Why Does Metal Have To Be So Loud?
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- Опубліковано 28 тра 2024
- Metal has always been one of my favorite genres, and like most metalheads, I've never listened to it quietly. Turning the volume down on a brutal metal riff feels almost sacrilegious, like it's disrespectful to the music to hear it at anything but full volume. But why? Many genres can be enjoyed perfectly fine at a nice, comfortably quiet level, but metal resists that, and metalheads reject those efforts. So what's going on? Why does metal only work when it's loud as hell?
0:00 Intro
0:41 Fletcher-Munson Curve
4:04 Listener Collapse
7:33 Imagined Loudness
10:46 Noise Occupation
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Last: • Understanding Everybod...
Dr. Heller's paper: tinyurl.com/5b7w92va
Script: tinyurl.com/27vvyaty
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Some additional thoughts/corrections:
1) Thanks to Foreign Man In A Foreign Land for delivering one of the most poetic readings of academic scholarship I've ever heard. Check out his work here: ua-cam.com/users/ForeignManinaForeignLand
2) I should note that Heller's list of loudness effects isn't meant to be exhaustive. They're all useful lenses through which to view the question, but that doesn't mean other lenses don't exist.
3) On the decibel thing, the logarithmic scaling is a little tricky because you can measure volume in two different ways. If you're looking at the power of the wave, that doubles roughly every 3 decibels, but the amplitude doubles roughly every 6. I chose to use the latter because it's what I was taught and also because it correlates with pressure, but I had to choose my words very carefully in the script to avoid saying something incorrect. It wasn't worth getting into the distinction in the video itself, but I wanted to acknowledge it somewhere.
4) I feel like I should have more thoughts from the rest of the video but I'm tired and I can't think of any. I already said the stuff I needed to say anyway, so… hi! How are you?
I could be wrong here but you said that 6dB doubles the sound pressure but IIRC it's 10 dB due to how the Bel works in deciBel.....
Fantastic! It's a great day to listen to metal! And 12tone 😁
I knew I heard Foreign's voice🔥
I wonder if metal might be more enjoyable at safe volumes if one were to listen to it with a combination of acoustic sound and bone-conduction headphones, so as to get the sensation of the sound being loud enough to penetrate one's skull, but without having to expose one's eardrums to dangerous pressure levels?
Classical is much better loud. Beethoven's 5th really cranked up is magical, but the 9th, Ahhhh, the 9th. Crank up the final movement and be blown away.
"Why is metal so loud? So we can bond through shared pain"
damn that's metal as fuck
I don’t care about shared pain. I care about good music. Blowing your eardrums out isn’t.
@@theatheistbear3117 sounds like you don't get it. Pain is life, brother. Embrace it
@@adabsurdum5905 If you think life is pain you have a really pessimistic view on life.
@@theatheistbear3117 he didn't say life is pain, he says pain is life. That means pain is part of the life. And metal is mostly about that. (Sorry my English)
@@theatheistbear3117 Bro your profile pic is pedo bear
I've noticed that earplugs cut the 'noise' level at live metal concerts, and leave more 'music' to be heard. I started wearing earplugs to concerts a long time back and the concerts are still plenty loud, so no great loss. To my hearing or the experience.
Most of what we experience as "noise" is wash from the cymbals, which tends to cover that vocal range of roughly 1-5 kHz. This does not get better when accounting for monitor bleed, although most modern metal bands use in-ear monitoring systems where bleed is a non-issue. Using earplugs that attenuate these upper-midrange frequencies "takes care of" that cymbal wash, thus leaving the experience of the rest of the frequency spectrum for vocals and other instruments to be heard by the crowd at said show.
Definitely depends on the earplugs you use, some cheapies are blegh, but when you have a decent pair that actually cuts the noise at some of the right frquencies at the right amplitudes, you're in for a way better show than a deafening, shrilly mess lol. Alternative trick: stand by the sound board and get the actual audio image of the guy sculpting the sound lol. Bonus points for both.
I've heard some speculation that actually makes a lot of sense: What if the Front-of-House Engineer ("sound guy") is _himself_ wearing earplugs? That'll change the sound, even if they're the expensive kind that tries not to, and _that_ is what he's mixing to. Thus, not plugging yourself is missing an important part of the processing chain and not what the Engineer intended.
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There's a pretty good reason for the FOH Engineer to be plugged: That position is the most at-risk for hearing loss, being exposed to the full volume for show after show after show. That's a much greater risk than anyone in the audience, who is only there for one show at a time (_maybe_ two), and greater than the rest of the crew, who are in acoustically quieter areas on purpose.
If you put the FOH mixing position in a quieter area, it also sounds different (*), which reflects directly on the audience experience, so the only real solution is to have multiple FOH Engineers in rotation, provided that all of them can be trusted to produce a consistent sound in all of its details, regardless of personal preference. In an industry that is at least as much art as it is science, that's not so attractive either, even if it can be done.
(set-and-forget doesn't work, because the musicians change, both naturally and in response to the audience in different amounts per individual and per instrument, and that has to be accounted for in real time)
So the same person might do all of the shows, at least in a given venue (local union, illegal to not use unless the band brings its own), which guarantees a greater risk to them than to any audience member. If the contract requires the show to be that loud, then OSHA might require the Mixing Engineer to wear some kind of protection. (that's speculation as well: there might be an exemption for this exact case)
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(*) Different frequencies attenuate differently, given the same geometry. It's all about the size of things compared to the wavelength, and audio covers about 3 orders of magnitude there. Good luck attenuating sound evenly with just acoustics.
@@MinusMOD98
That's a very nice explanation, thanks!
BTW, I had a friend who played beside a drummer for a number of years. The drummer's ride cymbal was right next to his left ear for every show, and as a result he's got a drop out right where the frequency of that ride cymbal was in that ear. It's been so long I don't remember what the kHz was, but it's definitely gone.
I'm surprised i have as little damage as I do having played live and gone to so many concerts with no ear protection for years. I do have a very mild case of tinnitus that I can usually ignore easily, and my hearing is the same as the norm so I guess it's a good thing I started wearing ear protection when I did.
Agree. Ive only tried wearing them to a show once, and it seems to cut off most if not all of the harsh harmonics and only washes out the band a tad bit. It feels slightly uncool, but not as uncool as tinitus!
Those mosh rules are no joke. I once saw a guy fall in a pit (I was up on the next floor so I had a nice view) the pit was moving in a circle but everyone behind the guy who fell stopped dead in their track except for one, and I shit you not I saw a guy move against the rest of the swirling tide of flesh to personally kick the guy who didn’t stop out. (For those who care it was Lamb of God playing)
Yeah, in most pits, anyone seen being an asshole will be swiftly dealt with. Your there to have fun, not room someone's day.
From my limited experience with mosh pits, once someone’s fully on the floor everyone’s quick to pull them up before it gets messy
It's the universal rule no.1 for any pit - if someone goes down, you pick them up.
I've never been in a moshpit that wasn't respectful of people's safety (especially when it comes to vulnerable people) outside of the inevitable one or two assholes.
Was part of a moshpit at a Korn concert with my S.O. when I watched someone very intentionally and specifically target her and send her flying.
