CDs that do not participate in the Loudness War.

· 207 words · 1 minute read

Given that every darn CD out seems to be wound all the way to the top on the loudness meter, it’s both surprising and annoying when I find ones that aren’t. When I try to play them on shuffle, I have to turn the volume up, then back down again at the end for the next song, at least on Amarok. I have an automatic adjuster on Winamp at work…

In any case, the most recent one is Veruca Salt’s cd IV. 2006 and it sounds very quiet unless using the booster. I only noticed it now that I’ve mixed it into my home playlist. Very good CD, and apparently at the proper volume. 

The other two are older CDs that I picked up on Emusic. I [heart] Mekons and Retreat from Memphis, both from Mekons. I was on the verge of dropping these from my playlist until I found the leveler because of how annoying it was to change the volume up and down and before I had heard about the Loudness War in general.

It would be nice if all music would go back down to these levels just to save wear on my volume knob. Taking these up to the current normal volume would be counterproductive.