Dynamics and compression in contemporary music

Hello again! We're going to take a quick look at dynamics and music and the current trend of over compression.

Music is a lot like a conversation. When we speak, we naturally include pauses in our speech. There are also inflections in our voice and the pitch of our voice can raise or lower depending on our mood. We also speak louder and softer. These elements are also found in music. There is call and response, variations on a melody, loud and soft moments. The music can speed up and slow down. All of this can create for very dramatic and emotional music that touches us.

Rarely do we speak in a monotone and rarely do we run all of our words together in one long string of words. Why? Because it is difficult to understand. How many of us had that one teacher in school that just rambled on and on in a monotone? What happened? We tuned him out or spaced off.

If that is the case, why do we compress our music so much? This is regularly done with music played over the radio. Our digital music is compressed for space and is rarely lossless. Yes, information is lost in the translation.

Here's a good illustration:



Music needs to 'breathe' for the lack of a better word. In the future, we will look at compression and how it can help tighten up music. However, please be aware too much compression can result in listener fatigue. Just like we tuned out that one teacher we *all* had in school, our listeners begin to tune the music out.