Where does this come from, and can I check it?

Engineers squeezed peaks with compressors so their records would sound louder. The figure is taken from Sound on Sound, which is linked in full on this page. Every fact on Mondo Knows names its source rather than repeating an unsourced claim.

Is this really a music fact?

Yes. It sits on the Music shelf, one of 2,600 sourced facts grouped into space, animals, the human body, history, science and more. Category pages collect every fact in the same field.

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The links under the fact point to a quiz, game, puzzle or calculator on the same subject, and the shelf below shows related facts. The wording here is original, and quoted phrases are marked as quotations.

Mondo Knows Facts

The loudness war flattened CD masters for two decades

Engineers squeezed peaks with compressors so their records would sound louder From the early 1990s, mastering engineers used limiting and compression to raise average level closer to the digital ceiling. Played back to back, a newer disc sounded punchier and clearer than an older, quieter one. Metallica's Death Magnetic drew complaints in 2008 for a master that clipped, and later remasters of the album were less crushed. It sits in Mondo's music collection, one of 200 facts that each trace back to the reference below.

Where this comes from

Sound on Sound

Facts that can change over time are reviewed and updated. If something here looks wrong, Mondo would rather know than be confidently incorrect.

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Technology trivia

More facts like this

Records got measurably louder and flatterHeavy compression raised average level while squashing peaks The compact disc reached shops in 1982Sony and Philips developed the optical format together The compact disc launched in 1982Billy Joel's 52nd Street was one of the first albums released MP3 throws away sound you would not noticeIt drops detail masked by louder sounds nearby in frequency and time MP3 shrank music by throwing detail awayFraunhofer's perceptual coder became part of an ISO standard in 1993 Vinyl cutters fold deep bass into monoOut-of-phase low frequencies would throw the stylus out of the groove

Tags: mastering, compression, cd

The loudness war flattened CD masters for two decades: the short answers

Where does this come from, and can I check it?: Engineers squeezed peaks with compressors so their records would sound louder. The figure is taken from Sound on Sound, which is linked in full on this page. Every fact on Mondo Knows names its source rather than repeating an unsourced claim.
Is this really a music fact?: Yes. It sits on the Music shelf, one of 2,600 sourced facts grouped into space, animals, the human body, history, science and more. Category pages collect every fact in the same field.
What else can I read about it?: The links under the fact point to a quiz, game, puzzle or calculator on the same subject, and the shelf below shows related facts. The wording here is original, and quoted phrases are marked as quotations.