Someone helped her up almost immediately before I was able to get to her, so instead I got a little revenge and jump-rammed into the asshole, sending him flying.
The same guy who helped my S.O. helped me up too, and gave me a thumbs up while cracking up having seen the whole thing play out.
I watched as three more times in a row, the second the asshole guy would get to his feet, somebody else would plow into him and send him down again.
Finally the last time he managed to get up, he ran the fuck out of the moshpit, clearly realizing he wasn't welcome anymore.
At download festival i remember this one dude who was not there to have fun, he was there to punch as many people in the face as possible. completely unnecessary, and it was always the little guys making up for something. Being a big guy I always enjoyed being on the edge of the pit helping out being the meat shield for anyone who wanted to get close but not flail themselves about. Wow what a completely different part of my life.. twenty years in the blink of an eye.
as a metalhead and a drummer for my whole lifetime, i can assure the faster and more aggressive a song is, the less energy per hit the drummer is outputting. true story
Same for the vocals really. Else you don't last for more than a couple of dates on a tour.
I've played in a lot of classic rock cover bands and a few metal bands, and the only bands where I had problems with a "basher" drummer were rock, not metal. Metal drummers have to be far more sophisticated than ordinary rockers. (I wish I could get that kind of control over my voice! I sound like crap at lower volumes.)
@@beenaplumber8379 a great song for practicing vocals, is freefall by northlane
@@datutturugang666 Thanks for the tip :)
in faster music every instrument has to use less energy im p sure
Audio Engineer here. I've worked live shows for ages and I can say that especially in a small room I'm limited by the drum kit. If the drummer is particularly heavy-handed then I can either ask them to play more quietly, or I can mix the rest of the levels to the drums. A drum kit on its own can reach 95dBA without even trying, so the rest of the music has to be a bit louder than that to be heard. In a really big room or a stadium, the distance of the crowd from the sound source means I can actually turn the drums down by the time they're coming through the speakers and keep things at a reasonable level.
Also, seriously, wear ear plugs at shows. You don't want to get the tinnitus
Tinnitus? What's that? Can't hear you over the ringing in my ears....
Yeah that last piece of advice has paid its dividends to me. Definitely worth it especially if you're also into making music
In general, a pretty decent rule of thumb if you want the most out of a show is to do what the sound engineer is doing and stand where they are located ^^
Yes, this exactly. Drums rule live sound in small rooms, like it or not
As someone that always wears plugs but has also played in a band I can only say: yes wear plugs. Always. No "this one is okay". I only have minor tinnitus (as in 'it hits every couple of days and lasts minutes in general') and that's already VERY annoying. Can't imagine what it's like to experience that always.
I just this year started playing in a local punk band, playing house shows means being tucked in right next to the drums. My ear plug fell out during a song and I ended up fully losing my hearing in one ear for the better part of a day afterwards.
Stay safe out there y'all
House shows are perilous to your hearing and that's one of the most fun things about them.
Try Surefire EP4 earplugs, I bet they'll stay in better than basic foam ones. Plus they've got a little valve that lets you switch between 2 levels of protection.
Considering you just started, that's a gig story that's pretty... Punk :)
@@return2sender791 Oh, I know it. I don't always have it, but I definitely feel the effect after 15 years (give or take) of loud shows in houses, venues, and everything in-between.
Regardless of genre, a quiet stage makes for a much better experience in the audience. (and your ears will thank you too)
Stage bleed sounds awful, and so the FOH Engineer has to drown it out sufficiently with the PA that it doesn't matter. That kind of headroom might not exist, either because the PA is too small or (more likely) something feeds back first (often a vocal mic). Keeping the stage quiet allows the "audience experience guy" to produce a good mix that sounds more than loud enough (using psychoacoustic tricks if it can't be literally that loud), within the capabilities of the system and the acoustics.
That said, drums are probably the most difficult in that regard. I've seen lots of churches, for example, who want to play modern exciting music with a more conservative audience, switch to electric drums "so they can turn the drums down". But then they have a "pad slap" that is just awful unless it's drowned out completely the the PA, which puts a pretty big requirement on the PA _and_ is back to the same volume in the audience as the acoustic drums were...with whatever sample quality they happened to get with the kit that they bought. So that doesn't really work as well as people think it does. (I'm sure your drummer would love to know that!)
A lot of live concerts have fully-mic'ed acoustic drums, uncaged (a cage produces local reverb, which gets into all the drum mics and can't be removed), with "shy baffles" (small plexiglass plates) in the worst-offending paths, which are usually the between the cymbals and the vocal mics. Just understand that the drums will be as loud as the drummer plays them, and everything else is mixed around that. With a good acoustic design (you can do a lot with just placement and aiming of the gear you already have), the drummer can play surprisingly light, thus quiet on stage, while being amplified to the audience.
I also saw Motorhead at a club in Queens NY (Lamours East), it was smoky inside and you could see the bass notes in the fog of smoke if the light caught it just right.
As someone with pemanent tinnitus from going to a few shows, regardless of your music theory, fucking protect your ears.
I've always liked the rebellious aspect of metal. Daring. Challenging. Uncompromising. I am a metalhead.
But I have also always been sad about it because metal can be so beautiful and melodic and interesting, and the prejudice and preconception of what metal is pushes people away from actually try to enjoy it or understand it.
As a metalhead with non-metalhead friends, I have throughout my whole life had this personal campaign of introducing people to the beautiful side of metal because I truly want them to experience the feelings I get from it
It's obvious from your profile pic :)
I am reminded of when I tried to show a friend Forget Not by Ne Obliviscaris. Knew it had been pointless when they just asked me why I listened to "such angry" music.
Bands making entire operas per album, fantasy worlds that many book writers couldn't dare to compete, whole orchestras coordinated together on something absolutely incredible, so involving you just get transported to whatever magical dimension the artists had in mind, and then comes people telling you just listen to devil worship incomprehensible screams...
@@Roger44477 Eh, at least one positive: mentioning it here has introduced me to the band, thank you.
@@Kalvinjj there's so much creativity to be found if you're willing to listen for it. Like all musicians, metal bands put their heart and soul into their music.
I'm pretty sure the single note at 3:27 is Prison Song by SOAD
It definitely is Prison Song!
@Confidently Stupid It’s definitely Prison Song. The note is a C. If it was Master of Puppets it would be an E.
Yes it is. That song was an important part of my hearing loss journey lol
Haha hahaha, I started hearing the rest of the song when I heard that note, after calming down from the clever way the note was used as a censor.
@Marcus Shaw Nah it's Prison Song 100%
it makes me so happy that metal singers aren't completely destroying their vocal chords like it sounds. that's pretty cool
The overdrive effect is more in the power tubes being driven and broken up than the speakers- pushing a speaker too hard just causes it to sound flabby and bad
Man, it sucks to waffle a good speaker.
It probably comes from the fact really early distortion came from damaged speaker cones.
