I Want it loud and I want it now!

Well as we go further into the digital age, the loudness wars continue to increase. It's all about who has the loudest music on the planet and the little nuances that once defined music are long gone. Oh how I wished they would come back. One of the best mixed and mastered CD's of all time was Ice Cube's Amerikkka's Most Wanted. The CD sounded great, clean high's and banging lows. It wasn't the loudest CD, but it was the cleanest and best sounding i had ever heard. The next best CD was Dr. Dre's Chronic, it too had the right balance between loudness and clarity.

Today's, artists want it loud. They don't care about clarity. What ever happened to just turning up your own volume on your CD player, radio, stereo, computer or whatever you choose to listen to your music on? These days we are lazy, we want it loud and we want it now!

I think we should not sacrifice clarity for volume. I am all for a loud master but once you start to hit the ceiling and the dynamics are lost, the music sounds stale, fatigued and bound. It also introduces distortion a lot of times. We have to get back to clarity if music is to ever sound clear again. We must have balance.

Now the customer is always right, If you want it loud, I can do that and I will give you what you want. But, for my own songs I am going back to the old school and keep it clean and mean; loudness has to take a back seat and I will reach for the knob and turn it up on the radio!