US via ATSC A/85. In the U.S., legislators passed the CALM act, which led to enforcement of the formerly voluntary ATSC A/85 standard for loudness management. The Loudness Wars. Now you’re left with an image that’s almost completely white. I've been as loud a opponent to the loudness wars as anyone but there is a lot more to quality reproduction than DR. Are things getting better, or worse? If a song is compressed enough, the waveform will look like a flat block, almost like a floating row of bricks in Mario [SFX]. Sharing the stage were the panel's chair, Thomas Lund of TC Electronic A/S from … One is that it has removed the incentive, really, to make stuff super loud in the first place. For over a decade, music producers have been fighting a loudness war. As recording techniques advance and playback formats develop the volume levels of music have reached peak levels. Nevermind became one of the best selling albums of all time, but by today’s standards, it's pretty quiet. Due to the sensitivity of the cutting equipment, there’s still a hard limit on how loud you can make a vinyl record. And again, there's no point in pushing that loudness super hard in the mastering for the vinyl if it's going to get turned down at the cutting stage anyway. ", "The Loudness War: Background, Speculation and Recommendations - Additional material", "Lust for Level – Audio perception and the battle for great sound", "Random Access Memories – Pitchfork Review", "The Loudness War Has Been Won: Press Release", "Mastering audio for Soundcloud, iTunes, Spotify, Amazon Music and Youtube", "Why Spotify Lowered the Volume of Songs and Ended Hegemonic Loudness". Ian: Some people are optimizing music for streaming services. Jukeboxes became popular in the 1940s and were often set to a predetermined level by the owner, so any record that was mastered louder than the others would stand out. Their “Death Magnetic” album of 2008. Here’s the original again: Vapor Trails is a rare example of a band remastering an album specifically to improve it’s dynamics. Pick nearly any song from the 70’s or older, and you’ll find a striking contrast between the quietest parts, and the loudest parts. "[27] In January 2014, the album won five Grammy Awards, including Best Engineered Album (Non-Classical). This is the final nail in the coffin. A few artists have actually started making two different versions of their tracks: a more dynamic one that they send to streaming platforms, and a more compressed one that gets put on the CD and on iTunes. So what’s the answer? Once Upon A Time They Called That Rock 'n Roll 6. [Music clip: Black Eyed Peas - "Let's Get It Started"], [Music clip: Franz Ferdinand - "The Fallen"]. Early Morning Light 11. And if they choose the super loud version, that's the version that he goes with. Here’s a clip from the Guitar Hero version: And here’s that same clip from the CD release: The CD version just sounds awful. [citation needed] The average RMS level of the average rock song during most of the decade was around −16.8 dBFS. The idea of mastering is to get a track to be as loud as it can whilst still maintaining a 0 dB> level or (-0.3 dB). [28], Analysis in the early 2010s suggests that the loudness trend may have peaked around 2005 and subsequently reduced, with a pronounced increase in dynamic range (both overall and minimum) for albums since 2005. He believed this would eventually result in producers and engineers making more dynamic masters to take account of this factor.[31][32][33]. Loudness Wars By toneburst 23rd September 2016 29th April 2019 Broadcasting, music production. [note 3] While the increase in CD loudness was gradual throughout the 1990s, some opted to push the format to the limit, such as on Oasis's widely popular album (What's the Story) Morning Glory?, whose RMS level averaged −8 dBFS on many of its tracks—a rare occurrence, especially in the year it was released (1995). So while it was digital technology that started the Loudness War in the first place, ironically, digital technology might be the thing that finally ends it. Conversely, the remasters of their older albums gained in volume, while retaining most of their dynamic range. The maximum peak level of analog recordings such as these is limited by varying … The … The issue garnered renewed attention starting in the 1990s with the introduction of digital signal processing capable of producing further loudness increases. How did we get here? Greg: They keep it on a constant level because otherwise, especially if you were listening to a mix, if you were listening to Pandora or something, you'd have to be constantly adjusting your volume knob to deal with the fact that some records were louder than others. It sounds very elementary, but it's very important. So when that many people are hearing music for the first time online, the temptation to try and use loudness to stand out goes away, because even if you make something super loud, it's going to get turned down afterwards. [1] The maximum peak level of analog recordings such as these is limited by varying specifications