News - Europe acts to cap the volume of MP3 players

[HEXUS]

The European Commission has proposed a new set of laws for our own good.

Read more.

[Uriel]

Record the music louder?! Are you insane?

There is a maximum volume threshold for recorded music. By setting the recording level high, the potential dynamic range of the music is reduced. It's why every recent Red Hot Chilli Peppers album sounds rubbish on decent equipment.

A better way to go is to get some IEMs or closed headphones that offer decent isolation for your commute. That way you can listen quieter and still hear the music without risking hearing damage.

[cobhc]

It's not technically recording louder, loudness is achieved in the mastering stage of an album. Sonically, Metallica's Death Magnetic is smashed to hell and back, and sounds a lot worse because of it (check out the unmastered stems that were submitted for Guitar Hero and Rock Band to suddenly hear space in the mix, along with reverb on the drums).

Trust me when I say mastering louder is not the way to get around this restriction (I have been playing guitar for 10 years, keyboards on and off for over 10 years, and I've been an audio/mastering engineer for the past 6 years, so I have a fair idea of what I'm talking about). Uriel is right by suggesting IEM's or the like.

I had this with my Cowon A2 years back where setting the Region to Europe would restrict the output volume, and changing it to the US Region solved it, no doubt something similar will happen again.

[Scott B]

Interesting - I didn't realise mastering louder had that effect.

Having said that, Death Magnetic sounds just fine to me - and I can hear it on the tube.

[Nick]

Record the music louder?! Are you insane?

There is a maximum volume threshold for recorded music. By setting the recording level high, the potential dynamic range of the music is reduced. It's why every recent Red Hot Chilli Peppers album sounds rubbish on decent equipment.

A better way to go is to get some IEMs or closed headphones that offer decent isolation for your commute. That way you can listen quieter and still hear the music without risking hearing damage.

Of course it works, it's simple physics... make more noise, it'll make more of an imprint on the CD you're recording to.

When playing back, the CD has bigger dents in it, so the sound coming from it will be louder.

It's not technically recording louder, loudness is achieved in the mastering stage of an album. Sonically, Metallica's Death Magnetic is smashed to hell and back, and sounds a lot worse because of it (check out the unmastered stems that were submitted for Guitar Hero and Rock Band to suddenly hear space in the mix, along with reverb on the drums).

Trust me when I say mastering louder is not the way to get around this restriction (I have been playing guitar for 10 years, keyboards on and off for over 10 years, and I've been an audio/mastering engineer for the past 6 years, so I have a fair idea of what I'm talking about). Uriel is right by suggesting IEM's or the like.

I had this with my Cowon A2 years back where setting the Region to Europe would restrict the output volume, and changing it to the US Region solved it, no doubt something similar will happen again.

I've found Death Magnetic to sound best when pumped through a huge amp and then fed to the speakers with Homebase doorbell wire... this removes a lot of the dirt from the sound signal.

It is important to understand that this whole thing about oxygenless copper is a complete myth. A clean power source is essential, but only if you're using those energy saving lightbulbs which actually pump some currant back round the main ring to slow your meter down. This off-phase signal is pretty much the root of everyone's problem with unclear sound.

My Bush mini-hifi system handles Death Magnetic with ease... and I run three of them for near-7.1 audio heaven.

[Lee H]

I'm confused now.

I thought CD's were a series of 01010101010101 like a digital stream.

As such they didn't have to be bigger and deeper like vinyl was years ago

[chuckskull]

Oh FFS. Will someone please remind the EU I'm a big ugly adult perfectly capable of figuring out what's bad for me and what isn't. I don't need nannying.

[Lee H]

Oh FFS. Will someone please remind the EU I'm a big ugly adult perfectly capable of figuring out what's bad for me and what isn't. I don't need nannying.

Indeed - I 100% agree and have been stating that we should remove all safety labels from EVERYTHING and let nature clear out the gene pool of all the low quality genetic material knocking around at the moment

There will be ways around this such as flashing your mp3 player with modified operating files such as rockbox and other things like that.

[Uriel]

I'm confused now.

I thought CD's were a series of 01010101010101 like a digital stream.

As such they didn't have to be bigger and deeper like vinyl was years ago

Absolutely correct. As I've just been reminded on another forum, the loudness on Death Magnetic was 'imposed' at mastering not recording stage. The quieter 'pre-mastered' versions were submitted for use in Guitar Hero. The game audio is actually sought out by audiophiles over the CD version, as details are aparent that just aren't there on the CD or download versions because of the poor mastering.

Of course it works, it's simple physics... make more noise, it'll make more of an imprint on the CD you're recording to.

When playing back, the CD has bigger dents in it, so the sound coming from it will be louder.




I've found Death Magnetic to sound best when pumped through a huge amp and then fed to the speakers with Homebase doorbell wire... this removes a lot of the dirt from the sound signal.

It is important to understand that this whole thing about oxygenless copper is a complete myth. A clean power source is essential, but only if you're using those energy saving lightbulbs which actually pump some currant back round the main ring to slow your meter down. This off-phase signal is pretty much the root of everyone's problem with unclear sound.

My Bush mini-hifi system handles Death Magnetic with ease... and I run three of them for near-7.1 audio heaven.

If the above had been posted on an audio forum, I would have thought it was trolling. Here I'm not so sure...

[Nick]

Sorry guys, I got my formats confused.

Uriel and Lee, you're absolutely right, CDs are just digital streams of ones and zeros.

When I said bigger dents, I meant LARGER ones or zeros, like this:


quiet bit: 1101001101010001001

Loud bit: 10101001010110110001110010

quiet bit again: 11010111000111

sorry for over-simplifying.

[Uriel]

Sorry guys, I got my formats confused.

Uriel and Lee, you're absolutely right, CDs are just digital streams of ones and zeros.

When I said bigger dents, I meant LARGER ones or zeros, like this:


quiet bit: 1101001101010001001

Loud bit: 10101001010110110001110010

quiet bit again: 11010111000111

sorry for over-simplifying.

Ahh - I thought as much .

[Funkstar]

google "loudness wars" for more information on this subject, there is lots of information out there.

[jim]

I know a lot of Sony-Ericssons come up with "Note, raising the volume above this level may damage your hearing", and then you proceed anyway. That's not really a big deal.

If they actually fixed a hardware limit that you couldn't get around, that would be ridiculous. Mind you, nobody will take any notice if they use the first method. It's not like all the kids that listen to their MP3 players really loud (as suggested in the article) are worried sick about the state of their livers, is it ?

[scaryjim]

... When I said bigger dents, I meant LARGER ones or zeros, like this:

quiet bit: 1101001101010001001
Loud bit: 10101001010110110001110010
quiet bit again: 11010111000111

...

Thanks for the - that was a real TopCoder

[Saracen]

Sorry guys, I got my formats confused.

Uriel and Lee, you're absolutely right, CDs are just digital streams of ones and zeros.

When I said bigger dents, I meant LARGER ones or zeros, like this:


quiet bit: 1101001101010001001

Loud bit: 10101001010110110001110010

quiet bit again: 11010111000111

sorry for over-simplifying.

That's why you need a decent amplifier with a zoom on the optical output. Then you don't need to worry about that.

[0iD]

Along with a scanning specroscopic linear analyser with twin polarising filters, if you want to be really flash.