@@Bartman61911 the kinks and other proto metal and punk bands used to slash speaker cones with razor blades and needles to produce distortioin becose the eqipment of the time didnt have it or if it did it was mery mild
yeah if you have a 1x12 speaker on max volume with high gain, it sounds like shit, but if you have a 4x12 at the same loudness with gain, its alot more clear
Not entirely true: Classic Marshall rock tone of the 60's and 70's was from Celestion speakers, that could only handle 20 w to 30 watts. That's why they needed to have 4 of them in cabinet, so they could drive it with 100 watt amp.
It's generally thought that you can safely push 75 % to the speakers max wattage RMS, as peaks, especially in lower tones, will spike higher.
That is what makes those classic speaker so special really. You need to push them to their limits to have that dirty rock sound.
I have extremely low standards for live shows. Even bands and genres that I don't like are enjoyable when I see them live. But death metal shows are just *SO* much fun and the way they're described here is perfect. The bass rumbling in your chest, the deceptively supportive pit beasts, being one with the crowd and the music ❤️
Had the pleasure of experiencing Napalm Death two nights ago. Stood up front by the main speaker the whole time with foam ear protection, I could feel the vibration of music through my eyeballs. This has been my favorite video you made. Foreign makes amazing videos too!
Met Barney in 2007.. such an awesome guy!!
Hearing his voice made my day better, he's really good!
@@markrohrbaugh1825 i saw them a couple months ago and we were making fun of british accents together
Always love it when someone talks about music theory as it pertains to metal!
Funny enough, I've always liked listening to metal at soft volumes, usually power/symphonic/prog. To me it's kind of like listening to romantic/classical music but with more oomph that comes with having more intense instruments available. Then of course there's stuff like funeral doom, ambient black metal, what have you, that feels more intentionally quiet, although I'm not as familiar
To piggy back on this comment there's also post metal like Neurosis or Cult of Luna that intentionally uses dynamics to create crescendos of pummeling metal power. Isis, Pelican, The Ocean, so many great post metal bands.
And Jack, if you want to break into funeral doom from a symphonic metal familiarity try Colosseum. If you enjoy power metal there's also epic doom such as Candlemass that if you don't already know you should check out.
For some people they can't get into certain styles of metal because of the harsher vocals, and I'd recommend pre Heritage album Opeth and also Agalloch to anyone who wants to dip their toes into death metal and black metal vocals respectively. Both are progressive and varied enough it can ease you into the vocal stylings, and that unlocks so much great music.
Love your history videos too
@@palmmoot I'll admit it was years before I'd listen to anything with harsh vocals, but Ne Obliviscaris ended up doing the trick for me. Heard of Candlemass before, I'll have to check out Colosseum, thanks for the recommendation!
@@JackRackam Ne Obliviscaris are amazing. Definitely another band that's progressive and have enough clean vocals to help make the harsh vocals finally "click"
@@palmmoot Agreed! And the violin is too darn good to not keep listening
@@JackRackam ok one more rec lol. Grayceon is a cool progressive band with just a cellist, guitar, and drums. Not the same vibe as Ne Obliviscaris at all, but you might dig them too.
I love music
I've been to shows for Anthrax (indoor), Ghost (indoor x2), Ozzy (outdoor), Iron Maiden (outdoor), Stone Sour (outdoor), Styx (outdoor), Dream Theater (indoor), and numerous others. The loudest show I've experienced was Manchester Orchestra playing at Music Midtown Fest in Atlanta, 2011 (outdoor). It felt like my heart was shaking when they kicked on. Smacked by sound. I'm still surprised at how loud that band is.
I think the loudest concert I ever went to was Sunn O))), that wall of sound made my head vibrate for days afterwards. Highly recommended!
@@ConductiveFoam Kiss, Lick It Up tour, 1983, main floor, 17th row. My ears rang for a solid week, and I'm not sure they ever stopped.
@@ConductiveFoam goddammit I really need to see Sunn O)))
I saw Boris live and they were amazing too.
Your part about noise occupation sent shivers down my spine. I'm on the autistic spectrum and naked bikes are my kryptonite. For me it is truly torturous to hear a Harley rev up, in a way that I never experienced with Japanese bikes. Same with car honks. I hate noise, especially when it's unexpected. If it was all noise I wouldn't be able to work as a sound technician. I still enjoy loud music.
ive always expressed my like for loudness as wanting the music to be "louder than my thoughts". whether ive had a rough time and want to use music as a form of escapism or i simply want to feel more immersed in it, i want music to be at the front of my mind, not leaving much or any more room for anything else. it really reminds me to the "noise occupation" section of the video, but instead of directing such a demonstration of power towards the outside world, i do it towards my own self. thats how it goes for pretty much all kinds of music, i want it loud enough to the point that my own thoughts, feelings and reality feel muted in comparison, and i can only hear those of the song as a form of replacement.
not that i have anything against listening to music in the background, just that if i tried doing it while doing some other task it would only be a matter of time before my attention span gets completely sucked in by the music. listening music at a low volume seems so passive to me, and while it is very nice, it definitely does not fit with metal's natural aggressiveness. metal wants to be heard, and will not tolerate getting sidelined or ignored, it wants to be where it belongs, and that is blasting through your ears.
\m/
My experience is similar, but I discovered I can make that effect last even if I decrease the volume soon after the music has grabbed my attention. So I don't need to spend a long period of time with loud music in my ears to get that effect. If feels a bit weird the first few minutes after decreasing the volume, but if you get past that shorty after the music will start feeling loud again, to the point I can go on decreasing the volume again, and still get the same feeling.
@@ywenp thats neat!! i couldnt even begin to do that lol
im in constant need of turning the music up because *its. not. loud. enough.*. i often find myself trying to turn it up even though its already at max volume & cannot go any louder
@@paulamarina04 Yeah, I had to fight it too at first. It felt weird, it felt too soft, but I tried to keep on, slowly decreasing the volume, getting used to it, then decreasing it a little again, etc, etc. The key was to proceed in small changes, and now the quieter volumes do feel plenty loud enough for me.
Good headphones really did help. Being able to still have a distinct sound even at lower volumes helped a lot.
That custom "beep" at 3:27 was from the Prison Song by System of a Down. Yeah, I suffer from hearing loss due to high volume music too
I thought it was the first hit from Master of Puppets but listening back to it, I think you’re right.
@@emmaceleste_ I thought it was Master too...
Glad I wasn't alone recognising that as the first note of Prison Song
Fucking lol good catch.
I was lookin for this comment, love it
As a metal musician Standing in a crowd, beer in hand, Feeling the kick in my chest brings a happiness I can't quite explain. Thanks for this
I'm definitely familiar with the idea of listener collapse, but more from the direction of bands like Sonic Youth, early 90s Flaming Lips or My Bloody Valentine. Bands where the noise and loudness often feels more psychedelic than aggro.
I was looking for this comment. I would love an video on the entrancing effect of loudness that bands like My Bloody Valentine exploited as well and how some songs in a genre like shoegaze can sound both really loud but calming at the same time.
Not gonna lie, I love metal but I also listen to it quietly, and I really, really hate any music played that's loud enough to cause discomfort, never mind pain. Guess that puts me in the minority.
You have control of your own audio space most of the time though at least. That's not too bad. Enjoy recreational sounds however you want
Same! I like it a little loud, specially if I'm the only one listening, but not _painfully_ so. I've been to one rock concert once and while I don't regret it, I don't think I'd do it again 😅
Same. In fact when I want to show music to someone, I'm generally asked to turn up the volume.
