Ableton Forum

If you're into the technical stuff, get Mastering Audio by Bob Katz and read his discussion of this. One of the most fascinating parts of the book to me was the appendix where the processors used by radio stations were discussed, how they work and what happens when you run hypercompressed music through them.

Besides the article on replay gain, wikipedia also has one (still needs some work) entitled loudness war which discusses this.

An interesting experiment is to rip some of your favorite old and new CDs into a good audio editor (I use Sound Forge, I'm sure Audition, Peak and Wavelab can all do this) and get the statistics for the RMS level of a track. I did this on some tracks from a recent P.O.D. CD and they were about -9 db; taking my old White Zombie La Sexorcisto CD which was balls out heavy metal and it only measured I think -14 db. If you didn't change the volume knob, the P.O.D. track would sound much louder than the WZ one. But of course you're going to set the knob where you like it, so at the same listening level guess which sounds better? I'm not saying the WZ CD is any model of brilliant mastering, just showing the gradual degradation of this issue over several years. Although I haven't actually measured it, the Chili Pepper's Californication record is a terrible example of one where all the knobs on were turned up to 10 in mastering. On top of that, the radio station processors can be adjusted for good sound, but again station managers simply turn up all those knobs to 10. I've heard songs where the last note fades out on the record, but on the radio the level STAYS THE SAME and background noise just comes up. It's an eerie effect.
Of course, almost no radio stations play much music anymore and the ones that do just play cringeworthy stuff in my opinion...

had to drive across TX this past week, listened to alot of bad radio. made me realize that audio quality has been declining for a long time, since roughly the late 70s. you listen to jazz from 50s/60s, incredibly warm. you listen to vox from 60s like beatles or ray, incredibly warm, great sound. good sound continues through the 70s (even things like steve miller greatest hits has great analog sound, floyd, whatever classic thing (though carly simon's vox on you're so vain just didn't match up with stuff from 60s)), and then it all falls apart beginning in 80s, trend continues to worsen as everything's too effected, digital brittle, etc.

my question: is it as simple as giving the lead vox a full quarter of the 2 inch tape on an old four track? that, in combination with the old mics and valve compressors and whatnot? even more to the point, how in the digital world do you get even close to that quality? outboard gear? t-racks? vintage warmer? not even sure it can be done, but it's a damn shame. i suspect much of the reason classic rock or jazz or country or whatever is so beloved is that it quite literally sounds better. the tones are less harsh and abrasive, more what our ears understand or want (even for harder things -- that is, i think korn would benefit from being produced like sabbath, but not the other way round).

Actually I think the sound in movies are quite good with a lot of detail and dynamics, especially blu ray. But I think the standardized master level for films is important (I think it's 75 dB), and that the systems that reproduce the sound at cinemas or well designed home cinemas are more or less standardized or calibrated. It wouldn't be that hard to agree on a mastering level for music or just put the mastering level in the id3 tag for the music player to automatically adjust

^re movie sound, +1 -- this seems where all the really talented and textured stuff is happening.

re: neb's OP, I am pretty sure timothyallan has a lot to do with it

Yep, movies are great One favorite of mine is the intro of Vozvrashcheniye. I've been the sound designer/mixer for one documentary, but would be fun to do more experimental stuff in a long movie.