What is Dynamic Range in Music? - Dynamic Range Explained

What is dynamic range in music? This video will explain what dynamic range in music is and why it is important. It is essential to understand dynamic range when mixing and mastering music.
If you're a music producer, or just enjoy listening to music, you should know how dynamic range in music works. You have probably heard about the loudness war. This is closely related to dynamic range. Dynamic range in music is vital in order for music to sound crisp and punchy. When music is too compressed, the dynamic range is restricted, and that will cause the music to be quite tiresome to listen to. This is what the loudness war was all about, by constantly trying to make music louder, the dynamic range got more and more restricted, and this eventually caused the music to sound bad, distorted, and tiresome to listen to.
In this video I will use FL Studio to show some examples on how dynamic range works in music, and how the loudness war affectsed music negatively.
So, what is dynamic range in music? Dynamic range is basically the difference between the loudest and quietest elements in a song. This is important because our hearing works by this principle. It constantly separates loud and quiet elements, trying to do judge distances and such. If a track is too compressed, there's very little difference between loud and quiet elements, in other words, the dynamic range is restricted.
Compressed music will tend to sound louder, and louder typically always sounds better to humans, but it is very important to find a good balance between dynamic range and loudness, or else the music will suffer from it.
In order for some things to be perceived as loud, something else has to be quiet in comparison. Our hearing needs a frame of reference. This is why dynamic range is so important in music. If the dynamic range is too restricted, it simply won't work very well, and it will quickly become very tiresome to listen to.

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RECOMMENDED STUDIO GEAR:

(Amazon links below)

AUDIO INTERFACE:

REFERENCE HEADPHONES:

REFERENCE MONITORS:

SUBWOOFER:

MICROPHONE:

XLR CABLES:

SHORTCUT KEYBOARD:

As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases.

[sufferingdoesntlikeme]

When I was a beginner, I boost volume to get extreme loudness. After I got to know compression, I compressed extremely to make it loud. But now I turn down some volume to make somewhere be perceived as loud. Your explanation is great.

[VictorRamirezMusic]

Very helpful, thank you! Also very nice Confutatis shoutout there, haha.

[mwmcbroom]

With my latest compositions, I have entirely eliminated compression. I still use limiting, but I try not to overdo it. I got rid of compression because the instruments I was using for accompaniment, when put together, just sounded like mush, with no definition. So I removed compression and suddenly these instruments sparkled. So I continued mastering the tunes, trying not to use compression, and I was successful. The end result was music that sounded much more alive and closer to what I perceived in live situations. These days I use compression only as a last resort, usually just to keep a track or tracks from clipping.

[ykshay]

Saw two vids from you. Instantly jumped on my phone to sub. Will check your patreon next month, the quality and simplicity you provide is leagues above what most ppl make.
You deserve millions of subs for your hard work, stay blessed

[drezhn]

This channel is my number 1 on fruity loops and music theory. I really appreciate your quality 💯👍🏻🙏

[dreamatmos]

Thank you, your lessons are very useful.

[Ekalavya_]

We need more of Musical terms and Music production related terms explanation tutorials. Basically, tutorials on sound engineering online. Thank you

[odin]

First thing first, so let's thank you very much for your great tutorials. To Compression: I'm not really familiar with great mixing and mastering but I do it by myself. I'm always keep my dynamic, this overcompressed waves looks really weird. I think this Loudness war (still...) is for musicians who just started really scary. I've learned by myself, as I wrote before, to keep dynamics and a wonderful waveform where you can clearly see the loud and the quit waves.

[abnormalthesis]

As a rock/metal producer, i can assure that over compression is part of the genre now. The lifelessness of the dynamics is what brings the in the face character to the entire track. And in 7/10 rock/metal tracks, that is what we wanna hear. Obviously there is a lot of compromises in doing so. And yup we all know about LUFs values that streaming platforms have set up. But still it’s something we have to do to get the character we are aiming for.

[nnaheim.]

Interesting video, Its weird not many people know about this.

[jndominica]

If kids listen to pop music on telephones outdoors, they still have a limited dynamic range after the volume is adjusted to the reference level of those streaming sites. The type of singing that seems to be popular for the past decade is where the girl shouts with all her strength during chorus as if in pain and the distortion is part of that image.

[albert-stefanstancu]

Is this channel young? Cause the content is so good that I think it deserves a lot of followers.

[unknownfilmmaker]

It's so stupid and ridiculous to compromise quality via dynamics just to have a louder file. That's what the volume knob is for. If everything is loud, nothing is loud. The dynamics are the life of the mix and are part of the writing. Automatically compressing everything just sucks the life out of it and quickly leads to listening fatigue

[EnejJohhem]

I only use compression to glue things up a little bit, with gain reduction no more than 1 db

[marichusalanga]

Hi. Does this mean that the higher the dynamic range, the better sound outcome? My dvd player has dynamic range adjustment on audio control . And I want to experience the best dynamics. Your response will be highly appreciated.

[liveinfinityprod.]

I make hip-hop instrumentals. Compression is something I've wanted to utilize in productions (in insturment busses), but it always took the life out of it. Only time I feel like I need them is when I tame some vocals.

[europeanambience]

What if i record Ambient sounds and there ar many quiet parts for longer duration but also very loud parts. If i bring the Loudness to -16Lufs the loud Parts need to be ultra compressed or hard limited and loosing all it´s dynamic Range.
So it would be better to lower the overall Loudness to keep the dynamic Range. But what will Youtube do with that? Does Youtube normalize to quiet Parts to -16Lufs anyway or does Youtube only lower too Loud Parts and leaf the Quiet Parts as they are?

[christopherleathers]

Dynamics mixes are the way to go. Watching someone perform a live dynamic mix is like watching a ballet.

[audioelitist]

Let's not pretend compression is an expression of fidelity. Here's how you make things "loud". You turn up your volume knob. No, it isn't the job of the mastering agent to adjust the listener's volume for them. This is in your heads, get over it. The very minute audio mastering walked away from fidelity, the game was lost.