Hello everyone, welcome back to The Life and Times of Mr. Rude. To day I want talk about audio compression and what some in the audio industry are calling "The Loudness War". Today compression of an audio signal is now the norm for almost every track in a recording/mixing session. The novice and beginner are under the assumption that their tracks must be as loud as possible but what they fail to realize is that louder does not always equal better. They do not understand that when you compress a track your messing with that single track (or the mixed 2 tracks) dynamic range. The dynamic range of an instrument is what gives the instrument its sonic and tonal characteristic. When you mess with that via compression/limiting you are essentially taking away the instrument is supposed to sound like naturally. As recording/mixing/mastering engineer it is out goal to capture the natural tone and sonic characteristic of any thing we record whether it be a guitar, bass, or vocal. Although compression is an essential tool for us it is imperative that we don't over do it. Don't fall into the trap of over compression it will just make your tracks sound amateur and to "Loud". I have included a short video that will let you hear what I'm talking about. Thanks again to everyone that views my blog and thanks to all those that post comments, I appreciate it! Until next time, PEACE.
- MR. RUDE-
Solid post. I hate how there's such a big loudness war going on and everything now is turned up to the max. I always say that over compression takes away the "life and soul" of anything it comes across. I remember listening to an old 80's hair band CD in my friends car and how it blew my mind how much more feeling it had put into it compared to the over compressed music out now. It was like night and day......
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