A place on the web that every mix or mastering engineer should be on intimate terms with is www.loudnessrace.net
This site tries to explain the sheer folly of overcompression & heavy brickwall limiting in the never ending quest for "the loudest master".

To briefly summarize, NEVER mix to a hotter level than -3dBFS.
NEVER automatically use a stereo compressor in the mix buss.
NEVER squash all the dynamics out of your mix with horrors such as the L2 or a Finalizer, it does you no good.

The reasons are quite simple - too hot on the master, and you lose all the dynamics of the music and also massively increase the chances of "digital overs" when the resulting CD is played back.
Red Book standards will allow you to raise your levels up to 0dBFS. the problem is that the typical PPM meter found in DAW systems does not tell you the whole story. It only meters up to the point where the signal leaves the DAW. Once this signal is reconstructed in a consumer CD player, the more consecutive samples that are at or close to 0dB the greater the certainty that the transients between those samples will go over 0dBFS.

If this sounds wrong, you can prove it to yourself. Rip any modern CD, and have a good look at the resulting waveform. If it has flat points across the top or bottom of it, then the reconstructed waveform will be distorted.

The easiest way to avoid this is to use one or more of the following options when mixing & mastering:
1/. Do not mix hotter than -3dBFS
2/. Never automatically use a compressor in the mix buss. Once something is compressed, you cannot un-compress it very easily. Leave this for mastering.
3/. Do NOT use brickwall limiters to raise the levels. If, after mastering you do not think it is loud enough for you, then turn up the amplifier. It is what it is for. What you are striving for at a mix is the overall sound, not the overall volume. Ditto in Mastering.
4/. Take a round trip through the analogue domain. You cannot clip like this in analogue.
5/. Do not meter with PPM meters, but use Bob Katz's K-system instead.
K-12 for broadcast
K-14 for Stereo
K-20 for Surround or Classical, or music with a large dynamic range.

Follow these simple rules, and your music will sound better for it.
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www.opusproductions.com
Multichannel Audio Specialists

Very wise words there, good advice.

Now how do we actually convince them all?

That K-system takes some understanding for the novice huh?
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Recording Studio Suntans

The K-System is indeed a bit complex at first, but once you start using it, and set the Caution/Warning levels on the meters correctly (Caution at K 0 and Warning at K 4) then it really does become second nature extremely quickly.
The big trick is to calibrate your monitors correctly in the first place, and then you are simply mixing to a reference level which can be repeated at any studio.

Anything but PPM metering, really!

As for convincing the masses - I have no idea!
For me, as I use RME Audio HDSP 9652, the K-system is built into DigiCheck 4.1 in everything - stereo meter, stereo & phase meter, multichannel meter, everything seems to come out a lot cleaner, plus I can actually turn it up a lot louder than a "traditionally" mastered CD from the last 5-10 years. It simply does not hurt the ears so much.
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www.opusproductions.com
Multichannel Audio Specialists

I agree with this, from the sound engineering perspective. But it's a very tough sell to the industry.

It seems to be true, in my experience, that there is an advantage to a recording feeling louder off the bat. Younger people experience this when they play older CDs and notice how much quieter they are than newer CDs. There's something about sound "jumping" out at you that appeals to listeners, and so it is pushed for by both artists and other industry members.

Even unsigned artists strive to have their demo CDs 'squished' up because they know their chances of catching ears are slim.

I don't master for a living, but I'm sure many who do are either told to this by their customers or employers, or understand the commercial advantage and do it of their own will.

So my question is, how can an ideal of fully preserving dynamics be successfully re-promoted without addressing the reasons for the existing (and well established) practice of striving for loudness?

faisal wrote:

I agree with this, from the sound engineering perspective. But it's a very tough sell to the industry. It seems to be true, in my experience, that there is an advantage to a recording feeling louder off the bat. Younger people experience this when they play older CDs and notice how much quieter they are than newer CDs. There's something about sound "jumping" out at you that appeals to listeners, and so it is pushed for by both artists and other industry members.

Possibly there is an inital impact if you follow-up a CD with dynamics with another that 's been squashed. However what happens after you turn down the volume of the squashed CD and compare it with a dynamic CD at the same level? Or follow-up one squashed CD with another, the shock value wears off.

faisal wrote:

So my question is, how can an ideal of fully preserving dynamics be successfully re-promoted without addressing the reasons for the existing (and well established) practice of striving for loudness?

My guess is that there will either need to be a musical trend to promote this, or after seeing reports of hearing damage over the years people will catch on. Remember when it was cool to smoke cigarettes?
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Tom Volpicelli
The Mastering House Inc.
http://www.masteringhouse.com
CD Mastering and Media Production Services

What I dont understand is why concerts are so damn loud???

Almost everyone I have been to, I have ended up covering my ears for most of it (actually putting your fingers in your ears, makes it all sound bloody awesome )
Even when I saw Steve Vai, in a small venue it was just too much. I expected the guy to be aware of such things. I had VIP tickets, so I got to meet him and attend sound checks... the guy is a perfectionist! So why overdrive everything. If you went to the front it was just a big crackle.
I think this may have been down to the engineer though, because during sound check it all sounded brilliant, appropriate levels etc...

Why is this? Surely I cant be the only one who feels this way.
At big festival concerts I have to stand, facing the center (and I do mean bang on), because if I move my head the sound just pearces my ears.

Why oh why?!

masteringhouse wrote:

Possibly there is an inital impact if you follow-up a CD with dynamics with another that 's been squashed. However what happens after you turn down the volume of the squashed CD and compare it with a dynamic CD at the same level? Or follow-up one squashed CD with another, the shock value wears off.

Yes, that's probably true. And that's where one of the big problems lays - a lot of people behind this trend are the types who don't even listen to entire tracks; they're listening for how it sounds off the bat.

masteringhouse wrote:

My guess is that there will either need to be a musical trend to promote this, or after seeing reports of hearing damage over the years people will catch on. Remember when it was cool to smoke cigarettes?

Hearing checks should be come more commonplace. The problem is that most people aren't concerned enough to give up around 50$ for it.

kasper wrote:

What I dont understand is why concerts are so damn loud??? Almost everyone I have been to, I have ended up covering my ears for most of it (actually putting your fingers in your ears, makes it all sound bloody awesome icon_biggrin.gif ) Even when I saw Steve Vai, in a small venue it was just too much. I expected the guy to be aware of such things. I had VIP tickets, so I got to meet him and attend sound checks... the guy is a perfectionist! So why overdrive everything. If you went to the front it was just a big crackle. I think this may have been down to the engineer though, because during sound check it all sounded brilliant, appropriate levels etc... Why is this? Surely I cant be the only one who feels this way. At big festival concerts I have to stand, facing the center (and I do mean bang on), because if I move my head the sound just pearces my ears. Why oh why?!

I, and many people I know, complain of this same problem. There are a few possible answers that may be happening at once. There's the obvious reason that people like to "feel" music. Low end seems to be particularly over-amplified in concerts, and I think that screws up the clarity of the sound.

Also, there's this idea that the more you enjoy a sound, the more you can tolerate it at louder volumes without it disturbing you - they've even done studies showing that temporary hearing loss is more likely to occur when people are exposed to sounds or music they dislike.

I also think that many musicians and sound engineers actually have hearing loss, and compensate for not being able to hear overtones as sensitively by blasting sound.