Comments on: How Spotify will end the Loudness Wars – Ian Shepherd http://recordproduction.com/blog/2009/10/how-spotify-will-end-the-loudness-wars/ Record Producers, Recording Studios, Equipment Sat, 11 Feb 2012 19:19:53 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.2 By: John http://recordproduction.com/blog/2009/10/how-spotify-will-end-the-loudness-wars/comment-page-1/#comment-795 John Wed, 02 Feb 2011 13:47:58 +0000 http://recordproduction.com/blog/?p=272#comment-795 see if you can connect spotify to facebook and twitter and then have one company controlling everything everyone does... Surely your hunger for world domination is as bad as sony, emi etc. Everyone will hear all of their new music on spotify first? One company at the heart of everything is not good see if you can connect spotify to facebook and twitter and then have one company controlling everything everyone does… Surely your hunger for world domination is as bad as sony, emi etc. Everyone will hear all of their new music on spotify first? One company at the heart of everything is not good

]]> By: Are the Volume Wars Killing Music? Which Side are You On? | Urban Breakz - Music producer blogs | Singer songwriter blogs | Music Resources http://recordproduction.com/blog/2009/10/how-spotify-will-end-the-loudness-wars/comment-page-1/#comment-660 Are the Volume Wars Killing Music? Which Side are You On? | Urban Breakz - Music producer blogs | Singer songwriter blogs | Music Resources Fri, 19 Nov 2010 09:41:47 +0000 http://recordproduction.com/blog/?p=272#comment-660 [...] Shepherd of the RecordProduction.com blog describes the strategy: It adjusts the playback level of all songs so you don’t have to keep [...] [...] Shepherd of the RecordProduction.com blog describes the strategy: It adjusts the playback level of all songs so you don’t have to keep [...]

]]> By: recordpr http://recordproduction.com/blog/2009/10/how-spotify-will-end-the-loudness-wars/comment-page-1/#comment-648 recordpr Mon, 01 Nov 2010 22:50:24 +0000 http://recordproduction.com/blog/?p=272#comment-648 This one is going to run and run! Great blog Ian, hope to post more from you soon :-) This one is going to run and run! Great blog Ian, hope to post more from you soon :-)

]]> By: Ian Shepherd http://recordproduction.com/blog/2009/10/how-spotify-will-end-the-loudness-wars/comment-page-1/#comment-647 Ian Shepherd Mon, 01 Nov 2010 22:07:09 +0000 http://recordproduction.com/blog/?p=272#comment-647 No, you've missed my point. Check out my blogs, you'll find I have a pretty solid grasp of the "Loudness Wars" :-) Let me try again: Because making things sound louder removes all the dynamics, when the replay levels are equalised, more dynamic material will sound better. Spotify and others equalise the replay loudness by default. So the fact that the damage can't be undone is the whole *point* - squashed "loudness casualties" will always sound worse, and I believe eventually people will come to realise this fact, and stop crushing things to begin with. What's the point in squashing them when they sound worse - which they always will, when replaygain is used ? QED ! Hope that helps ? Ian No, you’ve missed my point. Check out my blogs, you’ll find I have a pretty solid grasp of the “Loudness Wars” :-)

Let me try again:

Because making things sound louder removes all the dynamics, when the replay levels are equalised, more dynamic material will sound better. Spotify and others equalise the replay loudness by default.

So the fact that the damage can’t be undone is the whole *point* – squashed “loudness casualties” will always sound worse, and I believe eventually people will come to realise this fact, and stop crushing things to begin with.

What’s the point in squashing them when they sound worse – which they always will, when replaygain is used ? QED !

Hope that helps ?

Ian

]]> By: Adam http://recordproduction.com/blog/2009/10/how-spotify-will-end-the-loudness-wars/comment-page-1/#comment-546 Adam Thu, 12 Aug 2010 14:18:02 +0000 http://recordproduction.com/blog/?p=272#comment-546 I think you have missed the point of what the loudness war is about. Yes everything is getting louder and louder. has been since the 80's and CDs but its the clipping and dynamic range that are considered the main aspects to the loudness war. the fact that you have to turn down your speakers is just an inconvenience. With the volumes so high you lose the ability to have a wide dynamic range which obviously in turn causes a track to be at more-or-less the same volume regardless of whether its a quiet or loud section of the song. Once a track has been recorded and bounced and is loud to the point of clipping there is NOTHING you can do about reclaiming the sound above the clipping unless you go back to the original recording and remove all of the make up gain and dynamic-range compression to return the track back to a dynamically versatile piece of music that is within the limits of peak volume. Normalization and limiting on Spotify is there purely for consumer convenience of not having to play around with their volume control constantly. The quality of the audio is going to remain just as bad because the peaks of the louder sounds are simply not there any more. you cant bring them back with technology. I supose my point is even after reading your entire post you havn't mentioned a single thing that is actually relevant to the Loudness War so don't title an article something it is not about. Thank you. I think you have missed the point of what the loudness war is about.
Yes everything is getting louder and louder. has been since the 80′s and CDs but its the clipping and dynamic range that are considered the main aspects to the loudness war. the fact that you have to turn down your speakers is just an inconvenience.

