You might have already read about this but there’s a bunch of talk regarding the sound of Metallica’s new record Death Magnetic. The main complaint is that it’s “too loud.” Obviously that’s a non-technical analysis. The reason it sounds that way is thanks to excessive compression & limiting. Decreasing the range between the loudest peaks & the quieter stuff in the mix allows for a “louder” mix but it seems in this case the process was used to the extreme. According to Ted Jensen, mastering engineer on the record, the mixes arrived already excessively compressed. Here’s a link to an article discussing the situation that includes a YouTube video comparing 2 different masters of the same song. It’s funny cause I think a lot of engineers were wondering when this would finally happen. Finally I’d just like to add that I print my mixes with as much dynamics as I can. I have good relationships with the people that master my recordings & I’ve come to rely heavily on their talents & judgement to make my mixes loud while still retaining the dynamic punch & the vision for the mix. The picture to the right is a recent mix I did which shows the dynamics well preserved.