Buy any sound engineer a bottle of beer and ask him what he thinks of the Loudness War, and you're pretty much guaranteed a half-hour rant about how much he hates it, how terrible it makes everything sound, and how his pristine recordings are constantly being destroyed by limiter-happy mastering engineers.

But when you say "Great ! I'm doing this thing called Dynamic Range Day, would you like to be listed as a supporter ?" - suddenly all you get is wide eyes, muttered excuses and un-returned emails.

People don't want to stick their necks out on this issue

Not even the people whose reputations are so secure, so legendary that they could probably decide to mix their next record on wax-cylinder gramophone and everybody would think it was a really cool idea !

Why is that ?

• Do they think they'll lose business for saying dynamic music sounds great?
• Do they actually secretly like hyper-compressed, DR4 distorted sound ?
• Or are they just too scared or apathetic to stand up for what they believe in?

Actually, I think the answer is none of the above. I think the real reason is:

They believe the hype

After all, the idea is everywhere - louder is better, right ?

WRONG

On the radio - loudness doesn't count

On the internet - loudness is irrelevant

In a CD player - we use the volume control

Research shows - listeners don't care about loudness

This is the new information that Dynamic Range Day needs to spread.

Dynamic music sounds better

There are exceptions

Some engineers are prepared to try and help us start a movement - for example, the engineers helping me choose who should win the Dynamic Range Day Award.

Engineers like Grammy-nominated Charles Dye or BBC legend Simon Askew, like Greg Reirson from Rare Form Mastering or Jake Jackson from Air Studios, like Friedemann Tischmeyer from the PMF and Big Al Wagner from Turn Me Up.

Hats off to them - and to all the people who have already accepted the Dynamic Range Day Challenge - to see the list so far, click here and join us !

You have a choice

Just to be clear - none of these people are saying "loud" isn't an artistic choice - none of them are saying "we won't do loud" - but we all agree that dynamic music sounds better, and people shouldn't feel they need to mix or master with a super-hot level to "compete".

People should feel free to choose, and realise that in 2011, dynamic music has a competitive edge. To learn more, click here.

Maybe if we succeed in spreading this message, next year some of those other "Big Names" - who I know all agree with us - will also be prepared to stand up and be counted with us.

Image by João Almeida