Blog1 min read
On the loudness of quiet music
Mastering, dynamic range, and what streaming does to music meant to be heard quietly.
Quiet music has a mastering problem. The loudness war pushed most albums toward a wall of consistent volume, which works fine for songs but breaks the contract a quiet album makes with its listener — that the silence is part of the music.
This shows up most on streaming. Two tracks back to back, mastered loud, will sound similar in volume even if one was meant to be heard through a cupped hand and the other through speakers across a room. The quiet thing gets pushed up to meet the loud thing, and the quiet thing isn't quiet anymore.
For the playlists I try to balance this manually. A track that's been remastered loud goes near other loud tracks; an older, quieter master sits with its peers. Where there's a choice — a vinyl rip, a reissue, an artist's own re-upload — I tend to take the quieter one.
The listener can adjust their volume knob. What they can't do is restore dynamic range that's been compressed out at the source. So on a streaming service that tries to flatten everything, the small move I can make is to keep the playlist from doing it too.