Quote:
Originally Posted by RougeUnderoos
Weird. Seems to me that "loudness" is going to be defined by the listener anyway, so you'd want it to sound good at any level. Can anyone explain why they would do this?
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Metal acts want their album to "bang the hardest" which is achieved by reducing the dynamic range of the album. This means that wether all the instruments are playing together at once, or one lone instrument, there will be very little difference in the dB-SPL (sound pressure level) of what is coming out of your speakers.
Led Zeppelin rule because their albums have as much dynamic range as orchestra music. Stairway to Heaven would not be as cool if the intro guitar and flute came right out of the speaker front and center, so when Bonham finally enters on drums there is no impact (because we've already been at that SPL for 5 minutes by then...).
Actually, come to think of it, Zeppelin just does not work if it was produced using todays asthetics.
Maybe thats why most new recordings suck ass,
because bands are not writing their songs to use changes in dynamics as a musical device. Its not more important to bang the hardest. Percieved bang would be much greater if the album was allowed to breathe/grow/change as opposed to just going BBBBBBBLLLLLLLLAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH through each track.