Whispering and shouting
You wouldn’t whisper and shout at the same volume; that would just be silly. Yet, this is what has happened in a lot of modern music – the “quiet parts” aren’t really quiet, and the “anticipated explosive grand finales” become tiny dog farts, which don’t really have any powerful impact; it’s just kind of disgusting, and forgotten after half a second.
Listening to music in noisy cars, listening to music on crappy speakers, listening to YouTube rips – This is what people do, and it’s a tragedy. Why not turn up the volume knob, instead of eliminating the whispering and shouting? Are people afraid of impactful music? Audio-wise, the ’80s were far more metal.
Modern mastering
To illustrate the horrible effects of modern mastering practices, just take Metallica’s recent album Death Magnetic: (click to see full size; top version is the released one, whereas the bottom one was the version included in Guitar Hero.)
The topmost version (#1) *appears* to be louder, but if you turn it down to the same perceived volume at the bottom one (#2), then #2 is going to have far more impactful volume differences. If you then turn them up again equally much with an external volume control, #1 will be a flat line of loudness, whereas #2 will have those lovely awesome impactful volume differences. To me, there’s no doubt which version is the most hardcore. I’ve heard similar things done to ambient music, which is just tragic and ridiculous.
Concerns regarding hearing
On public transportation, I see teenagers and young adults listening to this horribly overcompressed music, using shitty earbuds. Not only does this constant need/addiction for music exposure lessen the music’s value, but I’m also concerned about people’s hearing abilities. Bus wheels cause large amounts of noise, so people turn up their music, exposing their ears to huge amounts of noise, often at a constant volume. In work environments, the same amount of noise would probably lead to hearing protection being mandatory.
Other examples
Here’s a screenshot I’ve taken myself. The top track is “Yelle – Que Veux-Tu (Madeon remix) (you must see the music video)”, and the bottom one is “Whirloop – Salvation Slumberland”. I really love both tracks, they’re both superb modern examples of the great music in their respectives sub-genres of dance music. However, I think there’s little doubt which track has the most impact in terms of volume, and which track my ears would be better off listening to. Madeon’s track isn’t far from having one constant volume, there’s extremely little difference between low and high volume. It’s an amazing tune, but I really don’t like how the calm intro has almost the same volume as when the bass drums kick in. Whirloop’s track has no problems in these areas, and it’s an absolute joy to listen to.
(Click for full size)
Also, see this video which explains the issue better than I can:
Additionally, I’ve touched upon the same topic in the post “Silence“.
ReplayGain
Make sure to look up ReplayGain for your music player, or whatever used to even out volume differences by analysing all the tracks. If it hadn’t been for this technology, I’d be scared half to death when going from Whirloop to Madeon, as shown above. Now however, I just notice how Whirloop’s music is more dynamic in terms of volume, and is less fatiguing.
Find out more here: http://lmgtfy.com/?q=replaygain