Morrissey and the Loudness Wars

[MozIsGod]

Being that the Loudness Wars (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loudness_war) is a hot topic concerning the sound quality of today's music, will it potentially affect Morrissey? I've heard some good remasters lately and some pretty bad ones, so it seems as if it's a mixed bag depending on the label.

Generally speaking, most of Morrissey's albums have been unaffected by this trend. Despite Quarry and Ringleader's criticized production, I still feel that it was mastered with a good amount of dynamics in tact. It really seemed as if the Loudness Wars started to effect Morrissey with the release of the Greatest Hits compilation, which I remember was criticized due to the amount of compression on it. Even Years of Refusal, which doesn't sound terribly compressed, leans a bit towards the flat and dull side of things. But YOR was recorded and mastered in late 2007/early 2008, and we all know things can change within the music industry in a couple of years.

Do you think that this trend will affect any future studio albums, or even the Bona Drag remaster? I really hope not, but I'll probably be wrong.

 

[georgejallen]

Is this condemnation of 'loudness' just a personal opinion? If in fact the Greatest Hits compilation was particularly 'loud', that was the decision of the producer in charge of remastering. Just because the people in this article disapprove of 'loudening' the music, it doesn't mean that everybody does. Clearly the producer of the Greatest Hits compilation thought it made a beneficial different to Morrissey's singles.

Is your personal opinion that the remastered versions in Greatest Hits weren't very good, MozIsGod?

 

[MozIsGod]

Is this condemnation of 'loudness' just a personal opinion? If in fact the Greatest Hits compilation was particularly 'loud', that was the decision of the producer in charge of remastering. Just because the people in this article disapprove of 'loudening' the music, it doesn't mean that everybody does. Clearly the producer of the Greatest Hits compilation thought it made a beneficial different to Morrissey's singles.

I don't necessarily "condemn" loud albums. I've heard plenty of such albums, including Radiohead's In Rainbows, which do sound very good. However, these types of albums are increasingly becoming brickwalled to the point that many of the dynamics have been squashed. In my experience, two important factors determine whether a "loud" album will adhere to this philosophy: the label and the mastering engineer himself. Things start to fold when the parties involved add much unneeded compression and overdo the use of limiting. Unfortunately, this process affects many music releases today.

Since the introduction of the Loudness Wars, the mastering engineer is given limited options when it comes to perfecting his craft. Instead of trying to make the product sound as best they can, they're given a limited number of set limits dictated by the label. If the engineer disagrees or fails to satisfy these standards, he'll get fired. Many mastering engineers disagree with these policies, but they simply need to adhere to them in order to have a job. Knowing that these guys love what they do, I'm sure it tears them up inside having to play by company rules and brickwall a music release. It's sort of like taking your car to the shop and telling the mechanics how to fix the problem. The mastering engineer is gifted at his job for a reason, and IMO he should be the one who determines how the eventual music will sound. Here's an interesting link: http://www.gearslutz.com/board/mastering-forum/151618-bob-ludwig-must-hate-his-job.html

Is your personal opinion that the remastered versions in Greatest Hits weren't very good, MozIsGod?

I think they're average, but it probably could have been much better. The older songs don't sound noticeably better and it's really pointless remastering songs from 2004 and 2006. Here's an interesting tidbit on the quality of the GH release. http://www.stevehoffman.tv/forums/showpost.php?p=3260944&postcount=46

 

[bastowe]

This is an interesting topic...

From what I understand, the whole practice of compressing the life out of albums didn't arise from aesthetic considerations but from commercial ones. Super compressed albums were made that way so that they could grab listeners' attention in a world increasingly filled with chaotic ambient noise. In other words, some studio bigwigs decided that they wanted the latest Sugababes cd to be the LOUDEST noise at the local shopping mall. Compresto! But the problem is that compression not only robs music of dynamics but it also exhausts one's hearing. I find that I have a hard time listening to a super compressed cd all the way through before my nerves go all jangly. Like the first Arctic Monkeys record. Listening to it felt like being yelled at!

Anywho, sorry for the ramble. I did feel like Years of Refusal was over-compressed at points.

 

[Mars_Rover]

Johnny Marr discussed this topic when the Smiths remasters were released... oh, how long has it been now, 2 years ago? He is very much on the side of keeping the dynamics true to the original sound, not loudening everything.