I get my hearing checked regularly, only -5dB dip in the 4K range.
Excellent hearing. My laptop is usually on 8/100 sounds mixed somewhat evenly.
I know some Finnish sign language from my work, maybe up to 1000 signs.
Yeah I don’t like excessively loud sounds either, even though I listen to a ton of metal
For me, as a musician, there is just nothing quite like having a direct connection between my brain and the air around me. When I play a note with my amp cranked all the way up, I feel it. It's hard to describe, but having my own creativity be delivered in a medium that substantial is tremendously empowering
Metal does still work when played quietly and the heavier it is the more that that applies. Some really heavy and brutal metal played at a quiet volume is actually very relaxing and I often go to sleep listening to it. Probably similar to when people fall asleep listening to static but less boring.
same XD
That’s pretty metal
yeah I used to regularly fall asleep to various sorts of hard rock
@@Blackbird74733 metal works better in my experience (particularly the more extreme/heavy or atmospheric stuff) but rock and punk work great too.
@@Scrinwaipwr I rarely make single genre playlists (if my brain and ears get too comfortable my mind can wander). but yeah, grunge and metal were always good ones to sleep to.
weirdly, I was a metal head as a kid but I've never liked music at a loud volume . I'd always keep music at a comfortable volume; I always found it weird that people like music loud. I want my music's volume at a level that allows me to have a conversation at a normal speaking volume and be perfectly intelligible.
When I'm actively listening alone, I want to hear the details in the music more clearly so I crank up. ALONE.
But when listening to music for ambience especially with other people, it just doesn't make sense to crank up the volume. It makes you physiologically lose focus of all your senses. It really sucks in my country because everyone likes to crank music-with their bad phone speakers, loud karaoke systems for all the unconsenting neighbors, deafening subwoofers in our unique public transport.
i'm similar. i listen to metal at the same volume i listen to all other music - loud enough to hear comfortably, loud enough to drown out annoying background noise if necessary - rarely any louder.
I like to listen to my music at a loud enough volume that I can feel the floor shake when the bass hits a low note.
I've got tinnitus since I'm 3, and low volume already feels massive to my ears
Remembered from a PBS music show about heavy music- most metal isn't played significantly louder than orchestral music. Been to both and 1812 Overture left people with ringing ears well before AC/DC got on the scene (do you really think that bank of violins is there for any reason other than volume and dynamics?)
But asking why does orchestral music have to be so loud doesn't carry the same classism connotations to look down on those scruffy kids on the street corner. Only my Telarc recordings have warnings about speaker damage from excessive volume.
Orchestral music is dangerous if you are buried in the orchestra playing it, though. Metal is dangerous to musicians and audiences, live and recorded. No one listens to a recording of "The Moldau" turned up to the pain point.
1812 has loud passages. It is not unremittingly loud.
At least live orchestral music is limited by the maximum volume that its constituent instruments can naturally produce (unless the concert hall's microphones and speakers are being used to artificially louden the sound). Whereas heavy metal is always performed with amplification, and therefore has almost no hard limit on how loudly it can be played.
And of course the 1812 Overture is gonna break people's ears - the score literally calls for *cannons,* the very same things that caused Beethoven to lose his hearing.)
@@jcortese3300 That my friend is where you are wrong. I love both classical music and metal and in my house both are played at max volume.
Im not a music or sound expert, but initially seeing the title of this video, I thought that metal feels more aggressive. Metal is the main genre I listen to, so maybe I'm just used to the loudness.
Yeah that's really it to me. It's aggressive. So it has to be loud.
I mean outside of live concerts you can make as loud as you want with a volume slider.
dunno, metal is inherently distorted and noisy, but there is some metal that is also just brooding and closer to a tidal wave of dark sound that crashes into you and takes you away, some of it even darkly beautiful and oddly atmospheric, almost feeling like a dream (or a nightmare, I suppose)... there is no inherent aggression in that, just an unthinking force. Sure, thrash thrives off of pure, straightforward aggression, but not everything is thrash.
Still, I think metal kinda needs to be loud, simply because even the occasional ballad tends to come with so much pathos, that it just _demands_ to be heard, regardless if you like it or not. Playing it at low volume feels wrong because of that: the sound is meant to be heartfelt, overwhelming, and not back down regardless of the topic... even if (or especially if) the topic is pure misery.
...at least in my opinion.
@@Silaan Your comment has me trying to mentally count all the subgenres of metal I can think of, & you make to a very good point incidentally about how long metal's been around --- a half century, already! Certainly long enough to become its own fruitful tree with a multitude of branches within the larger orchard of music in general.
I just mentioned in another comment I don't tend to prefer listening to metal, but I checked my song library now & the original 'War Pigs' is in my current Most Listened list, plus 2 songs off an early 6 Organs of Admittance record that sound way more Atmospheric Metal than anything else, some Death Grips, bootleg live Slayer, plus the Cardigans' relatively faithful 'Iron Man' cover...basically "Metal" has become as broad & influential a big-tent category as "Country".
@@picahudsoniaunflocked5426 There's a great metal family tree in the documentary "Metal: A Headbanger's Journey" you can probably Google. And that film's almost 20 years old, the tree's probably much bigger now!
I'm looking at this from the view of a metal musician and agree with the perceived loudness of metal music. Part of it is in the production process. Studio engineers, especially in more recent years, will compress the music on an album as much as they possibly can in order to increase the volume of the mix. It does make the finished product noticeably louder, but kills the dynamics of the music.
This is not unique to metal. In fact, I'd wager that pop albums are louder than metal albums in average.
I think this happens less than on many pop records. This is something I've seen quite a few metal musicians complain about, actually.
I agree, which is why when I mix a metal band in a live setting I will use as little compression as possible. How can something be loud, when there is no softness?
It's very noticeable when you compare old albums to new ones by the same band, or rereleases. The older one is quieter, but has more dynamic range, with the newer one sounding sort of... Mushy?
Yes, dynamic compression kills music
Interestingly the more the music sounds fast and aggressive the softer the drummer is actually playing. You cannot physically be fast and precise at high tempos (like 300+ bpm) while hitting hard. Nowadays the loudness and the perceived heaviness is achieved by using triggers, electronic devices that record a hit (whatever the pressure to the drum head is), process it through a computer and play a sample of a hard hit. Some say it's cheating but to me that's just nonsense: physics is physics, and if you want a 400 bpm song in which drums sound good (hi Archspire, love you) you have to either program the drums, build a robot or use triggers
Build a robot?
**Kraftwerk has entered the chat**
Physics: *exists*
Drums: *triggered*
I’ve never heard a track at 300 BPM but I can only imagine the chaos for the drummer to play at that speed
@@90dzcohmzter09 ua-cam.com/video/WuSD92fIWXg/v-deo.html here you go! According to its composers, this track is 360 bpm and those fast double pedal bursts are impossible to do at a decent volume unless you use triggers. Also, the snare drum is played using the gravity roll technique, that although grants fast speeds, it also doesn't produce a lot of sound
@@alemutasa6189 not only is the low guttural scream impressive but doing it at that bpm is beyond insane
This video was posted at the perfect time, I'm a couple hours before I leave for my first metal concert, thanks for helping me understand why my ears are going to be ringing for days!
