Most of you have probably heard of the loudness war. For those who haven’t, it refers to the on-going competition between some artists, record labels and managers to produce the loudest sounding tracks, usually in the belief that it will eventually result in higher record sales. Perceived loudness and dynamics are a very important issue when it comes to mastering, and mixing, tracking, producing and everything music related for that matter.

To achieve a record that is perceived as particularly ‘loud’, the track will usually end up with a narrow dynamic range (ie the difference between the loud and soft elements of the music is relatively small) and often have a lot of frequency content around those that our ears are most sensitive to. Some tracks will take much more kindly to being processed in the necessary manner to achieve this sound, whereas others will suffer.

Typically, musicians use dynamic range to evoke emotion…imagine Beethoven’s work all being played at the same volume..it just wouldn’t have the same impact. In modern music, tracks that have been made to sound ‘ ultra-loud’ often lack impact on the chorus or drop and have little punch throughout the track. Keeping a track punchy requires a certain amount of dynamic range between the various instruments and sounds. The relationship between the vocals, instruments, drums and bass needs breathing space to be punchy, or else it will end up as a wall of sound. Take a hypothetical rock track, hip hop track, dance track, or anything else for that matter…you crank up the volume and you want to feel those drums hit you where it hurts! If it has been mixed or mastered in such a way that the drum transients have been squashed and the rest of the track brought up to a similar level, it can end up as a constant noise which after a short amount of time can become fatiguing on the ears. If the volume is then adjusted by the listener to cope with this extra noise, the track can actually end up being quieter and sounding somewhat weaker.

A lot of mastering is about compromise. One process, while beneficial to one part of the track, can easily become detrimental to another. For example, EQ-ing a track to reduce some low-mid frequency ‘mud’ can sometimes cause a vocal to sound thin, so a certain compromise needs to be drawn. It is the same when it comes to perceived loudness and dynamic range. In a perfect listening environment, there would be no outside noise, the room would be perfectly treated and the playback system would be extremely accurate. But we all know, for most listeners, this usually isn’t the case. We listen to music in our cars, on iPods, at work, in the kitchen…and for most of us, rarely in an ‘ideal’ listening environment. So this needs to be reflected in the mastered track…it should sound good when played alongside a similar track, whatever environment it is likely to be played in.

All radio stations have a certain processing chain that audio travels through before it is broadcast. For most stations, this includes dynamics processing. They are aware that radio is often listened to in situations where there is a lot of background noise, so dynamics are controlled to give a flat overall sound. Some use more compression than others. Due to the nature in which the processing works, tracks that already have little dynamic range, can actually sound weak, lifeless and quieter than those that retain a certain amount of dynamics. So by producing a loud master, it won’t necessarily sound louder, or better on the radio.

So again, we come back to compromise. The majority of the time we need a track that will sound good on all playback systems. We have already established that radio already has its own ‘mastering’ chain, so producing an overly loud master is not necessary in this context. However, music is listened to on a huge variety of media. Spotify and iTunes (amongst others) already have certain algorithms which try to match the perceived loudness of tracks, so that volume doesn’t need to be adjusted regularly, especially if you’re using the shuffle function. Soundcloud, Myspace and Youtube are also very popular media platforms on which music is listened to. Obviously you do not want tracks to sound quiet when demo’d alongside something similar, but it should also be noted that tracks that have been processed for extreme loudness can contain more negative artefacts when converted to the file formats these platforms use.

So, while loudness and dynamics are a very important issue in modern music, it seems they are somewhat misunderstood. From personal experience, a lot of people are scared off by the issue, and ‘just to be on the safe side’ they opt for a master that needs to sound as loud as so and so. This article is not intended to disregard the fact that impact and first impressions are important, but more to help people understand exactly how a loud master might affect the rest of the track. A certain amount of perceived loudness is usually necessary, but often ‘ultra-loud’ is not needed and does more harm than good.

Before a track is processed in mastering to be ‘ultra-loud’, the mix and arrangement needs to be able to handle it  (see previous article.) There are various processes which can then follow to boost the apparent loudness of a mix. I say apparent, because the highest peak can only be 0dbfs, so we have to try and make the track appear louder overall. Often, the track will be Eq’d (if necessary) so that the frequency balance is tilted slightly towards those that our ears are most sensitive to. Sometimes certain types of saturation/distortion can help create harmonics that are not already in the track and exaggerate these ‘loud’ frequencies, if needs be. The dynamic range can then be reduced, allowing the gain to be raised, bringing up the overall level of the track. Whilst the loudest parts, (often the drum transients) will have been reduced somewhat, the quieter parts will have gained in level, thus increasing the overall perceived volume. Compressors, limiters and clipping are typically used to achieve this. By clipping I am referring to pushing certain high quality analogue to digital convertors into overdrive. Most convertors will have a negative effect on the sound, but some high end convertors can sound much better than alternative methods of reducing dynamic range, such as digital limiting. This method can keep transient information relatively intact, but it comes at the price of distortion if pushed too far. At low levels however, this distortion can sometimes sound relatively pleasing and help add to the overall loudness of the track. When I am asked to do a particularly loud master, typically the digital limiters at the end of the chain will be producing no more than 1db of gain reduction, with the loudness coming from a combination of EQ, saturation, compression and clipping.

