Crank It Up! - Industry Standards For Recording

We've all been in this situation before: you are watching a TV program when suddenly, the commercial break comes up. The commercial is much louder than the program you were watching. You turn down the volume, only to have to turn it back up once the program resumes. This isn't some technical error at your local TV station or even your cable provider. This is an intentional strategy in the broadcasting industry. The idea is to get people to pay attention to the commercials by making them so much louder than the program. This is something also done in the recording industry with regards to music as well. This is changing the way that people record music, even the way people listen to music has changed as a result. Average volume levels were once much lower in the recording industry. The norm would be 2 to 3 as the volume... [read full story]