I had just gone blasting my ears with my evh 50w with the 4x12 cab
I have a guitar with the x2n humbucker and that is like the loudest pickup around
WEAR EARPLUGS! It's worth it
I saw Tool last month and every time Dany’s kick drum hit it rattled my spine. It was incredibly loud and great.
you should probably protect your ears.
I felt this when I saw Dethklok. The way Gene kills those hexikicks is like someone gripping your spine and rattling your bones from the inside. Such a dope feeling
A single Manowar show gave me some pretty nasty tinnitus (I forgot my earplugs at home and I thought I'd be okay). It was unbelievably loud to the point where the speakers at floor level were causing my shirt to vibrate. At the same time, it was some of the clearest sound I've ever heard.
I saw DragonForce at mayhemfest 2008, and my god were they loud. I felt every kick drum hit in my chest. And my shirt was vibrating as you describe. It actually made my stomach feel a bit upset. I was amazed at how clear their mix was though. That said, I was not pleased with how loud they were, because my hearing had never been that great and I knew that being there without hearing protection was not a great choice.
I've heard so many people say they are awful live, but that's not what I heard that day.
All Men Play On Ten.
I've seen Manowar 3 times and never worn plugs. I somehow managed to avoid damaging my ears, their volume is EPIC! HAIL AND KILL!
@@shuatasticyou must’ve damaged your ears even if you haven’t realized it yet.
A point I think you missed is how metal affects your emotions and feelings. I always feel a deep emotional bond with metal music because life is chaotic, and so is metal. It's also a great way to express yourself emotionally. Heavy and powerful emotions or topics like loss, hate, war, drugs and addiction fits so well with metal, and these are things a lot of people can relate to.
TLDR: Metal is just relatable.
I think this es the main point actually
@@gidleykevin I spend a lot of time playing bass in bands, so naturally I come across a lot of music. And on top of that, I love exploring my tastes. But I always come back to soul, jazz and metal. Soul is exactly what it says. It's music played with the soul. You sort of *feel* it with your soul. Jazz is music taken to new heights, and what I see as the frontier when it comes to fusion between genres; a creative outlet. Metal, or hard rock (I can't really tell the difference sometimes), is where the tension you build up everyday gets released. It allows me to stay calm in a way, and not get stressed out.
I don't listen to much sad music, mostly because I dislike sadness. But when I'm feeling the most down and got no energy left, I take a listen to the song 'Untitled 2' by The Green Kingdom. Although it has no lyrics, it is such a soothing song, and It allows me to breathe clearly, thereby sort of affecting my mood. good lord that song is great.
I believe relatability and the ability to touch you is a huge factor when it comes down to 'good music'.
But in all honesty, maybe I'm just a music fanatic, I don't know. Aren't we all here though?
I agree that Metal suits itself to angry and aggressive. But it still works happy. I enjoy the hell out of Babymetal. The haters don't know what they are talking about. Babymetal is a high quality product.
Loudness only gets me angry at the musicians. It’s not a great venting tool when the tracks themselves are what causes irritability.
@@theatheistbear3117 i don't understand what you're saying. If you don't like loud music don't listen to it
Another great video!
For me, I think the desire to hear metal loud comes chiefly from loudness making it feel more physical. I experience this even outside the concert settings you talk about-yes, when I’m listening through a venue PA I am being literally viscerally moved by the music, but even on headphones, turning up a bit (not too much) makes it feel like the music is more of a force my body interacts with than it would if I were listening at lower volumes, and that’s a sensation I especially appreciate in heavy, aggressive music.
A time-honored approach.
My appreciation of live shows increased so much when I got some properly fitted -17dB earplugs. I still had all the bass rumble but at a level that was nice to listen to.
How can I choose earplugs like this? I want some that do exactly what you described
@@maxwilson7001 I got mine in the Uk from a company called ACS Custom. They sent me a voucher to get moulds taken of my ears at a local pharmacy. The moulds were sent to ACS and they made the earplugs to fit my ears. They are not cheap, mine were about £150, but they are one of the best things I ever bought.
I'm a metalhead, but I've got tinnitus since I'm 3. I never hear my music loudly, a low volume already feels lourd to me, and loud volume is impossible to stand without good earplugs for me. A lot of people don't get it
if you want music that hurts try "Disaster Area". sure the plot of their songs is basic but their concerts are great.Also that video where they crashed that ship into a sun is awesome...and they did it for real !
I miss Douglas Adams
Makes me feel drunk. I hated it.
Dead for taxation purposes
"The gods made heavy metal
and they saw that it was good.
They said to play it louder than hell
and we promised that we would."
That's why it's loud
Manowar \w/
People say metal is the devil's work, but no! The opposite is true, metal is the weapon to fight the devil! (there's a great docu movie on this) It has to be louder than hell to defeat him
@@ZZubZZero I don't know if bands like deicide or gorgoroth want to fight the devil, but hey you do you
The way you explained listener collapse is a lot like how I feel about shoegaze, another genre that relies on being extremely loud. When I listen to the songs I feel like I am inside them.
As someone who likes classical music most and who kind of likes Metal, but doesn't listen much to Metal solely because of the loudness aspect, this explains a lot to me.
So, Metal is basically the BDSM of music genres.
Bass +
Drums +
Screaming (and Stratocasters) =
METAL!
Honestly I would have thought Arca/Sophie or those other hyper pop futuristic types were more BDSM. To each their own.
@The Coin Has A Say well BDSM is also way more than aggression. At least I think
Still early for me and I read that as DSBM because half awake lysdexia is a thing. Think I'll go listen to some Psychonaut 4 or Hanging Garden after this. X'D
Good comment, but don't wanna ruin the 69 likes.
"and the deaf shall hear"
I feel that when you walk into an auditorium and see a wall of amps a drums, you're in for a great show.
However Some bands have a wall of Mock Amps and only one or 2 are actually used, because it is just as visual as it is musical.
So back in 1969 at the Jackson Armory, my band opened and I was using a Sears Silvertone 50 watt 212 1484.
But when the Brownsville Station hit the main stage, they had 2 Marshall stacks and a 50 watt Sunn Amp w/cab.
I was blown away even though I had a 50 watt tube amp that is now a collectors Item.
So My Mission was a 100 Super Lead Stack, that I never ran above 4. When I let others play it, they wanted to max it out, But the amp peaks out about 5 or 6. At 4 I could get every note on my Les Paul Jr to feedback into a beautiful harmonic.
Also, as I'm on the quest for another 100 Plexi stack,
At 4 the sound pressure runs thru your body and if you're standing on the stage, when stop playing you fall backwards as the sound pressure supported you.
However at 70 years old, I own a JCM 900 1/2 stack
A Laney GH50L Half Stack
and a Laney VC50 212 combo with a matching 412 cab.
I had to take hearing test at work because I was a Highway Construction inspector and was around loud traffic and pile driving and aced those hearing test.
Yes, I wanna be your dawg!
