Apple iTunes + SoundCheck = End of the Loudness Wars!

[TitaniumTroy]

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13645_3-57609 ... ecordings/

Hope this works out the way Bob Katz predicts it will.

Katz is thrilled that Apple's new streaming music service, iTunes Radio, has Sound Check as the default setting (and cannot be turned off), and he thinks iTunes Radio sounds wonderful. As we asked Katz clarified his stance, he thinks the latest version of iTunes' Sound Check, version 11.1.1, on iTunes Radio, phones, computers and iPods marks the beginning of the end of the loudness wars. Mastering engineers will no longer have to overcompress because Sound Check maintains a more consistent volume level for a Miley Cyrus, Wilco or a Metallica tune on iTunes. You can turn off Sound Check on your computer or phone, but if you turn it on, Sound Check will provide a more consistent volume level from one tune to the next, even if one is maximally compressed, and the next tune has wide, soft-to-loud dynamic range. Sound Check doesn't compress dynamics, it automatically adjusts the volume level from one song to the next.

 

[Kazaam]

I'm not positive, but I think I tried SoundCheck in iTunes years ago. Thought it made the music sound kind of crappy so I turned it off.

But as technology has advanced, maybe it is good now? I've apparently heard it on iTunes Radio, but fwiw I've not listened to iTunes Radio on my main system (only on a small tabletop radio).

I did find this part of the article interesting: "Sound Check doesn't compress dynamics, it automatically adjusts the volume level from one song to the next." Wonder if that's always been the case?