Okay, so technically the Loudness War began a looooong time ago.

I was recently interviewed for a featured article on this because of my connection with TurnMeUp.org. More on that in a moment.

If this whole “Loudness War” thing is unfamiliar to you, here’s the quick and dirty from Wikipedia:

The trend of increasing loudness as shown by waveform images of Something by The Beatles mastered on CD four times since 1983.

“This phenomenon can be observed in many areas of the music industry, particularly broadcasting and albums released on CD and DVD. In the case of CDs, the war stems from artists’ and producers’ desires to create CDs that sound as loud as possible, or louder than CDs from competing artists or recording labels.

“However, as the maximum amplitude of a CD is at a fixed level, once that level has been reached, the overall loudness can only be increased by a combination of dynamic range compression and make-up gain. This is done by applying an increasingly high ratio of compression to the dynamic range of the recording and then increasing the gain of the recording until the peaks have reached maximum. Certain extreme uses of dynamic range compression can introduce distortion or clipping to the waveform of the recording.”

Here’s a video that also explains the Loudness War in a very quick and easy manner:

Now we come to the self-serving part of this post.

A while back, Charles Dye, John Ralston and I founded http://TurnMeUp.org as way for an artist to fight back against the loudness trend and release a dynamic record if they so choose.

I was recently interviewed on the subject by David Sason of Bohemian.com and the it’s now out. Here’s the beginning of the interview with a link to the rest of it. Thanks for the great story David!

It’s called “soundcheck” on the iPod. On some television sets, its name is “steady sound.” Today, virtually every electronic entertainment device has some sort of built-in volume control, seeking to level the increasingly jarring fluctuation in the loudness of audio or video content in the 21st century. “What’s probably most noticeable to people is how loud a commercial is on television when it comes on,” says Allen “Big Al” Wagner, recording industry veteran and proprietor of Big Toe Studio in Vancouver, Wash. “That’s the same technology being used to make music louder.”

As the cofounder of Turn Me Up!, Wagner, along with engineer-producer Charles Dye and rock musician John Ralston, is trying to counter a trend that’s quickly entering the cultural lexicon via a dramatic term: the “loudness wars,” a moniker that aptly describes the aggressiveness with which the loudness race has progressed and the destructive effect it’s had on the audio arts. Whether rock, hip-hop or jazz, music is roaring like never before. Turn Me Up!–the name tells listeners what to do with quieter, more dynamic albums–aims to hush the blast.

“It’s the equivalent of someone screaming everything they say,” says Wagner. “Imagine taking a painting and saying, ‘It’s not bright enough, so let’s take the Mona Lisa and go over it with all day-glo colors so that all the colors scream, all the time.”

Go to the rest of the article at Bohemian.com »

“Begun, The Loudness War Has.” is a post from: Home Recording Studio Guru

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Earlier this week I was asked a question via Twitter (by @hackerhaus) about which version of McDSP’s Analog Channel was worth buying (there are basically two, Analog Channel Native and Analog Channel LE). After replying with my take on the matter, it reminded me of my own story of how I first came to know about Analog Channel.

I believe it was the winter of 2000 . . . {cue Wayne’s World flashback effect}

My mixes on my new Pro Tools rig sucked. No matter what I did, there was that certain something I just couldn’t seem to achieve. “It must be me,” I thought. “I’m just never gonna’ be good at this. I might as well give up.”

And then my creative life changed forever.

The first time I heard about, and saw McDSP’s Analog Channel was in the Charles Dye’s instructional DVD, “Mix It Like A Record.” He had it strapped across the stereo mix bus for the purpose of adding analog-style saturation to the digital mix bus. He was actually driving into it without overloading and digital clipping.

This was my first step towards becoming happy with the sound of my mixes in Pro Tools. Up until then I was chasing something that was always just out of my reach. I have no doubt that I probably would never have reached it on my own.

While it’s not a silver bullet, this very cool plugin is certainly very powerful and valuable.

As I mentioned, there are two versions available: Analog Channel Native (included in the Classic Pack bundle – $795.00; occasionally available on special by itself for $295.00) and Analog Channel LE (included in the Project Studio bundle – $295.00; occasionally available on special by itself for $79.00).

There is a significant difference between the LE version and its bigger brother. Here’s the breakdown on each straight from McDSP:

Analog Channel Native

McDSP Analog Channel AC1

Analog Channel is actually 2 plug-ins:

• AC1 – Emulates analog channel amplifier circuits

• AC2 – Emulates analog tape machines

The AC1 configuration acts as a digital pre-amp allowing even excessive amounts of gain without digital distortion. A drive control determines where the audio “sits” in the saturation/compression region, and even the attack and release times of the distortion character are adjustable.

McDSP Analog Channel AC2

Features:

• Library of presets emulating analog mixing systems
• Real-time display of saturation curves and calibrations
• Analog Saturation Modeling
• Double precision processing
• Ultra low latency
• Mono and stereo versions

Analog Channel LE

Analog Channel LE features the Playback Head control from the TEC Award nominated original Analog Channel.

I think it’s obvious that the LE version is a MUCH younger brother (maybe third cousin twice removed) of the venerable Native edition. If you want that signature analog-style saturation as well as a full-featured tape machine emulator (albeit not as aggressive as DUY Tape or Massey Plugins TapeHead), there really is only one choice, Analog Channel Native.

Whenever they run the special where you can buy it on its own for $295.00, grab it.

If you have any questions or would like further info feel free to e-mail me or leave a comment.

http://mcDSP.com

McDSP Analog Channel – Analog-Style Saturation On The Mix Bus is a post from: Home Recording Studio Guru

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