[Eastwick]

I was reading around and came over this article. I've heard of this "loudness war" phenomenon earlyer, but have not linked it to Bon Jovi.

However, when I think about it, Bon Jovi has been attacked by it.
I've always said that the biggeset problem with HAND (the album) is the production, the sound. It all sound like a big wall, with little room for small details. It just sound so overproduced. So does Bounce. I don't think the same about Crush. Crush is just produced weird (Next 100 Years anyone...).

When you listen to HAND it's so "loud" and has this fat sound, I've never liked it.
So, I came to think about this, when I read about loudness war. I'm no producer expert, but I can hear what's good and what's bad produced.
HAND is not good, either is Bounce.

Is this war the problem?

Read more about it here and decide yourself!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loudness_war

[Mongoose]

It's on wiki - thus it's shite

[kenobi_on_a_prayer]

Am I right in assuming it's a production technique that developed in response to the growth of mp3s? Feel free to shoot me down if I'm wrong. I'm certainly no expert on dynamic range compression (and I'm half deaf anyway). But I do seem to play my CDs at a much lower level than most of my friends for whatever reason. And I think if you reduce the dynamics you're limiting your ability to express feeling (at least to anyone who notices).

Here's what Obie thinks though.

question
Hi Obie,you might remember me from my useless and totally unimportant questions on dynamic range and "industry standard" of the audio compression.

I know that this question won't be published on this site,hell,it might get me banned....but what the f***,here's a word of advice from an amateur music engineer to a highly dignified and an experienced one,granted you guys have to screw the hell out of cd's dynamic range to make them sound "good" and "loud" perfect for the car music systems & icraps...BUT..why oh why did you people(I'm not blaming this solely on you)had to totally (digitally)sodomize the dvd audio?!...

I mean 'have a nice day' dvd-audio(.mlp/.aob,AUDIO_TS folder)portion of the disc(yes,it can be decrypted and saved on a HD)...the so called "advanced resolution 48Khz/24bit"...a joke right...why are the damn front channels compressed like cd's....-10 to -12DB approx...whilst the rear and the center channels have full dynamic range(-16 to -21 approx)...damn if you wanted the front channels to sound loud,you people could have kept the front channels as loud as possible without clipping/brickwall limiting...even a freeware can do that!!

After all it was a DualDisc and not some cheap compressed sound on a plastic(aka CD's) edition...very disappointed,no wonder the sales are going down every year.

some cd's/dvd's should come with a yellow sticker that says "WARNING DIGITALLY SODOMIZED CRAP IN "ADVANCED RESOLUTION",AUDIOPHILES & MUSIC LOVERS,STAY AWAY!!!",this is certainly one of them along with the Bon Jovi remasters,Undiscovered soul(98 edition)and a lot others....
Asked by jaskaranjwbj on July 5, 2008 at 8:04am


answer
YAWNNNNN, oh sorry....I dozed off there for a minute. Well here's what I think (and my thoughts don't really carry much weight in the universe)I think you should come up outta the basement and go out in the fresh air and throw a football around,....or go to a baseball game....or take a ride on an old V-twin motorcycle(classic sound even though it has lots of natural compression) orrrrr wrench on a cool old hot rod or musclecar and enjoy what this world has to offer. Wait....even better, take all that anger and pent up frustration and go to a local organization that helps people whose lives are in a bad place and put that energy to good use. Ya know there are people who have suffering and pain in their lives every day, some wondering if they will be able to feed the family or where will they be living. There are people who are in very dangerous places around the world trying to do their jobs and there are people who have dedicated their lives to make this planet a better place for everyone here and for them, compression on a CD really doesn't matter that much in the over all scheme of things. So go give a hand up to somebody who needs it and I'm sure after you do that the compression thing won't matter so much to you either. Besides , it's really about the songs and the message and the emotional connection with the listener...not as much about the technical stuff. Besides, the stuff you record and mix can be done without any compression and all will be Okay. See your comments did get posted. Whew, now I'm tired.
Answered by Obie on July 6, 2008 at 11:02pm

[Chica Guacamole]

Could someone please clarify? I have no idea what it's going on about :S

[JJx23]

Originally Posted by Mongoose

It's on wiki - thus it's shite

I wouldn't call everything on Wikipedia sh*t. I mean there is a lot of information on there to begin with, so the odds of there being crap content is higher, but I have researched before on Wiki and must say that the content is great (at least from what I have seen).

Interesting find. Loudness war... New to me.

Regards,

Jason F.

[Eastwick]

Originally Posted by Mongoose

It's on wiki - thus it's shite

Ok, first of all:
I heard that HANDs production sucked long before I'd even heard of this "loudness war".

Second: Ok, so wiki's not 100% correct all the time, but you can't deny this war. We're a lot of people who hears it on diffrent albums.
No matter what wiki says, people can still hear...
Paul McCartneys - Memory Almost Full and Duffys Rockferry are famous for their crap sound! So I'm not bringing a selfmade theory here.

[jade4jovi]

Originally Posted by Chica Guacamole

Could someone please clarify? I have no idea what it's going on about :S

Yeah, I don't get it either.

They want to be louder than each other? Why?

[Eastwick]

Originally Posted by kenobi_on_a_prayer

Am I right in assuming it's a production technique that developed in response to the growth of mp3s? Feel free to shoot me down if I'm wrong. I'm certainly no expert on dynamic range compression (and I'm half deaf anyway). But I do seem to play my CDs at a much lower level than most of my friends for whatever reason. And I think if you reduce the dynamics you're limiting your ability to express feeling (at least to anyone who notices).

Here's what Obie thinks though.

Thanks for the post! Alltough Obies answer was totaly worthless He's not saying anything about the sound and compression. Just the famous Joviline "life your life".
I wonder how many times we Jovi fans must be told this? Are we stupid or something?

[Mongoose]

My estimation of Obie has just gone through the roof.

There are people who are in very dangerous places around the world trying to do their jobs and there are people who have dedicated their lives to make this planet a better place for everyone here and for them, compression on a CD really doesn't matter that much in the over all scheme of things.

Well said that man.

[kenobi_on_a_prayer]

Originally Posted by jade4jovi

Yeah, I don't get it either.

They want to be louder than each other? Why?

Sounds "better" when you listen to it as a compressed file format like an mp3... I think. (Someone who knows what they're talking about can fill in the blanks).