Why can i push older artist tracks which must have used limiting harder without nasty distortion?

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Zac
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31 Dec 2017

I have a great music player app on my android phone. It has a limiter, gain, multiband eq etc. Thing is when I'm listening to older material that is quieter and i want to push the gain it still sounds not too harsh even without limiting. Maybe im just used to a bit of distortion? Anything modern sounds horrible even with slightest gain above 0dB. I guess old limiters weren't as good as these days?

Just an observation on my particular set up.

Happy New Year.

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Loque
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31 Dec 2017

Less loudness war and less frequency filling...
Reason12, Win10

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Zac
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04 Jan 2018

Thanks. I guess it's how hard you push the limiter. Interesting that the more 'popular' albums are louder than the more 'obscure' albums in my catalogue. Is it that the more popular ones had better engineers or that the obscure ones suffered worse engineering/ mastering?

botnotbot
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04 Jan 2018

Zac wrote:
04 Jan 2018
Thanks. I guess it's how hard you push the limiter. Interesting that the more 'popular' albums are louder than the more 'obscure' albums in my catalogue. Is it that the more popular ones had better engineers or that the obscure ones suffered worse engineering/ mastering?
Neither. Pop music follows formulas which include killing dynamic range. Artists that are not chasing the Disney market have no need to ruin their dynamics.

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Zac
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04 Jan 2018

I like the term Disney market. But surely it can't be as distinct as that? Sure, some bands just want to tour and publish and couldn't care what the outcome is financially ... post punk uk band is my best example - Snuff.

But most try and puncture the disney in some way. It's where the money is.

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