All Articles Tagged Ian Shepherd

Robert Archer | 06/25 08:05 AM, 18 Comments

The roots of the loudness wars can be traced back to the 1980s when music engineers in Nashville, Tenn. tried to make recordings as punchy as possible for radio airplay. The negative effects of the loudness wars, which can be described as methods to make music sound “louder” on electronics that are limited in their ability to playback dynamic content, have reached a zenith level in today’s consumer audio market. This recent emphasis on loudness ties into how consumers buy music. Digital downloads are the preferred music delivery method. And… View this story

Robert Archer | 03/16 07:55 AM, 22 Comments

Within the world of audio, both on the consumer and pro sides, there has been no greater point of contention than the increasing levels of compression used to produce music. The phenomenon grew to the point where it was given the name “loudness wars,” because it reached a level where one engineer would try to outdo another engineer by making his recording louder. The problem is that it employing compression destroyed the dynamic range of many of today’s recordings. Over the past few years, Ian Shepherd, a U.K.-based mastering engineer,… View this story

Robert Archer | 11/29 06:22 AM, 6 Comments

Within the recording community, and to a lesser extent the audiophile community, the “loudness wars” have been a prime topic of conversation for a number of years. Summing up these respective communities thoughts on the hyper amounts of compression prevalent on today’s popular recordings, audiophiles claim the loudness wars are robbing the public of experiencing the full potential of recorded music. Meanwhile, the recording community has tried to distance itself from the practice by saying it has no choice in how music is mixed and mastered, because it’s the record… View this story