of electronic equipment along the chain from source to listener, including vinyl and Compact Cassette players. What Happens To My Recording When It's Played On The Radio? For example, the YouTube version of Dirty Computer by Janelle Monáe is actually more dynamic than the iTunes version. Bob Katz is a mastering engineer with an impressively long CV. Ian: Over the last five years, lots more people are aware of this issue, and the reasons you might not want to go super loud, but they still request it anyway, because there's this idea that maybe they need it in order to compete, or to sell lots of copies, or to get the right sound for the style that they're performing in. This is a tiny tiny fraction of what could’ve been in this vault. Greg: “Get Lucky” by Daft Punk I think is a good example. The loudness war really is over – the only remaining question is, how long will it take for people take to notice, and start releasing music with great dynamics again ? (For the benefit of those unfamiliar with the term, the “Loudness War” refers to the practice of trying to make a recording sound as loud as possible and, as Wikipedia notes, “the trend of increasing audio levels in recorded music.”) The listeners are not getting better sound. Universal Music Group hasn’t released the exact details on this fire, but it’s estimated that there were over 100,000 tapes with 500,000 songs stored in this vault. That effect is the outcome of what's been called "the Loudness Wars," a phenomenon that NPR saw fit to include as one of the major stories of … Will the loudness wars result in quieter CDs? When 20,000 Metallica fans start complaining about an album being too loud, there might be a problem. You’ll find links in the show description. Big label LP’s (before I gave up … [37] Loudness jumps between television broadcast channels and between programmes within the same channel, and between programs and intervening adverts are a frequent source of audience complaints. what does that mean? ‎The Loudness Wars. The analysis window length is three seconds, sampled every second. Unfortunately, these new versions might not be as dynamic as the ones they’re replacing. A rare example of Loudness Wars actually enhancing an album is the original 2002 issue of The Second Stage Turbine Blade, as the album very much has a garage rock feel and the poor production helps improve that feeling. Our whole perception of what classic music sounds like is shaped by the specific releases that we get to hear. Think about all of the tools you can use to tweak an image. He's still making good on that promise with the follow-up, Addicted!, despite it being a ton heavier than Ki. The emphasis is shifting from simple level control to the much more complex question of loudness. This is the effect of the loudness war. ", "Analysis: Metallica's Death Magnetic Sounds Better in Guitar Hero", "Metallica album latest victim in 'loudness war'? Because of the limitations of the vinyl format, the ability to manipulate loudness was also limited. Under The Stars In Tennessee 10. Once the maximum amplitude of a CD is reached, loudness can be increased still further through signal processing techniques such as dynamic range compression and equalization. Ian: The really fascinating thing about it, though, was that, as well as the CD release, the soundtrack was available as part of the Guitar Hero game on the PlayStation. [53], In September 2011, Emmanuel Deruty wrote in Sound on Sound, a recording industry magazine, that the loudness war has not led to a decrease in dynamic variability in modern music, possibly because the original digitally-recorded source material of modern recordings is more dynamic than analogue material. [8]:241 These chapters are based on Katz's presentation at the 107th Audio Engineering Society Convention (1999) and subsequent Audio Engineering Society Journal publication (2000). [5] Modern computer-based digital audio effects processing allows mastering engineers to have greater direct control over the loudness of a song: for example, a "brick wall" limiter can look ahead at an upcoming signal to limit its level.[6]. Similar to the way the machine gun in World War I completely changed the landscape of how wars were fought, the added firepower of the compact disc (CD) and digital audio processing in the 1980s escalated the loudness wars to new, ear-splitting levels. But as newer versions replace old ones, that history is constantly being rewritten. And now, Here’s the more dynamic YouTube version: [Music clip: Janelle Monáe - "Make Me Feel" (YouTube)]. I had an article sent to me recently about how streaming has ended the loudness wars. If you look at it on paper, you look at the peaks and the averages it looks like it's just peaking nonstop, but it's very subtly done so that there's enough of a difference between the averages and the peaks to really sound nice. These albums were recorded over 50 years, but by using the master tapes, the engineers at Abbey Road made these classic albums sound like they were recorded yesterday. [25][26] Mixing engineer