When planning ahead for the mastering part of my project, this video shows that I need to retain a good dynamic range within my audio to help it stay clear and natural.

Grant Leung suggests that years ago albums were produced with a lower dynamic range so they remained clear and easier on the ear. However, years later with the addition of record companies wanting to make of an impact in the industry, they are being produced to be as loud as possible in an attempt to rival the competition. This is resulting in music to lose it’s natural dynamic range and tonal qualities just so it can bumped up as close to zero as possible. The information presented here is also similar to the video by James Wiltshire when he talks about K-Meter and is something I am also guilty of in my previous work.

Grant also suggests that the ‘loudness war’ reached a pinnacle in 2008 with the release of Death Magnetic by Metallica with it being clocked as the loudest album ever. However, it received a back lash from fans due to its poor sound quality and low dynamic range making the whole issue around the loudness war pointless.

When implementing this onto my project, it is clear that during the mix stage I need to ensure the tracks have enough natural dynamic range, are all at a good level and then when it comes to mastering, make them loud enough so they stand up to their competitors without over compressing and making them lose their dynamic range.