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What is dynamic range and how important is it to the audio experience?

The term “dynamic range” can be a bit confusing if you are not someone who works in the audio field in general. But in fact, this is one of the concepts that is very easy to understand and plays a relatively important role in the audio experience. In other words, dynamic range can make a big difference in your enjoyment of any type of audio. Let's find out right below.

What is dynamic range?

Dynamic range refers to the difference between the loudest and softest sounds in a piece of music, measured in decibels. As a result, tracks with a wide dynamic range have a larger difference between the loudest and softest sounds than tracks with a low dynamic range, which typically only have a similar volume for each element throughout the track. .

Dynamic range is important in audio because we need contrast between soft and loud sounds to be able to distinguish them from each other. Without a clear difference in volume throughout the track, everything will sound cluttered and lifeless. It's annoying to hear audio that lacks dynamic range.

Dynamic range

This can be a difficult concept to grasp because you can only feel it with your ears, but there are a few ways to understand it better. For example, think about a situation where you turn on a movie at home and you have difficulty hearing some of the dialogue or background noise. You turn up the volume to hear better, but then an explosion or thunderclap happens and suddenly the sound becomes too loud, startling you and having to immediately turn down the TV volume. That's the classic example. picture of a somewhat extreme dynamic range.

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Wider dynamic range makes the sound more dynamic

Wide dynamic range also means that various instruments on a track will sound more nuanced and dynamic. Setting the sound from soft to loud creates a much stronger impact with a wide dynamic range. Instruments that the artist wants to emphasize will sound more prominent than the more subtle instruments that are often in the background.

So wide dynamic range can make you sound more like you're listening to live music, or as if the instruments are around you in a physical space. It can create a sense of distance or closeness, making the song sound more “dynamic.”

Imagine that you are listening to a recording of a piano player. The way a person plays the piano normally includes notes that are smaller than the main melody, but make it sound more realistic and full. You can also have an emotional change when the pianist plays the music softly and gradually increases to a strong, explosive forte.

Lower dynamic range can appear as a “wall of sound”

Conversely, low dynamic range can make a song sound very flat or like a wall of sound. There is very little difference between the loudest and softest sounds which can cause every instrument in a track to sound somewhat similar in volume. This can make the song sound quite boring or significantly different from how it originally sounded.

More compressed mixes will have lower dynamic range, leading to this effect. If you feel like a lower bitrate MP3 file sounds significantly different than a CD-quality track, it's largely due to dynamic range.

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Since file compression means removing details to reduce file size, dynamic range is one of the details sacrificed. However, most of the time you probably won't notice missing details like dynamic range. In fact, people listen to music on streaming services like Spotify that have lossy compressed files but still sound pretty good.

Dynamic range plays an important role in the audio experience

Dynamic range is more important when listening at close distances in quiet environments

In terms of how dynamic range can impact a track, it's important to remember that you won't always notice a difference in dynamic range. This is something that requires careful, intentional listening to recognize, and the noise level of your surroundings also affects it. If you're in a noisy environment, you may not be able to hear every element of the music you're listening to, and you miss out on some of the nuances of the wider dynamic range.

In situations where you're not listening closely or when you're not in a quiet environment, you don't really need to worry about dynamic range. You'll probably still have fun listening to a song with a standard dynamic range. That's because the files most people listen to on streaming services are compressed just enough to not take up too much bandwidth, but still sound good.

Some streaming services have high-resolution audio to choose from which may have a wider dynamic range, but it probably won't make a big difference overall. The average person really doesn't need to worry too much about dynamic range.

But if you're an audiophile, or just like to listen to music in detail, you'll probably want to listen to music with a wider dynamic range. So in those cases, make sure you're in a quiet enough environment or have good enough noise-canceling headphones to be able to fully appreciate the nuances of the music.

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Wide dynamic range can sometimes be a hindrance

When you listen to music or watch movies, you may sometimes feel uncomfortable hearing sounds with too wide a dynamic range. If the smallest sound is extremely soft and delicate, and the loudest sound is too loud and rumbling, then no amount of volume will ever feel sufficient. You will have the instinct to increase or decrease the volume when listening. That's extremely annoying.

Now you understand what dynamics is and its role in music. The average music listener doesn't really need to worry much about dynamic range, especially if you're listening to music at standard quality levels on streaming services like Spotify or Apple Music.

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