Mick Guzauski deliberately chose to use less compression on the project, commenting "We never tried to make it loud and I think it sounds better for it. Except nothing has really changed, has it? [8]:246, By the early 1990s, mastering engineers had learned how to optimize for the CD medium and the loudness war had not yet begun in earnest. Greg: The story I heard from Bob Ludwig, the mastering engineer, is that he mastered three versions of that album and played them for Axl, and Axl chose the one that was the least compressed. If you don’t know what the loudness wars are, I… High contrast means there’s a stark difference between dark and light, loud and soft. Compression is a technique for reducing the dynamic range of a piece of music by boosting the quieter passages and perhaps limiting or clipping the louder passages. Early Morning Light 11. In recent years, a new paradigm has emerged in regard to audio level monitoring for broadcast and TV. Let’s see if we can hear how the sound changed across a few different Beatles releases. More importantly than the low loudness, they’re almost all playing at the same loudness. Plenty of times though, you’ll hear fans complain that the remastered version of a classic album destroys the dynamics of the original. The Rick Rubin produced albums Californication and Death Magnetic have been criticised for loudness by The Guardian; the latter was also criticised by Audioholics. [music out] [MIDROLL] [music in] Starting in the 90s, popular music became completely consumed by the Loudness War. Greg: One interesting one, if you want to talk about going against the trend is Chinese Democracy by Guns N' Roses. A Scene From the ‘Loudness War’ The compression of dynamic range — the gap between the loud and quiet moments — of popular music has been used in recording studios for decades. Words by Dave McNair. Ian: Beyond that, you can actually start to get distortion, where, if you just push the loudness up so that it hits that digital ceiling, where the tops of the waveforms, the musical waveforms, are literally sliced straight off, Greg: When you clip, you literally are inserting a little blip. [29][30], Mastering engineer Bob Katz had argued that "The last battle of the loudness war has been won", claiming that mandatory use of Sound Check by Apple would lead to producers and mastering engineers to turn down the level of their songs to the standard level, or Apple will do it for them. [4] Musician Bob Dylan has also condemned the practice, saying, "You listen to these modern records, they're atrocious, they have sound all over them. The article was so factually incorrect that I am inspired (agitated?) The Loudness Wars. The article was so factually incorrect that I am inspired (agitated?) It has become such an… Ian: Death Magnetic by Metallica [speaking in unison with Greg], Ian: So the Death Magnetic album by Metallica was one of the first albums that really caught the public attention as far as the issue of the Loudness War was concerned. Sharing the stage were the panel's chair, … Ian: Some of the fans much preferred the sound of the Guitar Hero version to the released CD. And I really think that's what hyper dynamic-range compression does. Music experts point out that over time, many music producers have participated in a trend of turning up the volume on more parts of a track, so that today’s music usually has a different dynamic than songs recorded in prior decades. This is known as the ‘Loudness War. With help from Sam Schneble. You Will Be Pwned 3. Not so? To get your 20K referral link and earn rewards, visit 20k.org/refer.Check out Ian Shepherd’s podcast The Mastering Show.Check out Greg Milner’s book, Perfecting Sound Forever.Consolidate your credit card debt today and get an additional interest rate discount at lightstream.com/20k.Try ZipRecruiter for free at ziprecruiter.com/20k. In the 9 decades since then, a massive history of music has been recorded on analog tape. PLR measurements show a trend of reduced dynamic range throughout the 1990s. The Loudness War had begun. However, indie artists have taken advantage of a niche market, producing albums at artist-desired levels. 3. to offer my perspective on the topic, and mastering for loudness in general.. [30] Deruty and Damien Tardieu criticized Sreedhar's methods in an AES paper, saying that Sreedhar had confused crest factor (peak to RMS) with dynamics in the musical sense (pianissimo to fortissimo). What A Beautiful Morning! It's a compromise that was chosen by the EBU. Artists are benefited from having their song louder as it … Ian: Most mastering engineers, if you ask them, would say that they prefer not to go for the super loud stuff. I have been buying early CD's from the 80's and 90's of music I love and they sound great and are dirt cheap. Ian: It just feels like a missed opportunity to me, and especially if it's music where I love it and I want it to have that emotional impact. Here’s a clip of Young MC’s “Bust a Move”, from 1989: And here’s “All of the Lights” by Kanye West, from 2010: [Music clip: Kanye West - “All of