Don't know people watched SNL tonight and caught Rick Rubin DJing for Eminem tonight on SNL. While Rubin is widely considered one of the best producers of the last 20 years, he was also responsible for one of the recording trends that audiophiles rail against to this day. Unlike Rand Paul, I will give credit to Wikipedia:
"Rubin has also often been criticized by listeners in recent years for contributing largely to a phenomenon in music known as the loudness wars. The loudness war is commonly described as a piece of music that has a lack of dynamic range, brickwalling, clipping issues and general over-loudness. Listeners have specifically found the loudness war being clearly present on several albums produced by Rubin, including the newest Black Sabbath release, 13. Ben Ratliff of The New York Times said "The new Black Sabbath album was produced by Rick Rubin, who some believe to be a prime offender in the recent history of highly compressed and loudly mastered music — a major cause of ear fatigue...13 is mastered loudly, too" Your ears aren't given room to breathe".[23] Jon Hadusek of Consequence of Sound also blamed Rubin for the production, "Rubin...deserves disparagement for the way he mixed the audio levels, which are crushed by distortion and compression. Otherwise well-recorded songs are blemished, an affliction all too pervasive in the modern music industry".[24]
Another album produced by Rubin, Californication by Red Hot Chili Peppers, also received criticism for what Tim Anderson of The Guardian called "excessive compression and distortion" in the process of digital mastering.[25] Stylus Magazine labeled it as one of the victims of the loudness war and commented that it suffered from digital clipping so much that "even non-audiophile consumers complained about it".[26]
The most well known example of the loudness war prior to 13 was the 2008 Metallica album, Death Magnetic. Since release, the Guitar Hero version of Death Magnetic has been often turned to for optimal listening because it doesn't have the sonic problems heard on the official CD release. It's widely thought that these issues are not present in the Guitar Hero version of the album because of the fact that each of the four members instrument/vocal tracks are present in separate form because of how the game functions (in that each track will be muted if notes are missed/not played in game). These master tracks were sent to the game publishers before a process called peak limiting could occur in the mastering process, which explains why we don't hear the clearly audible distortion found on the CD.[27][28] Sean Michaels of The Guardian explains that "the sound issues are a result of the 'loudness war' – an ongoing industry effort to make recordings as loud as possible".[29]ht on SNL. Although Rubin is regarded as one of best producers of the last 20 year, I thought it was interesting that he is also credited with creating the loudness wars."
"Rubin has also often been criticized by listeners in recent years for contributing largely to a phenomenon in music known as the loudness wars. The loudness war is commonly described as a piece of music that has a lack of dynamic range, brickwalling, clipping issues and general over-loudness. Listeners have specifically found the loudness war being clearly present on several albums produced by Rubin, including the newest Black Sabbath release, 13. Ben Ratliff of The New York Times said "The new Black Sabbath album was produced by Rick Rubin, who some believe to be a prime offender in the recent history of highly compressed and loudly mastered music — a major cause of ear fatigue...13 is mastered loudly, too" Your ears aren't given room to breathe".[23] Jon Hadusek of Consequence of Sound also blamed Rubin for the production, "Rubin...deserves disparagement for the way he mixed the audio levels, which are crushed by distortion and compression. Otherwise well-recorded songs are blemished, an affliction all too pervasive in the modern music industry".[24]
Another album produced by Rubin, Californication by Red Hot Chili Peppers, also received criticism for what Tim Anderson of The Guardian called "excessive compression and distortion" in the process of digital mastering.[25] Stylus Magazine labeled it as one of the victims of the loudness war and commented that it suffered from digital clipping so much that "even non-audiophile consumers complained about it".[26]
The most well known example of the loudness war prior to 13 was the 2008 Metallica album, Death Magnetic. Since release, the Guitar Hero version of Death Magnetic has been often turned to for optimal listening because it doesn't have the sonic problems heard on the official CD release. It's widely thought that these issues are not present in the Guitar Hero version of the album because of the fact that each of the four members instrument/vocal tracks are present in separate form because of how the game functions (in that each track will be muted if notes are missed/not played in game). These master tracks were sent to the game publishers before a process called peak limiting could occur in the mastering process, which explains why we don't hear the clearly audible distortion found on the CD.[27][28] Sean Michaels of The Guardian explains that "the sound issues are a result of the 'loudness war' – an ongoing industry effort to make recordings as loud as possible".[29]ht on SNL. Although Rubin is regarded as one of best producers of the last 20 year, I thought it was interesting that he is also credited with creating the loudness wars."
