How To Make Your Music Louder
Written by Kim Lajoie
Published 2013
So, you want to make your music louder.
While the loudness wars seem to have plateaued,
much of today's commercial music is still relatively
loud. Furthermore, there is a much greater
tendency for today's listeners to mix or shuffle
songs from different artists and releases. So, for a
satisfying listening experience, your music should
compare favourably to similar music. And often,
loudness is one of the greatest challenges.
Ultimately, the end result of your work is an
electronic (most likely digital) record of a piece of
music. And in order to maximise the loudness, you
have to understand how humans hear sound. The
way we perceive sound is different to the way it is
recorded electronically. How To Make Your Music Louder
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Fundamentally, achieving loudness is about
working a kind of arbitrage between how sound is
recorded electronically and how we hear it. You'll
be trying to use as little recorded level as possible
to get as much perceived level as possible. Trying
to get as much bang for your buck as you can. Some types of sounds by their very nature can be
pushed louder than others. Conversely, other types
of sounds can't be pushed as loud. The purpose of
this guide is to examine the precise characteristics
that make some sounds easier to push than others
and to explore some of the different approaches for
increasing their loudness.