CD loudness wars: Peter Mew weighs in (Uncut magazine, July 2007)

I was interested to stumble across this article on the CD loudness wars in the latest issue of Uncut magazine. Firstly, because it is the very first piece about mastering that I've seen in a UK music journal (in 35 years of buying them) and secondly because it contains quotes from Peter Mew (and Gary Moore, too).

Definite signs that the music industry is slowly waking up to the errors of their ways, I hope. Now if only we could get them to ease off on the NR, too...

 

GReat article, thank you for posting! Surprised to see comments like this coming from Peter Mew.

 

Well, yeah. Now they can remaster every CD that's come out in the last fifteen years at "normal" volume. Sounds like a plan to me.

 

Is it possible that P.M. has been on our side all along, and has just been following somebody's orders?

 

That is the best article about the loudness war I've read so far. Now we just need to get something like this out on Fox News or something

 

I maintain that it is a practice that's been going on since the late 80s. I have physical evidence to prove it.

BTW, if it's the same David Cavanagh who is the noted producer/writer/journalist/artist who did the interview, all the better!

 

Interesting, coming from the guy who worked on this :

 

It's weird you know - if you listen to the Please Please Me CD version of Love Me Do or Please Please Me, then listen to the 1 version, you think "wow, that's much brighter and nicer". But then if you listen to the 1962-1966 (Red Album) CD version, and you hear exactly how harsh and horrible the 1 version sounds.

Saying that, it wasn't all bad since they fixed the Day Tripper dropouts that ruin the Past Masters version

 

This reminds me that Peter Mew is more notorious for his unnecessary use of noise reduction than for his annoying use of digital compression.

 

"...and therefore compression techniques are used, in a sensitive and effective way, to make their music as impactful as possible."

Impactful is not a word, let alone something to describe these CD's.
I have some words that do adequately describe how they sound; mostly of the four letter variety.

 

Thanks for posting that article.

One more small step for awareness

 

Someone needs to explain to Mr. Mew that the air around the instruments is just as important as the dynamics.

 

I don't have this one, but I have at least 4 or 5 PM remastered discs that I keep for comparison purposes with original UK vinyl. I'll leave it to you all to guess which wins hands down every single time.

Dale

 

I think you're right.

One of the albums mentioned in the article, Californication, is an album that desperately needs to be remastered. I would buy it again in a heartbeat if they would put out a decent sounding version of it.

 

I know these idiots are serious about this. Even the vinyl versions of their records sound painfully loud and bright. Nothing sensitive or effective about the way they've done it, though. :thumbsdn:

 

Peter Mew was an EMPLOYEE of EMI, in the Mastering Department of Abbey Road Studios. He was not the Department Head, he was a staff mastering engineer who took the projects his boss gave him and followed the studio policies and his superiors instructions and completed his projects accordingly in the time alloted for each project.

Although to many who have little clue Peter Mew has become their whipping boy, that is of course totally wrong, his boss - and the VP his boss reported to - or even those higher up the food chain are the ones who determined how Peter Mew was to do his job.

Presumably EMI is a corporation where staffers who took things into their own hands or did not do their work properly - which does not mean, according to the pundits on the internet - that is, according to instructions - get fired.

Peter Mew has never been the problem. The management of Abey Road Studios is.

 

Perhaps some of these guys should read up on Zen and the art of - well anything.

To put it crudely - how can you tell if something exists if its surrounded by equal doses of that same something.

 

Hey, It's a start anyway.

 

Just wondering, do you really know this as fact? I mean, if a mastering engineer simply applies pre-determined settings/effects as determined by some "boss", then what's the point, really. I would think that the person they assign a group as important as The Beatles to, they would trust that person to use some of his/her own judgement as to how to do the job. But then I'm not basing this on fact either. Anyone know the real scoop?

 

Well, he must know. If not, why would he berate us for having "little clue"?

 

Agreed. It seems unfair to attack Peter Mew or other engineers as they are just the employees and, ultimately, others make the choice on how the album should sound.

 

???

Isn't Steve also an employee of the company that hires him to handle a remastering project? I'm definitely missing something here.

Dale

 

Nobody is "attacking" Peter Mew. We are criticising his constant use of noise reduction which robs the recording of it's breath. He uses it even when it isn't necessary...it's almost as though he relies on it. It's a perfectly legitimate complaint.

 

Thanks for posting this, Mike. Perhaps a glimmer of hope...