Hello everyone,

I'm preparing a follow-up to the "Over the Limit" article, and I need your help.  I want to find examples of the most abusive mastering to use in the article.

So, folks, let's put it out there.  Give an example of what you consider to be the most overcompressed, overlimited CD in your collection, and document it here for the world to see.

In your example, please be sure to include the following:

1. Artist & album name
2. Song title of song used in example
3. Mastering engineer / facility
4. The following audio statistics (these can be gathered using most editors, like Wavosaur, Audition, Wavelab, and others)
   - RMS power
   - # clipped samples
   (use a 10-second representative sample)
5. Images of clipped transients (use a screenshot from your editor).  See this post for instructions on uploading images to ProRec.

Contributors whose examples are chosen will be credited in the article to be published later in the year!  As you know, the Over the Limit article was the basis for the Wikipedia topic "Loudness War" and was reprinted in modified form in Wired, so we're sure that the follow-up will create a bigger splash.  Be a part of audio history by participating!

Please post your contributions as replies to this thread.

Kenny - having read your comments, I've decided to remove the objectionable portion of the post's title.

May I suggest Franz Firdinand's You Could of had it so Much Better as a good example, not because its particulally bad or even because it has an ironic name, but because Franz Firdinands self titled debut is just about the only rock album from the past few years that has not been destroyed in participation of the loudness war, and it still sold millions and won lots of awards, while the second album was brick wall limited anyway, and it didn't do so well.

Also Klaxons - Myths of the Near Future is a pretty awful example.

I recently did some experiments encoding MP3s and comparing them to the original source, and what I noticed was that even when using high-bitrate (160-320kbps and inbetween) LAME compression (which is a good enough codec for Trent Reznor to use), there could be anywhere from a 0.5 to 1.5 dB peak variation. If the source material was already at 0dBFS, MP3 encoding will surely push this into further clipping, regardless of whether a soft-clip brickwall limiter (I'm thinking Waves Ultramaximizers here) was used. Hence, all my future mastered recordings that are destined to be data compressed will have a maximum peak level of -1.5dBFS. Right?

I am happy that I found your article (Over the limit) again and that you are in fact updating/adding to it. I first read it a few months after I had purchased my first separate Hi-Fi (mid-Fi?) system in 2003. I couldn't believe how horrible some of my favourite Rock/Alternative tracks sounded and looked for reasons. Your article opened up my eyes.

I'd like to suggest Queen Adreena's two most recent albums:

- "Drink me" ( (c) 2002 by Rough Trade Records, produced by Queen Adreena, Morgan Nicholls and Ken Thomas, no mention of mastering engineer)

- "The Butcher and the Butterfly" ( (c) 2005 by One Little Indian Records, produced by Paul Corkett and Queen Adreena, second engineer Joplin).

Unfortunately I cannot post detailed RMS levels, clipped samples, etc. (don't have necessary software) but please listen to "Pretty like drugs" (2002) or "Pull me under" (2005) as [just] two examples.

Nothing against their music (I actually like both albums quite a lot); I also understand their in-your-face style of indie-Rock which benefits from "some" compression. But none of this hides the overly harsh and muddy sound that blasts out so terribly loud out of my B&Ws or my car audio (VW Golf GTi) or my laptop speakers for that matter. Even the quiet tracks lack punch in their loud parts and are annoyingly flat and noisy (not in a pleasant way). In contrast, their sound in "Taxidermy" (2000) is SO MUCH more succesful in being loud as well as raspy and thrilling (transients much better preserved I guess).

I have many other candidates but these two albums come to my mind everytime I think of the "loudness war".

Artist: Chevelle
Album: Vena Sera
Song: Saferwaters
Mastering Engineer: Ted Jensen
Mastering Facility: Sterling Sound

Statistics:
    RMS power L:        37.39%    (-8.55 dB)
    RMS power R:        38.31%    (-8.33 dB)
    Average value L:        -0.01%    (-79.75 dB)
    Average value R:        0.01%    (-85.30 dB)
    Min value L:        -111.65%    (0.96 dB)
    Min value R:        -118.41%    (1.47 dB)
    Max value L:        112.72%    (1.04 dB)
    Max value R:        114.22%    (1.15 dB)

PS: Oh look! It's Ted Jensen from Sterling sound :) The man is a Legend. How could this be? Maybe Mr. Me has a point when he says the best professionals in the field agree to do this stuff...... Just kidding :) barely

I think this is a great example to use, Rip. Despite being mastered at one of the best mastering facilities, the album is so overlimited that whatever is left from once perfectly recorded and mixed guitars/bass/drums (Chevelle used to be famous for that a couple years ago) now sounds actually unpleasant.

A few years from now we might see album remasters of very recent releases, where the remaster might actually sound quieter and less compressed than the current market options :)

PPS: for anyone interested: to hear a (still clipped) but very good sounding and very well mixed Chevelle record, get Wonder What's Next. Any hard rock mixing engineer should have that album for A/Bs.