Dynamic Range Day exists to bring wider awareness to what has become known as the loudness wars. There are countless resources, articles, and discussions focused on records being too loud, overly limited, or fatiguing to listen to. That conversation is well documented.

What often gets lost, however, is a deeper understanding of what “loud” actually means and—more importantly—what goes into making a record sound loud and sound good at the same time.

Loudness is not a single technical process. It is not just peak limiters, meters, or mastering tricks. Loudness begins much earlier.

“To my mind, the arrangement of a piece of music has as much to do with how loud a record sounds, if not more, than anything that happens subsequently.”

Loudness Starts With Arrangement

Before compression, before limiting, before mastering, loudness is already being shaped by how the music is written and arranged.

Consider a deliberately extreme example:

• Twelve arco basses
• All fretless jazz basses
• All playing in the same register
• All stacked on top of one another

This kind of arrangement would make it inherently difficult for a record to sound loud.

Why?

• There is excessive low-frequency energy
• Multiple instruments are competing for the same spectral space
• No single element can stand out clearly

In this context, loud often translates to clear. If clarity is compromised at the arrangement stage, loudness becomes harder—sometimes impossible—to achieve later.

The same problem occurs in more common scenarios:

• Too many instruments in a chorus
• All voiced in the same part of the midrange
• No separation between supportive parts and featured parts

When everything is stacked in the same range, the result is congestion, not impact.

Proportion, Space, and Musical Intent

There is something fundamentally important about proportion, and it begins during writing and arranging.

A well-arranged piece of music naturally creates space:

• A supportive guitar line sitting lower
• A guitar solo voiced higher
• A vocal placed somewhere in between
• Different parts occupying alto, tenor, and soprano ranges intentionally

When arrangement is handled this way, the music already “mixes itself” to a degree.

This leads to an important relationship:

The Relationship Between the Arranger and the Mix Engineer

A mix engineer’s job does not exist in isolation. It is closely tied to the arranger’s decisions.

When a piece of music is well arranged:

• Parts complement each other
• Instruments are not fighting for the same frequency space
• The mix process becomes about execution, not correction

When arrangement issues exist, the mixer may need to intervene more aggressively.

In some cases, that intervention can include:

• Muting certain tracks
• Reducing layers that compete unnecessarily
• Rebalancing parts to restore clarity

This is not about altering artistic intent, but about making the arrangement work in practice.

The mixer’s job is to respect and understand the arrangement and execute it as well as possible.

When everything is in good proportion, the result is music that sounds clear—and clarity is a major contributor to perceived loudness.

What Mastering Can—and Cannot—Do

There are limits to what mastering can realistically achieve.

A good mastering job can:

• Improve clarity
• Remove energy that obscures the overall picture
• Enhance balance across the spectrum
• Add finesse and polish to the final presentation

Mastering is often compared to polishing glass:

“You can see through it better. You get a clearer picture of what’s already there.”

What mastering cannot do is just as important.

A mastering engineer cannot:

• Control the dynamic range of individual elements
• Fix wildly inconsistent vocal levels
• Rebalance competing instruments without affecting others

Those tasks belong firmly in the mixing stage.

Dynamic Control Belongs in the Mix

The mixes that translate best—and sound both loud and good—share a common trait:

Excellent control of dynamics at the mix level.

This means:

• Vocals consistently sitting where they are intended
• Instruments staying in place throughout the song
• No uncontrolled dynamic swings unless artistically intentional

Compression is a key tool here, but it must be used thoughtfully.

• Over-compression flattens music
• Under-compression leaves elements unstable
• Skilled compression keeps elements present without crushing them

Genre matters as well.

• A solo classical violin recording may have wide natural dynamics
• A pop vocal in a dense mix requires much tighter control

When a mix engineer has command of dynamic tools, mastering becomes refinement—not rescue.

Average Level vs. Peak Level

To understand loudness properly, it helps to revisit older concepts that still apply today.

On analog consoles and tape machines, engineers relied on VU meters.

These introduced two crucial concepts:

RMS Level (Average Volume)

• The level where the music mostly sits
• Represented by 0 VU
• Reflects perceived loudness over time
• Allows for headroom above it

This is the musical “center of gravity” of a mix.

Peak Level (Instantaneous Volume)

• The highest instantaneous signal
• Lives at the very top of the dynamic range
• In digital systems, this is where 0 dBFS sits

Peak level is critical because:

• Crossing zero in digital systems causes distortion
• Peaks tell you where the absolute ceiling is
• Peaks do not tell you how loud something sounds on average

The Relationship Between RMS and Peaks

Preparing mixes and masters requires understanding how these two levels interact.

Mastering engineers spend years learning to:

• Read average and peak levels simultaneously
• Correlate meters with what comes from the speakers
• Develop an internal reference between numbers and sound pressure

When this relationship is set properly:

• The RMS level is high enough to avoid sounding quiet or noisy
• The peak level stays below distortion
• The music remains competitive without being crushed

This balance is what allows a record to translate well:

• On broadcast systems
• On streaming platforms
• In consumer playback environments

Loudness as a Musical Outcome

Dynamic Range Day naturally brings attention to:

• Peak limiters
• RMS levels
• Meter readings
• Technical loudness standards

Those tools matter—but they are not the whole story.

Loudness is not something applied at the end of the chain.

It is the result of:

• Thoughtful writing
• Intentional arrangement
• Clear proportion between parts
• Controlled dynamics in the mix
• Careful refinement in mastering

It’s about thinking about the music, the arranging, and the mixing—making something that sounds good so that it can be as loud as it needs to be.

And “as loud as it needs to be” is not a fixed number—it is a musical decision rooted in clarity, balance, and intention.