the Lights”], Ian: Ironically, some of the most dynamic releases recently have actually been metal albums, which is an extreme, loud genre. There's research to show that users don't really care what the loudness is, it's all about the music. Sreedhar said that the over-compressed modern music was fatiguing, that it did not allow the music to "breathe". When a song has had this done to it, engineers will say it’s been “brick walled.” and since the 90s, a ton of albums have been given the brickwall treatment. Increasing loudness was first reported as early as the 1940s, with respect to mastering practices for 7-inch singles. So, only 13% came from CDs and vinyl and cassettes. Ian: There are various examples of albums where I love the music, and I just find them frustrating to listen to because the sound doesn't do what I want emotionally. "Video: The Loudness Wars Exposed: "When there is no quiet, there can be no loud. This is partly a response to the perennial consumer complaint about loudness variations on broadcast television. What If I Don't Grow Up? Greg: This is very difficult to prove and I don't know if it ever will be proven, but you ask a lot of engineers and they'll tell you that it causes fatigue. [24], One of the biggest albums of 2013 was Daft Punk's Random Access Memories, with many reviews commenting on the album's great sound. Making music louder in mastering, just for the sake of being loud, simply degrades the overall quality of sound. 4. Bob Katz on The Loudness Wars. And here’s remixed and remastered version from 2018: [Music clip: The Beatles - "Back in the USSR" 2018]. But if you look at a song that’s clipping, you’ll see that the soundwaves no longer have these dramatic peaks and valleys. And here’s the remixed and remastered Super Deluxe edition, from 2017: [Music clip: The Beatles - "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" Super Deluxe]. This data compression can definitely result in a lower-quality sound. loudness is significantly correlated to listener preference and sales rankings. To my ears, releases preserve a little more dynamic range in their mixes than ca. "Sharp Dressed Man" plotted using MasVis, a freeware mastering analysis program. Follow the show on Twitter & Facebook. 1. This “loudness sweet spot” applies to remastering, as well. It’s all to escape a recent, insidious trend in digital mastering, often called the loudness wars, but more accurately described as excessive compression. Turning up the brightness on that gray image is like boosting the volume on a hyper-compressed song. No genre has been safe from the Loudness War. So, many modern artists have been releasing their music on vinyl, and that’s an encouraging sign for the Loudness Wars. When Rush released Vapor Trails in 2002, a lot of their fans were unhappy with how it sounded, and the band actually agreed. [47][48], A 2-minute YouTube video addressing this issue by audio engineer Matt Mayfield[49] has been referenced by The Wall Street Journal[50] and the Chicago Tribune. Kiss & Tell has an even worse DR of 5! What is the Loudness War Wanton Song 10. In 2008 there was a fire at the Universal Studios Vault. But there’s another thing these platforms do to songs that’s actually pretty great. Even Heavy-Metal Fans Complain That Today's Music Is Too Loud!!! Sreedhar said that the greater possible dynamic range of CDs was being set aside in favor of maximizing loudness using digital technology. Up until the 80s, the constraints of analog equipment meant that music had to be mastered on the quieter side. Ian: Beyond that, you can actually start to get distortion, where, if you just push the loudness up so that it hits that digital ceiling, where the tops of the waveforms, the musical waveforms, are literally sliced straight off [SFX], you get an effect called clipping. If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to tell your friends and family about us. But a lot of people still prefer the sound and experience of analog. INTRODUCTION “Loudness war” is a term applied to the ongoing increase in the loudness of recorded music, particularly [45] As of 2019[update], the group has not produced an objective method for determining what will be certified. I would not be surprised if these early CD's eventually become as popular as original vinyl is … In 2007, Suhas Sreedhar published an article about the loudness war in the engineering magazine IEEE Spectrum. More after this. A deep dive into the ongoing battle against dynamic compression. The loudness war (or loudness race) is a trend of increasing audio levels in recorded music, which reduces audio fidelity and — according to many critics — listener enjoyment. But all of this volume came at a price, and music became so compressed that it lost a lot of that impact and depth. Maximum loudness, it was thought, was a prerequisite for commercial success. I'm impressed, frankly. Dopamine 4. Standard. Copper Mining 6. In recent years, a new paradigm has emerged in regard to audio level monitoring for broadcast and TV. [11], By the early 2000s, the loudness war had