Have you ever noticed that when you listen to any modern recording how loud it sounds? Have you ever listened to some vinyl on your stereo system, fail to adjust the volume, and then pop in a CD? After you figure out how to stop the blood flow spewing from your ears you may wonder what that was all about. Your first though may be that it must be the advances in the recorded medium over the years. Good guess, but not quite. What you have just discovered is usually referred to as “The Volume Wars”. Commercial records are becoming hotter and hotter via limiting compression that any and all subtleties are being squashed in hopes of being more likely to “pop” on the radio. This same technology has existed since the early days or recorded sound but was not exploited to the degree that it is today. Sounds to me like the classic story of one guy trying to outdo the other resulting in little good when all is said and done.
On the flip side of this overuse of compression is live sound. Many venues use little in the mix when a small amount can go a long way to even everything up and keep the volume from causing once again the aforementioned bleeding of the ears. In practical use, compression can creat percieved loudness by reducing the overall dynamic range. Far short of crushing the life out of a signal, you can more easily make all the sonic energy sit better with one another and have the overall volume lower without even upsetting the half deaf punk rock drummer in the next band complaining that he can’t hear the band.
In conclusion, a little bit can go a long way, some is better than none, and too much of a good thing can make you bleed. Somehow to me, that all makes perfect sense.
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