Even if you're not into metal this might be of interest from a loudness war point of view- I'm also curious to see if anyone knows of any other labels (not just metal) that are doing something similar.
Earache Records are a seminal UK independent metal label who have recently started putting out a series of "Full Dynamic Range" reissues.
Similar to many labels, since the mid-late 90's Earache began releasing remasters that had compressed dynamics compared with the original releases. At minimum the FDR editions, all re-sourced from the original tapes, have the same dynamic range as the original release but in some cases go further. For example, "Heartwork" by Carcass was released in 1993 and the impact of the loudness wars was starting to be evident- the album had a DR of 8 and digital clipping throughout (however, there was a Japanese release which had a DR of 12 with no clipping). The UK 2004 remaster further compressed the DR to 6 but the 2013 FDR edition has a DR of 14- better than the original Japanese edition!
They make a big play of the vinyl editions because I guess that's how they make money but the important thing here is that the digital editions (some on CD but all available for download on their bandcamp site and on spotify) apparently don't suffer in terms of dynamics compared with the vinyls- the Heartwork FDR on spotify for example sounds better than my original CD particularly with regards to the drums. Overall a really impressive move on Earache's part IMO.
Earache Records are a seminal UK independent metal label who have recently started putting out a series of "Full Dynamic Range" reissues.
Similar to many labels, since the mid-late 90's Earache began releasing remasters that had compressed dynamics compared with the original releases. At minimum the FDR editions, all re-sourced from the original tapes, have the same dynamic range as the original release but in some cases go further. For example, "Heartwork" by Carcass was released in 1993 and the impact of the loudness wars was starting to be evident- the album had a DR of 8 and digital clipping throughout (however, there was a Japanese release which had a DR of 12 with no clipping). The UK 2004 remaster further compressed the DR to 6 but the 2013 FDR edition has a DR of 14- better than the original Japanese edition!
They make a big play of the vinyl editions because I guess that's how they make money but the important thing here is that the digital editions (some on CD but all available for download on their bandcamp site and on spotify) apparently don't suffer in terms of dynamics compared with the vinyls- the Heartwork FDR on spotify for example sounds better than my original CD particularly with regards to the drums. Overall a really impressive move on Earache's part IMO.