CASA - the contemporary a cappella society - Dynamics

Dynamics – Just A Little Will Do Ya

Written by Bill Hare

Monday, 11 September 2006

What your group does live and what it can do on a CD are very different things. One thing I come across quite often is groups wanting such huge dynamics just because they do it that way live, but audio in different environments become very different beasts!

The main point is this - an album has to sound good in many different situations - in a car (competing with engine and wind noise), compressed to an mp3 on an iPod or computer speakers, as a traditional CD in a nice stereo, on a surround system where the bass is crossed over to its own subwoofer, through a boombox on the beach, over the radio, in compilations against other songs, and I can go on forever. One size will not fit all, but instead there is an average. Take a listen on a big hit song and pay attention to what you think are the “dynamics” – you’ll see that for the most part this is done with density of sound rather than volume. This is so that the song sounds stronger on average and that people don't have to constantly reach for their volume knob as dynamics go above and below the threshold of any ambient noise around them (in a car for example). For this reason, all pop/rock/R&B songs are squashed and these differences are made up for in attitude, timbre changes, etc.

There is a big difference in what happens live and the way they will be perceived on albums - live you can do dynamics all over the place because any ambient noise is known and the music is created around that, plus the audience is there specifically to focus on you so the volume knob issue doesn't matter. If you were to put that exact same performance on CD and listen to it in the car you wouldn't want to play it more than once because you'd be so frustrated from turning the volume up and down constantly.

I originally wrote this missive to a group who was doing a certain Kelly Clarkson song, and wanted the verses turned WAAY down and the choruses louder and louder, with the last chorus being the loudest, “just like on the original”. I explained that that would make the rest of the song sound way softer than the rest of the album, or when played in shuffle mode on an iPod, etc, and that it was NOT “just like on the original!” Kelly’s voice is actually LOUDER on the verses than on the choruses, it’s just that the sound gets denser by adding more instruments. Listen to this clip to hear what actually happens, keeping an ear to lead vocal level as well as overall level. Now this may be an “Apples and Oranges” sort of situation because yes, there is actually something at the choruses making them appear grander and more imposing, but my point is that it’s generally not taken care of with volume alone. Beef up your recording arrangements by making things thicker, not louder, at these points of the songs, and the result will be better all around. This is the secret that has been found by those groups winning all the awards, and now you know it too!