CDs and digital music downloads are getting louder and more compressed, and listener's ears are paying the price.

There's a war going on today in the record industry. It's not a fight between East and West Coast rappers. It's not even a battle over illegal downloads.

Instead, it's an ever-escalating contest to see which new CD can be the loudest and most compressed. And the victims are listeners' ears.

Dynamic Range Compression

In an attempt to make songs stand out more and capture listeners' attention, mastering engineers have been making CDs louder and more compressed. Combined with the increasing amount of music that is downloaded in the compressed MP3 format, the details in the music are being lost. The difference in volume between louder and softer passages, known as dynamic range, gives music much of its sonic and emotional impact. And that’s exactly what is being lost in today’s mastering trends.

What’s behind the rush towards louder and more compressed music? Several reasons stand out, including the need to compete with ambient noise in environments such as cars and public places. Also, more people are listening to music as compressed MP3 files on lower-fidelity equipment such as computer speakers and iPods, which can’t reproduce dynamic range as accurately as higher-end audio components.

The History of Louder CDs

Many people believe the loudness war began with Oasis’ 1995 album What’s The Story Morning Glory?, and hasn’t let up since. CDs such as Californication by the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Favorite Worst Nightmare by the Arctic Monkeys are often cited as examples of music that has been rendered almost unlistenable by the push to put the needles into the red. The end result is more often than not a headache.

Increased Volume and Compression on Remastered Music

The trend toward loudness isn’t just affecting newly produced music. With very few exceptions, remastered versions of older music are usually louder and more compressed than their original versions. During this process, engineers often also boost the treble frequencies in an attempt to make the music seem more detailed. Many audiophiles feel that the 1997 remaster of Raw Power, a seminal 1973 album from Iggy Pop and The Stooges, pushed the loudness envelope to ludicrous levels. The overall effect is a sense of fatigue on the listeners’ ears.

The Anti-Volume and Compression Backlash

But not everybody in the music industry is comfortable with the loudness war. Bob Dylan, whose recent album Modern Times is often cited as an example of well-mastered music, told Rolling Stone that he thinks modern albums sound “atrocious.” He added, “they have sound all over them. There's no definition of nothing, no vocal, no nothing, just like … static.”

In fact, an entire movement has sprung up on the web, with many audiophiles calling for an end to the ever-escalating loudness war and a return to more dynamic-sounding records. Even some producers and mastering engineers responsible for the trend are saying that enough is enough. Peter Mew, senior mastering engineer at London’s world-renowned Abbey Road Studios, has suggested that the poor sound quality of today’s music may be partially responsible for the slump in CD sales.

In fact, many discerning listeners are returning to the warmer sound of vinyl records in an effort to fully appreciate the music they love. In the same period that CD sales have been declining, there has been a resurgence in vinyl sales. According to Time magazine, vinyl sales were up 15.4% in 2007 from the previous year.

While no one is arguing that the music industry will revert to its previously dominant format, it’s clear that serious music fans are saying “we want our music back.”

Sources

• Rolling Stone, "The Death of High Fidelity"
• You Tube video on the Loudness War
• "Vinyl Gets Its Groove Back," Time magazine online.