Ezequiel Morfi, AES Argentina, october 13 2011
On September 29th 2011, the auditorium at Estudio Urbano, in Buenos Aires, was chosen for the start of the "Second Series of Open Conferences in Estudio Urbano; Audio & Acoustics", organized once again by AES Argentina.
This Series consist of a total of ten Seminars from different keynote speakers, each specialized in diverse areas of audio and acoustics, and taking place every Thursday from September 29th until December 1st.
Moving on to the third consecutive date, we had Ezequiel Morfi on his seminar "Brief History of Mastering and the Loudness War", on october 13th.
Going from the 1960´s, when mastering laid in the hands of the cutting engineer, thru The Beatles and the sales department, onto the English, German and American sounds and the cutting machines of the time. The next step was the appearance of dedicated mastering studios in 1970´s; and then the 1980´s, bringing us the use of CD-A and digital technology; the 1990´s, Michael Jackson, the golden age of mastering, 20 bit, SBM, 24-bit remasters, all up until the latest abuse of the CD-A format and the so-called Loudness Wars as it presented itself in the records of Aerosmith, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Green Day, Metallica, Guns n' Roses. As a final glimmer of hope in terms of the loudness race progress, some popular mastering jobs which began to diminish level and rescue dynamics were auditioned.
