How Did You Discover The Loudness War?

[tung]

My band Ziusudra was working on a CD back in 1998. I remember thinking that it should be as loud as possible to compete with other CDs that were getting louder. Unfortunately, the studio went broke, and we never got it mixed down and finished.

I often would buy a CD if there was something good playing on the radio (seems rare now), and I would buy it knowing it would sound much better than it did on FM radio. Sometime in the 2000s, I started noticing a few CDs that I'd bought sounded just as bad as they did on the radio! Also started having problems with PCs and the way the audio cards are setup to automatically "enhance" the sound. At some point, I didn't know if the problem was the original CD or the computer's audio card properties.

This is why I still have a 2-channel stereo system at home. At least, when it's working ok, I have a good idea of the true sound of the CD.

Now, when I bought "Death Magnetic" for my wife, that was an eye-opener! I still can't believe they released that album with all the clipping/distortion/brickwalling. So ever since, I've been wary of remasters and most new CDs. I miss the CD sound from the 80's and 90's!!

[adiblol]

I discovered the loudness war by article on Wikipedia. I wanted to know what dynamic range compression is and came across a link to 'Loudness war'. And I realized that loudness war is what I previously called just overmastering. And why Pearl Jam sounds worse than Soundgarden.
The first example of really low dynamic range I noticed was 'Grave Disorder' by The Damned.

[reebty]

It was a cumulative thing. The first time I heard the term "brickwall mastering" was in 2007 in reference to In Rainbows. The first time I heard the term "loudness war" was probably a couple of years later. I started listening to music in 1995 and I was aware that some albums are louder than others, but I didn't really think about it and I didn't know what mastering was. The first CD that I can remember made me think "this doesn't need to be that loud" was - and this won't surprise anyone - not Californication, but a three song bonus disc that was initially issued with it.