Try Offer Up for vintage amps. Last week I got two Sunn silver plate 4 x 12 towers for only $85. A year before that I purchased two Sunn red label 2 x 12 Model 3’s for $80.
As a 31 year old metal fan with a limited grasp of basic communication despite an immense vocabulary (thanks aspergers!) it's intensely vindicating to have all these concepts summarized and articulated so precisely. These are ideas I was already aware of on a subconscious level, but otherwise would have definitely struggled to effectively put into words. I just listen to music (a lot!) and there are so many experiences I can directly point to in relation to any of the specific topics discussed here, but if I did that for so much as one of them I'd be sitting here writing for hours (maybe I'll post some replies to this thread later?)
Above all else... Thank you, 12tone. This one really means a lot to me, and I can hardly wait to share it and talk about it with my friends, family or even just acquaintances.
When people complain about dimebag's tone and pantera sound/mix I usually just tell them to increase the volume they are listening at.
Aka: turn that shit up and rock out
The "feeling things internally" thing fucked me up at my first "loud gig", Audioslave in the early aughties.
I'm 37 and still do all that, but I do wear plugs at concerts if I'm up close.
Something that really resonates with me as a composer is the physicality of metal in comparison to other genres. For me, classical is about contrast and texture, jazz is about prolonged dissonance and resolution, and metal is about raw rhythm and volume. I go to a jazz gig and I enjoy hearing the complex extended harmonies and creative resolutions, I listen to Stravinsky and I enjoy the interplay of different components and voices, the choices of instrumentation, range, and the effect that creates, but with metal, it's a distinct and uniquely physical experience. Other genres to me are more intellectually grounded and celebrate their complexities for their own sake, while metal is focused on raw emotive power. I will always remember seeing Tool live in 2017 and hearing Pushit, feeling the song grow in my chest quite literally with the volume of the song and the rhythmic intensity, peaking with the final verse; "Remember I will always love you, as I claw your fucking throat away; this will end no other way, this will end no other way". It was a moment that crystallized what I love about the genre for me, a moment where the pressure and force of the music made my body literally mimic the emotions and themes of the song, my heartbeat and the vibrations in my bones feeling almost identical the the frantic shaky feelings or real fear, anxiety, and anger that the music reflects. If it weren't for this volume, the song wouldn't quite have that power.
I went to a Queensryche concert in the '90's and it was so loud I could not really "hear" the music, it seemed so muddy. But, I found when I plugged my ears the clarity of the music and vocals returned, so I listened to most of the concert with my fingers in my ears 🤣 I have no doubt those around me were thinking "dude, why are you even here?!"
13:24 ... hence the common comment in metal videos on UA-cam "whenever I listen to my neighbors do too!"
I used to be a metalhead but I've never understood the desire to permanently damage one's hearing when you can hear everything perfectly fine with somewhat decent audio gear in a quiet environment at super low volume
this is why I stopped going to shows as a lifelong metal, punk, and noise fan
@ghost mall Yeah a real metalhead shoots heroin, has hearing loss and tinnitus in their 20s, and has never had sex due to their off-putting and creepy vibes. What a poser!
After getting tinnitus I started listening to music at a lower volume. I definitely don't enjoy it as much, no matter how good the headphones/speakers are.
I value my hearing considering how much of it people lose on average (generally just living in car-ridden cities with extreme noise levels like mine which is fairly fine but crisscrossed by a highway) and how much music I still plan on listening to
Get yourself some earplugs, this way you can still enjoy the loud shows while not damaging your hearing. If you spend ~20$ you get some decent plugs that may actually increase sound quality because it gets less noisy
I became a radio engineer, and I noticed that most of the male engineers (and performers) kept wanting the monitor speakers up VERY LOUD. I got into the habit of wearing earphones most of the time at work. I was born female, with better ability to hear higher frequencies. I wanted to keep that advantage, so I wore headphones when I worked to preserve my innate gift.
That is a weird way to say you are a girl
This is a really overly specific way to say "I am a girl and a radio engineer"
@@dicklover4203 Both of those statements are true. And I can still hear paint dry.
@@purplealice well, honestly Im a girl
Never heard of anything about hearing higher pitch
Okay. I just want to say, as a Lifelong Metalhead - how you described a Moshpit and the communal feeling you get at a live show, it brought a tear to my eye.
That is a perfect encapsulation of what it means to be at a show, with your brothers of metal and sisters of steel - I may not know anything about the people either side of me, but in that moment - I don't need to know anything - we are united in that moment.
It truly is euphoric.
Thanks for the shout out to us motorcyclist! Great essay!
I know that feeling, I'm not a metalhead but I love noise and feedback, listened to Psychocandy enough to get mild tinnitus but it's totally worth it. The pain contrasts with the melody in a lovely way
Ahh, Psychocandy. Bought it at age 13,the day it was released in New Zealand. Used it to terrorise my friends and to numb my teenage self. Such a sublime record. Pure pop & noise.
I'm glad you mentioned feeling the music within your body. Anyone who has rolled and gone to a live DJ set knows this more than most.
Edit: I'm so glad you picked "Demanufacture" by Fear Factory as the golden standard of "loud" music. That's mine, too.
This the single best explanation I've EVER heard about metal, loudness, and mosh pits, holy shit dude you're my new favorite. Especially after mentioning proper screaming techniques & modern overdrive for guitars. The screaming by the way is usually done through false chord techniques, and a lot of people use coal fry which is VERY quiet. Which is why I'm a bigger fan of false chord screams, but yeah dude it's a totally different technique than normal singing and IS a specific and advanced technique. Also metal singers didn't create it, it's been done around the world for a long time in different ways.
having played Metal for years, always, always, *always* wear ear protection at shows. your hearing will thank you.
"music is perceived as an external phenomenon rather than felt." Bass: "lol. also, lmao."
people think you can't hear Metal Bass, but especially live, when that first distorted *Bwommmm* comes through the system, you can practically see the air vibrating, and literally feel the sound pressure tingling on your skin. literal Sorcery.
While Metal is among the genres I listen to, and I probably kept the volume on my earphones louder as a teen than I do now as a 35-year-old, I don't think I ever cared for cranking music up to super loud levels on loud speakers, and actually feel kind of sickwhenever I'm exposed to music that's at that volume whereyou can't hear your own inner monologue(if you have one, I know not all people organize their thoughts in the same way) and your heartbeat starts syncing with the beat, even if its a song I like... Also never really saw the appeal of live concerts.
I do own a vest that essentially mounts speakers to the brest, sholder blades, and lower back, allowing for one to feel the music without having to crank the volume up to ear piercing levels or disturbing half the neighborhood, and I do enjoy what it adds to listening to music on my portable media player, even if it's a bit inconveninent to keep charged and to pull off the wall and put on.
Then again, I also went blind in my mid-20s and hearing and touch are my dominant senses, so loud music can be as disorienting to me as having a spotlight shined in a sighted person's face can be to them.
12:54 "And a roaring engine lets you rub that freedom in your fellow motorist's faces." - America in a nutshell. XD
What an absolutely fantasic video! Thanks so much for making it!
