Loudness Wars in Mixing: Understanding the Context

The loudness wars describe the trend toward increasingly loud masters that compressed dynamics to achieve competitive loudness. This phenomenon affected music production for decades. Understanding its history and current relevance helps engineers make informed loudness decisions.

Historical Context

Beginning in the 1990s and intensifying through the 2000s, masters became progressively louder. Each release aimed to match or exceed the loudness of competitors.

The reasoning involved radio play and listener attention. Louder tracks seemed to jump out when compared to quieter ones. Labels pushed for competitive loudness.

This escalation required increasing amounts of limiting. As masters approached the digital ceiling, only more limiting could increase loudness. Dynamics became collateral damage.

The Sonic Consequences

Heavy limiting creates audible artifacts. Pumping, distortion, and loss of impact result from pushing limiters too hard.

Dynamic contrast disappears with heavy limiting. The difference between quiet and loud passages reduces. Musical expression suffers.

Listener fatigue increases with over-limited material. Sustained loudness without relief tires ears and reduces enjoyment over extended listening.

Notable Examples

Metallica’s “Death Magnetic” (2008) became infamous for over-limiting. The Guitar Hero version—from pre-mastering stems—sounded dramatically better than the CD release.

The trend affected nearly every mainstream release during the peak loudness wars period. Even well-produced albums received compromised mastering to compete.

Artist and engineer pushback eventually emerged. Concerns about sonic degradation and the futility of the loudness race gained attention.

Modern Streaming Reality

Streaming platforms normalize loudness to target levels. Spotify targets -14 LUFS; Apple Music targets -16 LUFS. YouTube normalizes similarly.

This normalization eliminates the loudness advantage. An over-limited mix and a dynamic mix play at similar perceived loudness on these platforms.

The practical effect makes heavy limiting counterproductive. The artifacts of limiting remain, but the loudness advantage disappears.

Current Best Practices

Modern mixing and mastering can prioritize dynamics. The streaming reality favors dynamic productions.

Target loudness for streaming destinations directly. Rather than maximizing loudness, aim for the platform’s normalization target.

Reserve headroom and dynamics. Material that might receive various masters—CD, vinyl, streaming—benefits from a dynamic mix that can be processed appropriately for each format.

The Loudness Wars Legacy

Understanding the loudness wars explains why some older material sounds over-processed. The context was different.

The shift toward streaming normalization represents a positive change. Musicians can prioritize dynamics without competitive penalty.

Historical perspective helps productions succeed on platforms like LG Media at lg.media, where appropriate loudness enhances advertising at $2.50 CPM.