What's the quietest CD you own?

[b4nny]

I have a strong distaste for clipped and compressed CDs.. I'd much rather listen to something with some dynamic range in spite of the oh so grueling necessity of twisting the volume knob. So, what CD of yours is the least affected by the loudness sensation? What CD do you have that forces you to turn it up to full volume but you don't care because it sounds great?

Included are some untouched waveforms which I have ripped from some naturally quiet CDs, as viewed in Audacity.



Let it Slide from Mudhoney's Every Good Boy Deserves Fudge- 1991


Loomer from My Bloody Valentine's Loveless - 1991


Flower from Soundgarden's Ultramega OK - 1988

[Emibass]

Queen - Made In Heaven

CD´s from the '90

[skepsis]

Album: Selected Ambient Works 85-92
Artist: Aphex Twin (Richard D. James)

The freeway hum drowns out every track even when the sound system in my car is turned up relatively high. But played through my studio monitors, it really is a beautiful production...

[iridiumrocks]

In general, most of the the older albums that I have tend to be mixed at an overall lower level like the examples you posted. The newer stuff, especially the heavy rock, is always mixed very hot. For example, here is Atreyu's "Doomsday" in Audacity. If you tend to play MP3's in shuffle mode, the volume level change can be drastic unless you use a player that normalizes the volume.

[ksandvik]

Alas nearly anything commercial is brick-wall compressed during the last 10 years or so. Greg Milner's book Perfecting Sound Forever has a good chapter on the history of brick-wall mastering. Good book, recommend to anyone who aspires or is a producer.

[LiquidMidnight]

I always found my U2's Joshua Tree CD to require a turn to the right on the volume knob when compared to other discs I have.

[champbassist]

I'm sure tons of ambient albums will be mentioned here. I listen to quite a bit of ambient music and from all of them it has to be Harold Budd/Brian Eno's Ambient II: The Plateaux Of Mirror. Even when my music system is at around 9-10 (relatively speaking) the only sound that does not get overpowered by regular din around my home (not a very noisy place) is the sound of bells on some of the tracks. But it's quite beautiful for night time listening.

[skepsis]

Originally Posted by ksandvik

Alas nearly anything commercial is brick-wall compressed during the last 10 years or so. Greg Milner's book Perfecting Sound Forever has a good chapter on the history of brick-wall mastering. Good book, recommend to anyone who aspires or is a producer.

I'm a producer looking to get into mastering for a living, I love books on production, thanks for the heads up...

[Ern]

OPne of my favorite old records is The Best Of Marcel Marceau.
It's 43 minutes of silence, with applause at the end. I like to put it on for company, but I hate it when people talk while it's playing.

[otis_thick]

Originally Posted by b4nny

I have a strong distaste for clipped and compressed CDs.. I'd much rather listen to something with some dynamic range in spite of the oh so grueling necessity of twisting the volume knob. So, what CD of yours is the least affected by the loudness sensation? What CD do you have that forces you to turn it up to full volume but you don't care because it sounds great?

Included are some untouched waveforms which I have ripped from some naturally quiet CDs, as viewed in Audacity.



Let it Slide from Mudhoney's Every Good Boy Deserves Fudge- 1991


Loomer from My Bloody Valentine's Loveless - 1991


Flower from Soundgarden's Ultramega OK - 1988

I was just going back over this same topic during my last few recoridng sessions I have been able to get some really wide dynamc recordings of piano and chamber orchestra... but too dynamic for analog radio but great for DVD? CD , digital radio and streaming radio... Some my understand DOLBY E works with Dialog Normalisation but as far as Quiet to loud CD ......Broters in Arrms Dire Straights....It held the record for widest dynamic range mix the open for Money For Nothing igoes from DC to near full scale over 120+ dbu

[b4nny]

Originally Posted by otis_thick

I was just going back over this same topic during my last few recoridng sessions I have been able to get some really wide dynamc recordings of piano and chamber orchestra... but too dynamic for analog radio but great for DVD? CD , digital radio and streaming radio... Some my understand DOLBY E works with Dialog Normalisation but as far as Quiet to loud CD ......Broters in Arrms Dire Straights....It held the record for widest dynamic range mix the open for Money For Nothing igoes from DC to near full scale over 120+ dbu

Oh yeah! That album completely slipped my mind.. I remember trying to listen to it in the car (not the remastered version obviously) and it was tough to hear it over the freeway noises.. I mean just like at the waveform for the song "Why Worry" ripped right from the CD:



Definitely the quietest CD I own.

[DaveF]

Wow, cool topic!

Probably "Los Angeles" by X. It's actually pretty quiet!

[shackled]

The Nefilim- Zoon

The production is just bad. Some songs are quieter than others... I still like it, though!

[wagstaff]

Faith No More - The Real Thing

[jd858us]

John Cage's 4' 33".

[addylewis]

I'm not sure - I've got a few cheap rock'n'roll compilations from the early 90's and they aren't even anywhere near normalised let alone mastered.

Anyone checked out the waveform on the old 90's beatles catalogue? They're pretty quiet, also there was a compilation which came out a while ago called "Ready Steady Go!" which has loads of 60's hits on it...

[Toronto Bassist]

Originally Posted by iridiumrocks

In general, most of the the older albums that I have tend to be mixed at an overall lower level like the examples you posted. The newer stuff, especially the heavy rock, is always mixed very hot.

There's a reason for that:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loudness_war

Not a very good reason, but a reason nonetheless

[DiabolicLow B]

All of my CD's of The Police are very quiet compared to anything else.

[Nashrakh]

Hmm two recordings that come to mind:

Dzyan - Time Machine

Country Joe and the Fish - Electric Music for the Mind and Body

[Stinsok]

Foster and Lloyd's self titled album.