Hi Bill,
Testing, 1-2-3....are we on here? ...... OK, looks like we're all back....
You have touched upon another of my "pet peeves" in the current music industry. I absolutely HATE the loudness-squashing war which is going on.
For many years I, as I'm sure almost everyone did as well, would work very hard to get the loudest possible final product, within reasonable guidelines of dynamic range and sonic quality. It only made sense that one's album should be of a reasonable loudness, in order to not sound immediately "less than" a competitor's when listened to by programming directors, etc.
HOWEVER, it has gotten completely out of hand. In order to squeeze every last inch of possible loudness on CD, the massive compression and over-equalisation, followed by brickwall limiting, has reduced the available dynamic range to the point of ridiculousness.
Dynamics are one of the key ingredients of the emotion of music. For an analogy, what if a drummer played tom rolls all throughout every track on an album? What if the lead guitarist soloed across the entire song, rather than in a designated place? Nothing would ever appear to be powerful and dynamic, because there would be no reference point to compare to. Neither of these examples allows for any variation, for any quiet spots to be punctuated by louder ones. To me, it is the same thing with the constant mashing of all sound into one big, overloud mess.
When I master, I like to reach a reasonably good level for the loudest peaks, but I NEVER overcompress. When Ted Jensen and I were mastering the Lenny Kravitz "5" album at Sterling, (and I know that Sterling has somewhat of a LOUDNESS reputation; hopefully this will refute that somewhat), we were doing the normal things to most tracks. But on one particular song, Ted first tried a couple of different approaches, but then turned to me and said, "This song needs absolutely nothing done to it; it cannot be improved in mastering." So he unplugged everything in the analogue chain, and ran directly out of the 1/2" tube Ampex reproducer into the converter; no EQ, no compression, no nothing. This to me showed a couple of important points. Firstly, don't DO ANYTHING that isn't necessary, and secondly, it is the mark of a true professional when they can tell you that they aren't able to add anything. Of course, in effect, Ted DID add to the sound by refraining from impeding it; the average engineer might have done something, anything, to "prove his worth."
As far as "educating" clients, or "putting my foot down," it usually doesn't come to any of that. I will work in a professional and empathetic manner with the artist and the music, and earn their respect. At that point, there is little need for lectures or petulance.
I know I haven't really said anything technical here, and that is by design. I really only wanted to make my beliefs known, and to BEG the industry to STOP THE LOUDNESS, for the good of the MUSIC!
Terry