The Loudness War
What is The Loudness War?
The Loudness War in Audio Mastering refers to the practice of raising the level of the audio in the digital domain by severe compression for the purpose of sounding louder than other audio on the same platform. The implementation of this practice causes distortion and detriment to the quality of the audio recordings, and is driven by any number of people from the artist's camp. It is accurate to say that greed is the main motivator in this little war. Hopefully this will be clear in the following paragraphs.
The above picture is that of a single movement of a typical orchestral work of the 19th Century (Brahms). The wide dynamic range is clear from the shape of the waveform. Modern music does not have this dynamic range, but this will make it easier to see why music has been compressed in recent decades.
This particular piece is 23 minutes long.
The Dynamic Range is 21.8 dB.
The LKFS or LUFS is -20 dB.
The true peak maximum is -.2 dB.
This would be the maximum that could be fit onto one side of a vinyl disc.
The level would also be about the maximum that could be fit on a vinyl disc.
As it is, it is a faithful reproduction of the experience of hearing it in a concert hall. The dynamics and quality are very accurate and would be appreciated by any fan of the music.
Now let's say that it is transferred to CD for the purpose of gaining a newer audience for this recording. As it stands, it is accurate and satisfying. But the accountant is worried that it needs to be louder because he heard a louder version from another company of the same piece of music, and he is worried that sales might suffer as a result. So he tells the company that they need to remaster it and make it louder. Let's see what happens to the waveform when this is done.
Let's say that our little accountant friend wants it about twice as loud, or an LKFS of -10 dB. Here is what it would look like.
This particular piece is 23 minutes long.
The Dynamic Range is 21.8 dB.
The LKFS or LUFS is -20 dB.
The true peak maximum is -.2 dB.
This would be the maximum that could be fit onto one side of a vinyl disc.
The level would also be about the maximum that could be fit on a vinyl disc.
As it is, it is a faithful reproduction of the experience of hearing it in a concert hall. The dynamics and quality are very accurate and would be appreciated by any fan of the music.
Now let's say that it is transferred to CD for the purpose of gaining a newer audience for this recording. As it stands, it is accurate and satisfying. But the accountant is worried that it needs to be louder because he heard a louder version from another company of the same piece of music, and he is worried that sales might suffer as a result. So he tells the company that they need to remaster it and make it louder. Let's see what happens to the waveform when this is done.
Let's say that our little accountant friend wants it about twice as loud, or an LKFS of -10 dB. Here is what it would look like.
The numbers here are as follows.
The Dynamic Range is 17.3dB.
The LKFS/LUFS number is -10 dB.
The True Peak maximum is -.2dB.
This is an example that should be visual enough to make the point that distortion of waveforms is the result of the Loudness War.
In fact, the damage done by the mastering engineers is substantially worse than this example.
Let's look at one of the biggest albums in the history of recorded music.
This is a track from the original 'Thriller' album...'Billie Jean'.
The Dynamic Range is 17.3dB.
The LKFS/LUFS number is -10 dB.
The True Peak maximum is -.2dB.
This is an example that should be visual enough to make the point that distortion of waveforms is the result of the Loudness War.
In fact, the damage done by the mastering engineers is substantially worse than this example.
Let's look at one of the biggest albums in the history of recorded music.
This is a track from the original 'Thriller' album...'Billie Jean'.
The True Peak level is -1.5 dB.
The LKFS/LUFS level is -16 dB.
There are no clipped samples.
The next picture shows the 25th Anniversary remastered version of the same song.
The True Peak level is +2.5 dB.
The LKFS/LUFS level is -8.1 dB.
52,703 clipped samples Left channel.
61,823 clipped samples Right channel.
or a total of 114,526 clipped samples in the remastered version.
Could it have been much worse?
Let's zoom in and look at the waveforms up close and personal...
First, the original...
First, the original...
Next, the remastered version...
This is a butchered mess of the highest order.
And that to gain 8 dB of level.
I will not bother going into detail here as to how
it could have been done with no clipped samples, because the real problem is changing it at all.
I will include here a chart from elsewhere in this website that shows how and when we got to this place.
And that to gain 8 dB of level.
I will not bother going into detail here as to how
it could have been done with no clipped samples, because the real problem is changing it at all.
I will include here a chart from elsewhere in this website that shows how and when we got to this place.
This is a great overview of how we got here, just from CDs that were in my collection.
Since I did this chart 2 years ago, I will include the charts from the last 2 years, from the Grammy Nominee collections, so you can see if anything has changed in the past 2 years.
Since I did this chart 2 years ago, I will include the charts from the last 2 years, from the Grammy Nominee collections, so you can see if anything has changed in the past 2 years.
So it is obvious that the problem has been around from about 1996 to the present day. There are other issues which are a problem, but here we are just looking at the loudness war. All of the tracks that you see on the list were damaged by bad mastering.
If we had all the platforms require or reset the levels of all tracks to -16 dB, we would be in good shape.
The fact is that several platforms already have established a -16 dB level maximum.
If you have a -16 dB level and -1 dB maximum true peak level requirement for all platforms,
the poorly mastered tracks will be changed from say -6 dB to -16 dB,
but their bad dynamics and sawed off waveforms will be intact,
and the music will not be louder,
but will in fact be less dynamic and will sound less loud.
Broadcast levels for television in Europe and the United States have been required to be set at -23 dB,
so there is a precedent for this.
Despite a climate of countless electronic and technological advancements,
The past 25 years have seen no improvements in the music quality as it has been produced.
If you want to hear well written, well produced music, you usually have to go back to the hits
of the 1970's and very early 1980's.
The loudness war is distorting the music for the purpose of trying to be louder than the competition.
Hopefully you can see that quality has suffered as a result.
In the meantime, mastering engineers with integrity and ability will make masters with the following characteristics.
True Peak level -1 dB
LKFS/LUFS level -16 db
DC Offset 0.000 dB
Clipped Samples 0
RMS level difference for left and right channels less than one dB, better yet less than .1dB.
Equalization curve without obvious flaws
The tracks listed in the charts have met virtually none of these guidelines.
Hopefully this brief tutorial has helped you to understand the reason for and the result of the loudness war in audio mastering.
And give you a desire to create better music for our generation.
If we had all the platforms require or reset the levels of all tracks to -16 dB, we would be in good shape.
The fact is that several platforms already have established a -16 dB level maximum.
If you have a -16 dB level and -1 dB maximum true peak level requirement for all platforms,
the poorly mastered tracks will be changed from say -6 dB to -16 dB,
but their bad dynamics and sawed off waveforms will be intact,
and the music will not be louder,
but will in fact be less dynamic and will sound less loud.
Broadcast levels for television in Europe and the United States have been required to be set at -23 dB,
so there is a precedent for this.
Despite a climate of countless electronic and technological advancements,
The past 25 years have seen no improvements in the music quality as it has been produced.
If you want to hear well written, well produced music, you usually have to go back to the hits
of the 1970's and very early 1980's.
The loudness war is distorting the music for the purpose of trying to be louder than the competition.
Hopefully you can see that quality has suffered as a result.
In the meantime, mastering engineers with integrity and ability will make masters with the following characteristics.
True Peak level -1 dB
LKFS/LUFS level -16 db
DC Offset 0.000 dB
Clipped Samples 0
RMS level difference for left and right channels less than one dB, better yet less than .1dB.
Equalization curve without obvious flaws
The tracks listed in the charts have met virtually none of these guidelines.
Hopefully this brief tutorial has helped you to understand the reason for and the result of the loudness war in audio mastering.
And give you a desire to create better music for our generation.
