Loudness Wars |
|
Loudness Wars |
|
|
|
|
Oct 5 2008, 08:41 PM |
This is open to everyone but I want Marcus' opinion on this topic as he will have experience recording for a huge market.
Hey Marcus. I want your thoughts on the current loudness war that seems to be going on with many bands. Trying to get louder and louder records when many people use volume stabilisers on ipods and what not these days. It seems bands are destroying their new albums by adding unneeded distortion and huge compression on albums. You listen to the difference between an 80's, a 90's and a 00's record and the difference in levels is ridiculous. When you are in the studio do producers push for this sort of mix or not and are you of the same opinion that the volume on many new albums is just ridiculous? This blog is really to the point I feel and talks especially about the new Metallica album and new Trivium albums: http://mastering-media.blogspot.com/ -------------------- Gear Guitars:- Caparison Horus Snowcloud, Parker Nitefly M, Parker Nitefly SA, Gibson SG, Parker P10e, 40 Year Old Spanish Acoustic Amps:- Framus Ruby Riot 2x12" stack |
|
|
||
|
|
|
Oct 6 2008, 07:20 PM |
This loudness war is complete nonsense in my opinion, the sound quality just suffers from this. There are just limits, if you go beyond those limits then somethng positive (a loud and powerfull production) will just turn into distorted noise, and this is definitely something that I don't want. The new Metallica is a good (or should I say bad) example, the production is horrible in my humble opinion, it is distorted, clipping, it just doesn't sound good. I can't imagine that Rick Rubin did this mix without the approval of the band, Lars and James are control freaks after all, so I guess they wanted it to sound like this, but well, as I said, in my opinion it is completely over the top.
The origin of this is the attempt to make the album as loud and powerful as possible, so if you play your album after somebody elses, yours will sound much more powerful. I don't see anything bad in this, we also try to make our albums soundpowerful, but as I said, there is a limit for this. But in todays scene a lot of bands or producers don't seem to care about clipping and distortion on albums anymore... sad. The funnny thing is that this loudness war is not only going on in the studio, I have also seen many many bands that played so incredibly loud on stage... and the effect is the same, if you go beyond a certain volume during a concert the sound will become bad. Again, BG shows are also loud, I guess a rock show or metal show has to be at a certain volume, but I don't have to be in the guiness book of world records when it comes to the volume -------------------- Guitars: various Gibson Les Pauls / Gibson J 45
Amps: Mesa Boogie Tripple Rectifier / Triaxis / 2:90 Poweramp / Rectocabs Effects: Rocktron Intellifex / Rocktron Xpression Homepage: www.marcussiepen.com www.blind-guardian.com Check out my video lessons! |
|
|
||
|
|
|
Oct 7 2008, 04:24 PM |
Haha, don't worry, we will for sure avoid any clipping on our albums And about gigs, I also want a certain volume during a show, as you said it is part of the atmosphere of a metal concert. I have once seen Slayer and they were so silent that you could easily talk to each other while they were playing, and no matter how good they might have played, it was a rather lame show. On the other hand I have also seen Mashine Head and they were so incredibly loud that I watched them for about 10 seconds before I decided to go backstage again and warm up for our show...
-------------------- Guitars: various Gibson Les Pauls / Gibson J 45
Amps: Mesa Boogie Tripple Rectifier / Triaxis / 2:90 Poweramp / Rectocabs Effects: Rocktron Intellifex / Rocktron Xpression Homepage: www.marcussiepen.com www.blind-guardian.com Check out my video lessons! |
|
|
||
|
|
|
Oct 8 2008, 10:49 AM |
Yup, californication was the first album that went way too far, at least teh first one that I noticed about. I think it was also produced by Rubin, wasn't it? Maybe he likes this... well, I don't.
About the sound on open airs and in venues, we don't use different sounds, we know exactly how we want to sound when we play live, and this is the sound that we try to deliver to the fans, no matter if we play a venue or a festival. Playing open air makes it more difficult sometimes to get this sound though, if it is very windy for example the wind just blows away the sound (yeah, I know, it sounds stupid, but it is like that), on the other hand you don't have to face unwanted delays coming back from venue walls. About your Opeth experience, I guess when you saw them in venues they were headlining, so they could do a soundcheck, while on the festival they were not headlining, therefor they didn't have a soundcheck. Without doing a proper check you will always sound bad for at least some songs, if you have a good crew they can work on this during the first couple of songs, but without your own crew you would be completely lost in such moments. -------------------- Guitars: various Gibson Les Pauls / Gibson J 45
Amps: Mesa Boogie Tripple Rectifier / Triaxis / 2:90 Poweramp / Rectocabs Effects: Rocktron Intellifex / Rocktron Xpression Homepage: www.marcussiepen.com www.blind-guardian.com Check out my video lessons! |
|
|
||
|
|
|
Oct 9 2008, 10:49 AM |
Well the local equipment and PA play a role too of course, a soundcheck is not always a guarantee for a good sound.
-------------------- Guitars: various Gibson Les Pauls / Gibson J 45
Amps: Mesa Boogie Tripple Rectifier / Triaxis / 2:90 Poweramp / Rectocabs Effects: Rocktron Intellifex / Rocktron Xpression Homepage: www.marcussiepen.com www.blind-guardian.com Check out my video lessons! |
|
|
||
|
|
|
Oct 9 2008, 11:06 AM |
Lol, nice way of advertising yourself
-------------------- Guitars: various Gibson Les Pauls / Gibson J 45
Amps: Mesa Boogie Tripple Rectifier / Triaxis / 2:90 Poweramp / Rectocabs Effects: Rocktron Intellifex / Rocktron Xpression Homepage: www.marcussiepen.com www.blind-guardian.com Check out my video lessons! |
|
|
||
|
|
|
Oct 9 2008, 04:32 PM |
yeah, that might help
-------------------- Guitars: various Gibson Les Pauls / Gibson J 45
Amps: Mesa Boogie Tripple Rectifier / Triaxis / 2:90 Poweramp / Rectocabs Effects: Rocktron Intellifex / Rocktron Xpression Homepage: www.marcussiepen.com www.blind-guardian.com Check out my video lessons! |
|
|
||