On most Octave Record's releases, I can set the volume level on the BHK Preamplifier to a comfortable 40 and the tracks play at exactly the right level.
On our latest release, Percussion, more than a few of you have commented that you need to crank up the volume to nearly double what you would normally run.
In fact, on my system, one of the tracks, Drum Battle (for example) is best enjoyed when cranked up to 80 on the BHK.
Why is that?
Dynamics is the short answer. Percussion is one of the most dynamic releases we have ever launched. Instead of compressing the loudest whacks and cymbal crashes so that the overall level more closely matches that of our other releases, we did just the opposite.
In mixing and mastering, we turned the level way down. So large are the dynamics—the differences between the softest and the loudest passages of music—that in order not to clip, and to ensure we would never need to rely upon limiting or compression, we simply moved the entire track's level down so everything fit perfectly.
Of course, this means that as a listener, you need to crank it up perhaps double what you would normally run one of our releases at. On any reasonable system, there will be no clipping. What you will have is extraordinary dynamics like you may never have experienced before.
We cranked it down so you could crank it up.