So by understanding the process of how a ‘loud’ record is produced, we hope you are able to make a more informed decision on how loud a record needs to be. Sometimes, it IS exactly what the track is asking for, and when this is the case, we know exactly what to do to make it shine! However, in other situations, it is not necessarily going to get the best out of the track, so it is worth bearing in mind the possible negative side effects that might occur. For those of you who want a loud version as well as one retaining the dynamics of the mix, we can provide this for only an extra £10 on top of the normal fee (per track,) giving you the flexibility to use the different version where you feel appropriate. We also offer a free mix evaluation, so we can advise on how the mix will affect the final master and whether any changes, if possible, need to be made in the mix.

And remember, every playback system out there has a volume control, so don’t be scared to do what’s best for your music without worrying about loudness!

I quite often get asked to make a track as loud as xyz. There are certain processes involved in mastering which are used to make the record appear loud, and some tracks benefit from these processes better than others. A track can only be pushed so far before negative artifacts start to affect the sound, and some tracks can be pushed much further than others. This is down to how the track is arranged, recorded/produced and mixed. Here are some to tips to achieving a well balanced, clean mix that will allow your track to have high ‘loudness potential.’ They are by no means exhaustive, just some helpful hints which you can choose to use or lose!

1) PLAN your arrangement from the outside so that each instrument or sound has it’s own place in the mix.  Instruments fighting for the same frequency content will become blurred and unclear. Decide which aspects of your mix are important. Is it a vocal based track? Then try to fit the other parts around the vocal and give it some room.Our ears our most sensitive to those between 2-5khz, so bear this in mind if you are mixing for loudness and make sure yuou have enough content here. Get it right at the beginning. Fixing it in the mix (or master) is always a compromise, so make sure you spend plenty of time getting the right sounds in production and recording.

2) UTILISE the entire fequency range and stereo field. Pan hard left and hard right, have the important aspects you want to be heard at the front of the mix. Wide mixes will sound much louder and fuller.

3) CONTROL individual tracks and busses. Get rid of any unwanted noise using eq or high pass filters (but be carefull not to make your mix sound too thin.) Compress and even limit tracks/busses if they need it to try and maintain dynamic control throughout the track. If you do have sounds that are fighting for space, use eq, panning, reverb/delay to create new space for them. Sometimes if your kick and bass are fighting for the same space, having the kick trigger the sidechain of a compressor on your bass track can help it poke through and create a pumping effect if desired. Kicks with a lot of frequency content from 200-400hz often interfere with an electric bass, so a little EQ dip here might be all that’s needed. Getting your kick and bass to sit well together is often the hardest, yet most important part of the mixing process. Don’t be afraid to carve the sound of your kick using EQ so it fits around your bass. Try not to let the low mid range get clogged up. Often, the punch of a snare, lower vocal frequencies, guitars, bass and synths can all be adding to congestion in this area, so decide what needs to be most prominant here and eq the rest to fit around this.Too much going on here and you have a dense, unlcear, congested mix, too little and you have a thin, weka and possible harsh sounding mix, so pay close attention here.

4) KEEP IT SIMPLE. Busy arrangments and mixes will be much harder to get sounding loud. If your planning a loud track you should be aware that reverbs and delays will be accentuated. Keep their use to a minimum, eq or use high pass filters to stop them clogging up the low midrange of your mix. You can even use the sidechain input on a compressor, so that the reverb/delay is compressed when the vocal is playing, and released when it stops, for instance.

5) HOW LOUD DOES IT NEED TO BE? As with everything in music, loudness comes at a price. Decide what your track needs, if you really want the chorus to have impact, you can’t have it loud all the way through. Do you want a wall of sound or do you want to keep plenty of punch? If it’s the latter, be careful not to overcompress, especially on the drums and bass. And whatever you do, don’t use compression or limiting on the master bus to achieve loudness, this will only make the mastering process harder and most probably less effective. If you use compression on your master bus for a specific effect, it’s probably best to provide the mastering engineer with 2 versions of your track, one with and one without the extra processing.