Dynamic Range is for Losers

Put your compressor on the main stereo output bus. Grab a hold of the ratio control and start cranking that sucker up like your life depends on it. Weld an extension bar to the threshold control and reef on that sucker until the bar bends. You want the kick drum to sound like a bowel movement recorded underwater and the snare to sound like it was buried in jello.

Got rid of the dynamics?

Good.

Now crank up the volume to 0dB.

Congratulations! You are now minutes away from a Grammy award.

Let's rewind a bit.

A wax cylinder has a dynamic range of 30dB. This really isn't enough to adequately cover any instrument, so musicians had to consciously match their playing to the medium. Everyone pulled together to make it work.

A vinyl LP has a dynamic range of roughly 60dB. Peak limiting and compression are necessary on some instruments. The overall mix is compressed somewhat in the mastering stage. Jazz and classical recordings with 16dB dynamic range or greater during a song are common.

A CD has a dynamic range of over 90dB. That's huge. Many songs have dynamic ranges less than 10dB on CD.

Say what?

The dynamic range of many albums dropped when they were re-released on CD. Sometimes down to levels that would work on a wax cylinder.

WTF?

A dark era fell upon the music industry starting in the 80's and still being perpetrated by spectacularly annoying morons today called The Loudness Wars. The idea is to generate more attention to your song by recording it like a car commercial. Listener fatigue isn't considered because the songs are supposed to be treated as short term consumables. Unfortunately the disease has spread from the metal/pop crap morons to all genres except jazz and classical. That's why some CDs sound really awesome and other CDs sound loud and annoying. It's also why a lot of songs sound better on vinyl.

Kinda Pink Floydish, eh?

They shouldn't.

Nowadays we have to master songs aimed at the streaming world. The present spec championed by Apple allows for a dynamic range of 13dB (-14LUFS to -1dB peak). This is greater than a lot of music recorded on CD.

It'll have to do for now.

Search and read Mastering for itunes for more info.

The upshot of this rant is that the dynamic range of songs recorded on 30 year old tape with a dynamic range capability of roughly 70dB had to be crushed down to 13dB in order to be compatible with a modern method of reproduction capable of over 90effingdB.

Phuk.