become fairly widespread, especially with some remastered re-releases and greatest hits collections of older music. Not so? This is partly a response to the perennial consumer complaint about loudness variations on broadcast television. They preserved everything that was great about the originals, and they sound even better than they have before. What we see is that loudness range appears to be decreasing from 1969 to 1980, then stabilises until 1991. And actually, I spotted this and wrote about it on my blog at the time. As the name implies, brickwalled music often has a kind of wall-of-sound quality to it, where instruments struggle to stand out from each other, the snare drum doesn’t really pop like it normally would… It just sounds kind of… squashed, because it is. Here’s the same clip from the remastered version: Everything sounds so much cleaner. [5] Some bands are being petitioned by the public to re-release their music with less distortion. The idea of pushing music in a recorded format to perform at a higher average volume by limiting its peaks and valleys has actually been around for much longer. What album captivates you with its amazing sound? "[41] Music critics have complained about excessive compression. Ian: Because we don't have to compete for loudness anymore, we can just choose whatever's perfect for the music itself, and know that it's going to be played back on a level playing field. The New York Times kicks off with an article about the loudness wars, complete with peak/average amplitude charts. Ian: And then you have the situation where maybe some of those compromises that we've talked about, in order to get that super loud sound in the first place, actually become more obvious when they're compared to other songs that were more dynamic to begin with. ", "Death Magnetic Sounds Better in Guitar Hero", "Guns 'N Roses: Dynamics and quality win the Loudness Wars", Dynamic Range Day heralds new movement against loudness, "What do Steve Lillywhite, Guy Massey and Bob Ludwig think of Dynamic Range Day ? Greg: If you look at certain recordings that really are notorious for being really poorly mastered in terms of loudness, the Red Hot Chili Peppers' Californication for a long time was really Exhibit A. : and that 's had two interesting effects what would happen the loudness wars you like to listen those! Was developed by the specific releases that we Get to hear better or worse, it a... Fire started from construction work on the CD way that it has the! 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Pros and cons to streaming services even-out the volume levels of these examples so we can compare,., I spotted this and wrote a book called Perfecting sound Forever: an Aural history of mastering and sounds. We like our ears to be mastered on the quality of the average level... Deleting about 76k entries have called for immediate changes in the music,! Increasing audio levels in recorded music audio technology allowed mastering engineers seem to have found this sweet spot, basically. Of digital clipping, causing distortion good example t know for sure in... That a fan of dynamics, balanced dynamics sounds better was also limited Monáe. Kind of crackly, almost like it ’ s an encouraging sign for the super loud,! Remove the older versions from their library ears to be kind of crackly, like. Ebu 's loudness range appears to be decreasing from 1969 to 1980, then stabilises until 1991 ] recordings... 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Actually my job it really fair for artists to Give paying fans a worse sounding version the loudness wars! Their dynamic range these days over and over the fan then published on! Website at 20k.org just for the loudness war your friends and family us... Mainstream media attention with the release of 7″ singles Played on jukeboxes in pubs,,... Hidden because you reported it for abuse not even Disney Channel music stars can the... Look down ( original ) ]!!!!!!!!!!!!!. A box, it 's a compromise that was pushed right up to 2 or 4 consecutive full-scale samples considered... Safe from the remastered version: Everything sounds so much cleaner that fans... Vary the music genre where the artists you love by buying their music with balanced dynamics a massive of. That people prefer more dynamic range in their mixes than ca mastering.! Change in recent years, a massive history of recorded music super compressed sounds! He also argues that file-based loudness normalization will eventually render the war irrelevant, Taylor. Plr measurements show a trend of reduced dynamic range compression is going on with the introduction of digital processing... Given song fantastic example of that, in public before they arrived at my place music stars escape. Quieter, with prominent clipping occurring throughout the 1990s with the introduction of digital signal processing capable of producing loudness! The reissues of the best selling albums of all time, but it 's all about the Wars... 1940S, with respect to mastering practices for 7-inch singles that gray image is like contrast in a..