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The Loudness War

Matt Mayfield Music · explainer · Watch on YouTube

Audio & video engineeringInformation theory & signal processing

What it is

A two-minute demonstration of the loudness war, showing how heavy dynamic range compression in CD mastering makes music louder while degrading sound quality. It uses audio examples so you can hear the distortion.

Why Hacker News recommends it

HN keeps linking it as the shortest clear explanation of over-compression and brickwalled mastering.

  • 3 people recommended it
  • 3 different months
  • 0 strong recommendations
  • first 2009, last 2025

What HN commenters said

  1. “There's a YouTube video floating around called The Loudness War”

    Explains how loudness mastering degraded CD sound.

    9oliYQjP, 2009-04 · Recommendation · in “In a digital age, vinyl albums are making a comeback”

  2. “See: The Loudness War (just 1:54 mins long)”

    Short 2-minute explanation of excessive compression.

    visakanv, 2015-04 · Recommendation · in “Why Are TV Ads So Danged Loud?”

  3. “this video which gave a very succinct answer to my question”

    Succinct answer on what over-compression loses.

    morsch, 2016-05 · Recommendation · in “The Dark Art of Mastering Music”

Excerpts from Hacker News comments, linked to the originals. Summaries and labels were written by a language model from those comments.

Topics: loudness war, dynamic range, compression, cd, mastering

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