With the volumes so high you lose the ability to have a wide dynamic range which obviously in turn causes a track to be at more-or-less the same volume regardless of whether its a quiet or loud section of the song.

Once a track has been recorded and bounced and is loud to the point of clipping there is NOTHING you can do about reclaiming the sound above the clipping unless you go back to the original recording and remove all of the make up gain and dynamic-range compression to return the track back to a dynamically versatile piece of music that is within the limits of peak volume.

Normalization and limiting on Spotify is there purely for consumer convenience of not having to play around with their volume control constantly. The quality of the audio is going to remain just as bad because the peaks of the louder sounds are simply not there any more. you cant bring them back with technology.

I supose my point is even after reading your entire post you havn’t mentioned a single thing that is actually relevant to the Loudness War so don’t title an article something it is not about. Thank you.

]]> By: spotify ripper http://recordproduction.com/blog/2009/10/how-spotify-will-end-the-loudness-wars/comment-page-1/#comment-451 spotify ripper Fri, 16 Jul 2010 10:19:31 +0000 http://recordproduction.com/blog/?p=272#comment-451 i like spotify! i like spotify!

]]> By: Andy http://recordproduction.com/blog/2009/10/how-spotify-will-end-the-loudness-wars/comment-page-1/#comment-360 Andy Sat, 29 May 2010 16:25:39 +0000 http://recordproduction.com/blog/?p=272#comment-360 Music is saved! Music is saved!

]]> By: Music http://recordproduction.com/blog/2009/10/how-spotify-will-end-the-loudness-wars/comment-page-1/#comment-167 Music Wed, 17 Feb 2010 11:49:46 +0000 http://recordproduction.com/blog/?p=272#comment-167 Spotify is not available at my country... Spotify is not available at my country…

]]> By: Enigmafon Records http://recordproduction.com/blog/2009/10/how-spotify-will-end-the-loudness-wars/comment-page-1/#comment-124 Enigmafon Records Mon, 01 Feb 2010 16:06:38 +0000 http://recordproduction.com/blog/?p=272#comment-124 Hi Ian, I posted a series of articles i wrote about the future of radio / music, including some NYTimes references. In them, i predict the rise of computerized internet music services like Pandora & last.fm in the US (and Spotify in Europe) and the eventual demise of satellite radio and traditional human programmed radio. Thanks http://enigmafon.com/2009/05/07/the-future-of-radio/ http://enigmafon.com/2009/05/29/the-future-of-radio-part-2/ http://enigmafon.com/2009/06/08/the-future-of-radio-part-3/ Hi Ian,
I posted a series of articles i wrote about the future of radio / music, including some NYTimes references.
In them, i predict the rise of computerized internet music services like Pandora & last.fm in the US (and Spotify in Europe) and the eventual demise of satellite radio and traditional human programmed radio.

Thanks
http://enigmafon.com/2009/05/07/the-future-of-radio/
http://enigmafon.com/2009/05/29/the-future-of-radio-part-2/
http://enigmafon.com/2009/06/08/the-future-of-radio-part-3/

]]> By: Ian Shepherd http://recordproduction.com/blog/2009/10/how-spotify-will-end-the-loudness-wars/comment-page-1/#comment-120 Ian Shepherd Mon, 25 Jan 2010 23:52:40 +0000 http://recordproduction.com/blog/?p=272#comment-120 @VIOZ Oops, sorry - not deliberate, honest ! I don't think there is any kind of consistent attempt to re-master music louder for online use - most record companies couldn't organise a pea soup in a brewery, in my experience ! More seriously, I think it <strong>is</strong> true that if music is re-mastered today, it is pretty much guaranteed to be louder - but this isn't necessarily a bad thing. It's quite possible (and desirable) to get a CD to a higher average level than a straight transfer from analogue tape, without any detrimental audio effects. And, you ca get it quite a bit louder than that and have it sound good. Personally I believe every piece of music has it's loudness "sweet spot" - where it sounds great. Go much louder and it suffers, stay too quiet and it doesn't reach it's potential to sound great on the widest range of equipment and listening environments. As far as Spotify goes, they are just using CDs as sources, and if you disable the normalisation feature there's a wide range of levels present, in all genres. Does that help ? Ian @VIOZ Oops, sorry – not deliberate, honest !

I don’t think there is any kind of consistent attempt to re-master music louder for online use – most record companies couldn’t organise a pea soup in a brewery, in my experience !

More seriously, I think it is true that if music is re-mastered today, it is pretty much guaranteed to be louder – but this isn’t necessarily a bad thing. It’s quite possible (and desirable) to get a CD to a higher average level than a straight transfer from analogue tape, without any detrimental audio effects.

And, you ca get it quite a bit louder than that and have it sound good. Personally I believe every piece of music has it’s loudness “sweet spot” – where it sounds great. Go much louder and it suffers, stay too quiet and it doesn’t reach it’s potential to sound great on the widest range of equipment and listening environments.

As far as Spotify goes, they are just using CDs as sources, and if you disable the normalisation feature there’s a wide range of levels present, in all genres.

Does that help ?

Ian

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