Thanks for the video! I wondered this so much myself. I'm a metal fan but also a classical/jazz fan and I always wondered why tf metal shows have to be so loud compared to other genres. I can go to a classical concert with no earplugs and hear everything just fine, I can go to a jazz bar and talk to people just fine with the music playing, but at metal gigs my ears ring even though I have custom made earplugs molded after my ear canal. And especially at small venues, the metal gigs are so loud I don't hear pitch anymore, it just devolves into noise and the walls cry out in pain from bouncing the soundwaves around. I'm not saying metal should be played at lounge jazz levels, but going over the ear damage limit even through earplugs is just really overkill and unnecessary.
Or maybe I'm just a jazz pansy who doesn't "get it"
I usually listen to my Metal at roughly 50-55dB in somewhat noisy environments, and around 42-50dB in quiet rooms.
I really don’t feel like louder music makes it sound better.
i think an important point is also the emotional side of the genre. Metal often (not always) deals with "aggressive" and or suppressed feelings witch creates aggressive/explosive beats and Melodies, who can feel weird when you play them on low Volume (as stated in the video)
Really good series so far! Thanks for the videos, I hope you keep making them.
13:35 And that's the real reason; metal is rebellious, taking power as a powerless human. There's a reason not many politicians like metal, and most of them that do are almost always on the left side of the political spectrum.
What does left-leaning tendencies have anything to do with metal?
@@Anonymous-df8it
Did you even read and comprehend what I said?
@@1972LittleC Yes. I don't see how 'taking power' has anything to do with left leaning tendencies.
@@Anonymous-df8it Ok, self congratulatory dumbo; name 3 main stream rock and metal acts that are right leaning and vocal about it in their music.
Left leaning:
- RATM (duh)
-Black Sabbath (most obvious War Pigs)
-Pearl Jam
-Iron Maiden (listen to their latest work and you'll be hit in the face with it, but Run to the Hills is also a good one)
-the complete punk scene
And so on.
Fact is also that most rock and metal acts are a bit more progressive and thought provoking in their lyrics, something the right isn't well known for.
Now name 3 right leaning politicians that are self proclaimed metal heads
Paul Ryan doesn't count, because that numb nuts didn't even get that RATM is extremely left leaning in their lyrics.
I can tell you a few in the Netherlands and Belgium. Fact is that right leaning politicians more like country and dixieland jazz, not the most thought provoking musical genres.
I too thought I had somehow managed to not damage my hearing from all the loud shows in my younger years ... Until I turned 40. Protect your ears everyone! I'm not deaf, but let's just say I don't find Marshall amps particularly bright anymore.
I've got tinnitus since I'm 3. I'm extremely sensitive to loud volume. A lot of people don't get I'm wearing earplugs so often
Back in my gigging days (I’m 70 now), I remember getting in my car the day after a gig, and when the radio came on it would blow my head off! I had cranked it up on the drive home from the gig the night before.🤘
Great video! I'll add personally that there is nothing better than when I go to a concert and I can feel the sound of the bass drums in my chest. It's like an extra heartbeat
Great video! I’ve started to notice that even the most intense songs I listen to have no impact or sound wimpy at low volumes. I figured there were a lot of psychoacoustic phenomena happening that resulted in that feeling.
My sound hypersensitivity kinda explains why I dont like it then lol. I already feel music in my body, regular music volumes can cause me pain, I dont like physical pain that much, I dont like distorted sounds a lot
It's actually interesting because the whole "we can create distortion at any volume" thing is finally starting to reel back the obnoxious concert volumes that many bands used to use. Unfortunately, in many concert halls and venues, traditional amps are just too loud and without an experienced (read: expensive) sound guy balancing everything out, odds are that one instrument is significantly louder than the others and the room mix is terrible. It wasn't uncommon to go to a show and be unable to hear the vocalist or the lead guitarist or something.
Now, though? Digital amps and cabinets are changing that. Be it a Kemper, Axe FX, Neural DSP Quad Cortex, Line 6 Helix, or a tube amp running into a load box with cabinet simulation, it makes it so everybody's final mix signal is running through the same PA. The only instrument that would really need proper mixing at that point is the drums, but the other instruments would be easily balanced against each other. Less experienced sound guys suddenly don't have to do nearly as much work to get everything sounding half decent.
Some of the shows I've been to since the end of the covid lockdowns have been the best sounding ever, and I'd personally attribute that to the increase in digital amps for guitars.
Thank god for that. Hopefully I can get into this genre if this trend continues.
Gonna nitpick a little bit and point out that overdrive did come from cranking amps really loud, but the cause of that distorted sound is overwhelming or "overdriving" a tube amp to the point that it clips. When the sound became desirable, amplifier manufacturers started including the capability to over drive a preamp. This allowed for the distorted sound without having to crank the volume as loud as it'll go. When you think overdrive, think of the sound of ac/dc or something. Effects pedals such as the tube screamer were invented to replicate that sound, and this was the key to the heavy distortion we know today. Sending the output from one of those tube screamers into an already overdriven preamp stacks the distortion in a way we find desirable and gives us that sound. Of course we can make heavy distortion like that digitally today, but there's a good chance your favorite metal guitarist is still using a tube amp with a tube screamer or similar equivalent in the signal chain
Thank you for making this video :) I am glad that it exists
There's also the bit about a lot of metal having a relatively narrow dynamic range. Metal songs are often loud and noisy for their entire running time, in contrast to rock and pop which have more built in dynamic range in their composition (breakdowns, prechorus, etc)
That's not entirely applicable though because pop and rock (ESPECIALLY in recent years) are highly compressed so there's very little dynamic range in the recordings.
@@ZachGatesHere true!
@ghost mall Audio engineer here. It's common practice to boost choruses/hooks a little bit, it's not just your perception making you think they're louder. This is often done by automating, most often either your master bus meaning the whole track is boosted for the chorus, or the individual elements you really want to stand out for it like percussion and vocals.
12:54 "And a roaring engine lets you rub that freedom in your fellow motorists' faces"
Never have I been more called out than this video lol. As long as you're not a total ass about it, it does feel quite cheeky lol
Listened to metal for over 20 years (now I am 38) and I play metal.
I work in a factory inside steel towers using impact drivers and earplugs---even use earplugs at shows.
I dont care ... I need my ears and sometimes metal is unfrigginecessarily loud.
I wear earplugs and can make out ALL the fine musicianship---its all so much better.
I watched Cattle Decap, Creepjng Death and more with Hearos music earplugs and it was still amazingly badass....!!!
00:38 Ah, the first second of SOAD Prison Song, that's the album that really got me into metal, takes you back !
The mention of transcendence with high volume reminds me of My Bloody Valentines notorious "holocaust section" where they'd regularly sustain a wall of feedback and noise at about 135db for up too twenty minutes
There’s a video of that part going on for 31 minutes I think. Lol
That’s called permanent hearing damage
These rules of the mosh pit are sacred for metal heads... except (ahem) a few.
always such a great job in your videos man
This is an amazing video, thank you for posting!
Sustained 126 decibels is well above where you should have on double hearing protection. You're literally going deaf the entire time you're at a manowar concert lol.
