What Is The Loudness War?

In this video I discuss what my take is on the loudness war. What it is and why I much prefer dynamics over loudness.
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[@viciousblissvideos]

Recently I tried Tidal and I noticed that a lot of artists had their original DR10-DR14 editions uploaded along with smashed remasters. In some cases only the DR10-14 editions were available. It would be great if artists and labels gave us a choice. For movies we had widescreen along with Pan&Scan once Laserdisc started to gain popularity. We were lucky that with DVD the movie studios largely issued everything in widescreen and relegated Pan&Scan to a few comedy movies and then got rid of it altogether. I don't think the public rejects dynamic masters. I've never read one complaint about Chinese Democracy being "too quiet". Vinyl outsells cds. Earache Records released Full Dynamic Range editions. King Diamond just had all his Roadrunner stuff remastered with the original 1980's dynamics for 2020. Music sold more before things got smashed to death.
What I have noticed is that we had some DR5-6 albums as early as 1993. I'd listen to them on Tidal and wonder if it was a remaster. Then I go and check the online database or my original cd and find that some stuff from 1993 was actually that loud. Some DR5 stuff can be a lot more listenable than others. With some modern albums I like by bands like Drown Again and Rave In Fire I see a lot of DR8. Maybe it depends if the loudness is achieved via something like Vintage Drive or the Black Box or using Waves Limiter plugins. I've accidentally taken a DR13 mix and made it into a DR7 using Fusion with Vintage Drive enabled.
Unfortunately I've noticed that the loudness war is often championed by grifter master engineers who constantly brag about how loud they can make stuff and use that approach as a default even if the client isn't asking for it. There are a good amount of them who normalize this insanity or even lie and say they can deliver some low DR4 master with "full dynamics"". These guys are typically more concerned with protecting their reputation for delivering loudness over doing what's best for the song/client. It's like, why even invest in great equipment if you're just going to ruin every song that you master?
Paul, you've got the right mindset. I knew you'd do what's right for the song as the default. Sounds like you're willing to explain this stuff to clients too, which is really important. I've had buyer's remorse after hiring someone who refused to take any input from me or explain how things worked. They went out of business and were briefly famous before becoming obscure again. Your business is thriving because you're always giving a real effort.

[@markhopkins5352]

I can’t wait to get all my stems ready to send off to you guys! It’s amazing how much one must know to get a professional sounding master. I’ve tried mixing myself for a year now and realized my gain on every track was WAY too high. Mixes start to gel when you reduce the gain and start compressing. But even then, if you’re not a fully trained engineer, it’s going to be VERY hard to get a master that is streaming ready.

[@AudioAnimalsStudio]

Honestly it comes with years of practice. We've worked with over 36,000 orders which will include multiple songs for mastering. When you work with so many songs you learn everything there is to know about every genre and can put that into practice. If you are mastering your own songs you'll maybe have worked with let's say 50 songs maximum. You'll know very little about mastering. It's like comparing a DIY builder to a professional builder. The end result speaks for itself. The professional builder has experienced every possible problem the job may face and knows how to tackle it. The DIY builder hasn't and has to bodge it or do poor job. Same principle with mastering.

[@nathanielenochs1843]

Even Vinyl has walled how loud the artists and producers can make their music which by default makes the Vinyl versions more dynamic than the CDs and Digital.

[@ZOgrameMusic]

There's something I might be misunderstanding, but isn't it important to consider more PSR-Truedyn than LUFS? As far as I understand, LUFS can be fixed by platforms by changing the volume, whereas dyn would sat as is, and have a dramatic impact on themusicality and preceived loudness right?