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Revision as of 06:15, 31 December 2005 by Karlchwe (talk | contribs)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)This refers to the practice of recording music at the highest levels possible, to create a CD that is as loud as possible. (Louder CD's sound louder when played with the same equipment at the same settings.) This results in a form of distortion known as digital clipping (to distinguish it from analog clipping, which is usually not as objectionable.)
One reason may be that when comparing two CD's, the louder one will sound better, on first impression. Another may simply be that rock groups just want to make bigger, badder sounds.
The loudness wars have resulted in nearly every pop CD released having large amounts of digital clipping, making them harsh and fatiguing to listen to, especially on high quality equipment, ironically enough. This amounts to audio engineers purposely adding distortion to their recordings, to the amazement of some. Some avid fans have even petitioned their favorite groups to rerelease some CD's with less clipping.
Further, current compression and limiter equipment allows engineers to create a recording that is nearly at single, uniform dynamic level. When that level is very close to the maxmimum allowed by the CD format, this creates nearly constant distortion throughout the disk.
Virtually every pop recording made nowadays has this kind of digital distortion. It is unnecessary, since if listeners want to listen to loud music, they can simply turn up the volume on their playback equipment (which can also create clipping, but usually in a less objectionable form.)
It should be made clear that this distortion is different from the distortion such as overdrive or feedback, which is created by electronic instruments and can be intentional, and even an integral part of the performance (see Jimi_Hendrix.) Digital distortion is harsh and unmusical, and is never desirable.