I refuse to go to any concert averaging above 90 dB or with a maximum volume over 100 dB.
this is probably why super modern internet-focused metal production is as heavily compressed as mainstream EDM, it allows a sense of intense loudness without requiring every listener to have their own loud sound system, just a good pair of headphones
Also why dubstep went from deep, dubby bass played in south London clubs to heavily distorted midrange sounds, so that it can be heard on laptop speakers.
Love the various layers and depth of assessment going on here.
Love the video!
This concept of volume isn't just limited to metal. There's a ton of psychedelic bands that use ear piercing volumes to a similar effect: Blue Cheer, Acid Mothers Temple, Les Rallizes Denudes, Sleep, The Cosmic Dead, The Heads, to name a few. I was at a AMT show and as soon as they began I frantically ran around to find my friend who had earplugs because it was too painful to be there without. They are the loudest band I've ever heard. For their stage plot they give to the sound tech at their shows, the guitarist notates next to their guitar amplifier "Must be as loud as the universe!". Well over 130dB at their shows.
Casually bumping the last Daughters album when this popped up 😅
Technically not metal music but yes, absolutely unequivocally *loud*
Foreign! You're like 2 comment sections away from every UA-camr I watch now! 🤣 Politics, media analysis, music theory... it's a Foreign world, the rest of us just live in it. 🙋
As a literal sadomasochist I must say the levels of insights into pain and it's effects and neuances in this video are shockingly good. Most people stop at saying "pain can feel good", but this is more in-deapth than I'd ever hope.
I wouldn't be surprised to find 12-tone is either involved in bdsm or a reader of Batailles works or something. I mean I also wouldn't be surprised if he wasn't either, but my point is he is very knowledgable about this.
Edit: The fact that he uses "sadistic or cruel" to imply they are mutually exclusive is wonderful, seriously I knew 12-tone was an open-minded and accepting person, but to cobsistantly use language that validates practitioners of BDSM is remarkable, thank you so much.
Smart. Thorough. What we've come to expect. Great job!
I'm a Metal guy ever since my dad showed me Rammstein as a child. My dad was also a sound engineer, so he always made sure to have really good equipment at home. Equipment, that you could turn up without anything distorting unnaturally.
I'm 30 and still love to listen to my music loudly, although I do that with headphones or in-ears, because neighbours.
I saw Manowar live once, and, yes, I now have some mild tinnitus. I can’t blame it all on Manowar, though. I went to quite a lot of incredibly loud shows. I’m sure the Manowar didn’t help.
Judas Priest did that to me
Imma be a teensy nitpicky and say that the ossicles, inner- and outer-hair cells being a 'mid boost' for sound stimuli isn't quite accurate. It's more that those structures have resonant frequencies. The ossicles because of their bone density, and then the hair cells because of their differentiation for specific frequencies. I'm an SLP so that's why I'm fixating on this.
Not to say that I don't friggin love this video!
First time on this channel. Not the last, now. This was really well done.
I agree with you! I live in a predominantly Mexican neighborhood and my neighbors are constantly yelling or playing their music. Whenever I get fed up, I play Necrophagist in my backyard.
To those wondering, the clip at 7:42 is "Demanufacture" by Fear Factory.
I actually like turning my favorite metal down sometimes, that makes it easier to catch some interesting production/arrangement details you don't always recognize at full volume.
COOL! I used to love FF when I was a teenager!
I also like turning down music and trying to imagine new chords or melody's so that can steal them
I'm surprised I had to scroll down so far to find a comment from someone else that recognized FF. Thanks for pointing out *which* track, I'm not familiar enough with their stuff to find it quickly...
i didn't really recognize the song per se, but i did recognize the style of the album... and it was the first track so it was easy to find haha
Why does he speak exactly in the same way as Adam Neely. Like, in every aspect
I’d love to hear a conversation between them but with no video so the listeners have to guess who is talking.
Touching, beautiful explanation of why metal is what it is…and also, I might add to the end of your vid that nothing makes you feel more powerful than being heard. 🤘
Smart video, very nicely put together!
I wonder if the distortion effects also make it possible to play the music louder without it becoming physically unpleasant. You’re effectively clipping off the high end of the frequency curve. I would imagine playing an opera soprano or violins at the volume of metal would not be a pleasant experience for anyone, including masochist kids. So metal sounds better loud partly because clean treble signals sound bad loud.
Compare it to the pain of scorching your hand on a frying pan vs the “pain” of a hot shower or sauna. Metal is designed to turn up the volume everywhere at once without overloading it in one spot.
_Scratches chalkboard_
In a manner of speaking, yes.
Distortion works by clipping the ends of the sound waves, which reduces the dynamic range of the instrument. The loudest parts just distort slightly more because they're pushing against the edge of what the circuit (or amp... or speaker... or tube) can manage, and the quiet parts get louder.
This is the same basic principal as a compressor (or more specifically a limiter) which allows you to increase the overall volume output by pushing down the loudest parts so that the overall volume can increase. The difference is that compressors and limiters try to do this in a manner that doesn't add distortion to the signal, whereas distortion, quite obviously, does add distortion.
I know there are some genres that rely on slamming a clean guitar into a really tight compressor (country and funk are two good examples), but to play in that style at the same volume as metal would probably be quite a piercing experience.
Distortion clips off the peaks, but the loudest frequencies are the fundamentals, which are lower on the spectrum. Distortion actually makes the high end louder relatively to everything else. The speakers in guitar cabinets are typically made to cut down on the now-too-loud high end. If you listen to an amp sim with no speaker IR, it will sound awful because there's too much high end.
@@FreeBroccoli And that's why you don't want your guitar cab to have tweeters. (looking at you, Line6 Spider)
You can also roll off the high end on the signal before it distorts, and then rely on the distortion to bring back some of the upper harmonic frequencies that were pulled out. That's the basis of Clapton's "woman tone" from back in the day. Though that tone is better for leads, as it's not quite chunky enough for heavy riffs.
>You’re effectively clipping off the high end of the frequency curve.
Except that clipping from distortion actually amplifies overtones, which means that you tend to get more high end, not less.
the physical feeling of the base/guitar/drums is just so much part of the experience which makes metal so much better live than recorded.
The pain/pleasure threshold is something we mess with in a lot of ways. I'd never thought of the moshpit in the same space as capsaicin chasers or skin suspension practitioners, but it sounds like it's kind of different paths to the same place. That euphoric feeling when you cross that boundary is like nothing else and I totally get why people chase it. Awesome, thought-provoking video!
When your hearing is gone it will never come back. You only have so many loving parts in your ears and they die every time.
After 40 years as a very regular concert-goer, hundreds and hundreds of gigs, I’m still surprised that my ears are really OK. But after watching Sepultura warming up (!) for Motorhead in a not too large venue some 18 years ago I knew I had do be more careful. That was brutal. Compared to Sepultura, Lemmy & the lads whispered. I was still an irregular smoker back then. Tore off two cigarette filters, removed the paper and used the foam as makeshift ear plugs. After that I started carrying ear plugs to all shows. Just in case. My ears will never be better than today, and I intend to see many more shows. And tinnitus is really something to avoid! Also, I never use my chain saw or angle grinder without protection. And so on.