The Mastering Show #106 - Are dynamics dead ?!
Show notes
I see it every day: “The Loudness Wars are over - loud won. Get over it”
And it’s easy to see why. The average mainstream release hits -8 LUFS integrated or more; club releases regularly hit -6 or even -4 LUFS and are peaking well above zero; every other post you see on social media is about a new limiter or clipping strategy…
As the creator of Dynamic Range Day and Loudness Penalty, I should probably just give up and get my hat, right ?
Maybe….
But maybe not.
In this episode I dig into the evidence in 2026, and try to decide whether dynamics really are dead or not, looking at:
- The LUFS of the biggest recent releases
- Why no-one hears it
- Are mixes built too loud to be dynamic ?
- Why music fans don’t care (which could be good news) - and who does
- What do we do about it ?
- Reasons to be optimistic about dynamics in 2026
Links and more episodes here:
www.themasteringshow.com/episode-106
Mentioned in this episode:
Mastering
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