Are the loudness wars fake so record companies can destroy the music?

n80

The problem is that compression doesn’t actually make it sound as good as possible on typical devices and normalization often renders even that ’effect’ pointless.

I don’t know why you’re having so much trouble understanding this because it’s really simple, as @pesky_wabbit explained.

pesky_wabbit

... most people nowadays listen to music in noisy environments, and unless the music is loud and compressed they don‘t get to hear the quiet bits. The profits lie where the majority of consumers exist.
We are a distinct minority.

I know I'm beating a dead horse. And I don't mean to be argumentative. And I very well may be misunderstanding something. I probably am.


But........as has been said before, and not just by me, most of what people hear through ear buds is normalized. As I have played with normalization in iTunes and in Amazon Music nothing gets turned up. Only down. In fact, in Amazon HD normalization has no effect on minimally compressed song. Only on compressed songs. Can't say about other platforms.


In other words, as far as I can tell, the volume of a DR uncompressed song is not increased to match the volume of a DR compressed songs. The volume of compressed songs is decreased. So if that normalization decreases the volume of overly compressed songs there is no real benefit even where there is background noise. The softer bits will be made softer by the normalization. To hear them the volume has to be turned up by the user.....just like with an uncompressed song.

It could be that I'm overestimating the use of normalization. Maybe the 13 year old ear bud listeners uniformly turn it off.

Well, I think it is pretty clear now that uberwaltz, pesky_wabbit and cleeds are part of the conspiracy. ;-)

Yes we fully realise guitarsam is a class A troll but....

In this instance at least the subject matter has some merit and interest.