Dynamic Range Day

Dynamic Range Day

Dynamic is the new Loud - NO MORE Loudness War !

The Dynamic Range Day Award

The Dynamic Range Day Award is given every year to a great-sounding, popular, dynamic release from the previous 12 months, to show that great dynamics and success can go hand in hand !

Check out all the previous winners and short-listed albums below to discover how many of them are much more dynamic than you might think, or expect !

The 2023 Winner:

Porcupine Tree - 'Closure/Continuum'

To see the livestream announcement click here

The full 2023 shortlist

Arcade Fire - 'We'
Motorpsycho - 'Ancient Astronauts'
Anna B Savage - 'inFLUX'
Orbital - 'Optical Delusion'
Michelle Willis - 'Just One Voice'
Imogen Heap - 'Chordata Bytes II'
Pineapple Thief - 'Give It Back (Rewired)'
Taylor Swift - 'Midnights'
Son Lux - 'Everything Everywhere All At Once - Soundtrack'

The 2022 Winner:

Billie Eilish - 'Happier Than Ever' (Dolby Atmos version)

To see the livestream announcement click here, or watch my full interview with engineer Nick Rives:

The full 2022 shortlist

Silk Sonic - 'An Evening With Silk Sonic'
King Buffalo - 'Acheron'
Dirty Loops - 'Turbo'
Kate Havnevik - 'Lightship'
REINDIER - 'OBSIDIAN // SILK'
Marillion - 'An Hour Before It’s Dark'
Burial - 'Antidawn'
Bonobo - 'Fragments'

Dolby Atmos Specific:

Dua Lipa - 'Future Nostalgia'
Lil Nas X - 'Montero'
Lorde - 'Solar Power'
Olivia Rodrigo - 'Sour'

The 2021 Winner was:

"Live at Chamonix" by The Blaze

 

 

Mastered by William Duvet, this gig sounds incredible. Deep, lush, wide, warm, big, spacious... but also intense and powerful when it needs to be.

Watch my interview with William in the livestream here. He talks about how he worked with the artists to achieve this stunning result, and also his philosophy to working with dynamics for live sound and dance music in clubs.

Check it out, your ears will thank you !

The full 2021 shortlist

Katatonia - 'City Burials'
Biosphere - 'Angel’s Flight'
The Blaze - 'Live at Chamonix'
Katie Melua - 'Album No. 8'
Ulver - 'Flowers of Evil'
Khruangbin - 'Mordechai'
Motorpsycho - 'The All Is One'
David Grey - 'Skellig'
Steven Wilson - 'The Future Bites'


Honourable mentions

SZA - 'Good Days / Hit Different
'
Imogen Heap - 'Last Night Of An Empire
'
Drake - 'Scary Hours 2'
St Vincent - 'Pay Your Way In Pain'

The 2020 winner was:

"Fear Inoculum" by Tool

 

 

No surprise here - the buzz around this album was unmistakable, and there were so many un-prompted compliments about it's great sound - that's unheard-of, and tells you something just on it's own !

Recorded and mixed by Joe Barresi and expertly mastered by the legendary Bob Ludwig, this is the fifth time in eleven years that the award has been won by an album Bob has worked on ! That's no coincidence - his commitment to dynamics is unparalleled. See Bob accept the award live and comment on his experience working on the album during the webcast here.

The full 2020 shortlist

FKA Twigs - 'Magdalene'
Tool - 'Fear Inoculum'
Squarepusher - 'Be Up A Hello'
Mock Deer - 'The Art Of Loneliness'
Plaid - 'Polymer'
Field Music - 'Making A New World'
Bat For Lashes - 'The Hunger'
Underworld - 'Drift Series 1'

In 2019 the winner was:

"Hyperion" by Gesaffelstein

 

 

Proving yet again that even the darkest, most aggressive genres benefit from powerful dynamics, and featuring an all-star lineup including The Weeknd, Pharrell Williams and Haim, Mike Lévy has also worked with Kanye West and Daft Punk.

If anyone tells you EDM "needs" to be super-loud in order to "sound right" or "achieve the artist's vision", show them this album – it's loudness measures 'only' -14 LUFS !

The full 2019 shortlist

Jon Hopkins - 'Singularity'
Motorpsycho - 'The Crucible'
Omnium Gatherum - 'The Burning Cold'
Mark Knopfler - 'Down The Road Wherever'
Gessafelstein - 'Hyperion'
Olafar Arnalds - 'Singularity'
Marillion - 'All One Tonight'
Desecravity - 'Anathema'
Nils Frahm - 'All Melody'

To watch the announcement of this year's winner on the webcast replay, click here.

The 2018 winner was:

J Cole - KOD

 

 

Yet another demonstration that even hard-hitting genres don't need extreme loudness, KOD is breaking streaming records, entering the Billboard chart at Number 1 - proving once again that listeners don't care about loudness !

The full short-list also included:

Sampha - Process
Lucy Rose - Somethings Changing
Field Music - Open Here
Flying Horseman - Rooms/Ruins
Abi Wade - Beautifully Astray
Hookworms - Microshift
Moonchild - Voyager
U2 - Songs of Experience
Steven Wilson - To The Bone

Watch the live announcement of the winner on the webcast replay, click here.

And showing promise but not quite making the cut:

Foo Fighters - "Run", the first single from their recent album sounded great - but the album didn't quite live up to it's promise. More details & analysis here.
Drake - Consistently releasing great-sounding singles with decent dynamics - for example the massive hit God's Plan - but several songs on the album just push it too far to be considered for the award, unfortunately.

The winner in 2017 was:

Avenged Sevenfold - The Stage

 

 

Proving beyond doubt, once and for all, that bite and aggression can be achieved without raw loudness, even in a genre like metal, Avenged Sevenfold's album has already been hailed as a masterpiece by some critics.

Mastered by the legendary Bob Ludwig, bringing his total to three DRD Award-winning albums over the years, "The Stage" has a peak to loudness ration (PLR) of 12, overall - and it shows.

Listen to Ian's interview with Bob about the album here.

Other notable contenders this year included FEAR by Marillion, "Windy City" by Alison Krauss and "I See You" by The XX.

The 2016 Winner Was:

James Blake - The Colour In Anything

 

 

With a Peak to Loudness Ratio (PLR) of 14 overall, this is a fabulously dynamic album - by design ! Find out more about the winner of the 2016 award and hear highlights of Ian Shepherd's interview with the engineer who mastered it here.

The full shortlist also included:

Trivium - Silence In The Snow

Plastikman - EX

The Anchoress - Confessions of a Romance Novelist

Kendrick Lamar - untitled unmastered

James Blake - The Colour In Anything

Seal - 7

Steven Wilson - 4+1/2

The 2015 winner was…

Steven Wilson for "Hand. Cannot. Erase."

 

 

Last year was all about recognising that great dynamics were completely compatible with commercial success. There were plenty more examples of that this year - see the shortlist below - but instead we wanted to highlight the fact that for some artists, great dynamic sound is just business as usual.

Steven Wilson has been nominated for the DRD Award for the last three years, and it seemed high time to acknowledge that. And it's not just his solo albums, Steven is incredibly prolific - he also mixes and produces many other albums and re-issues, and they all sound great.

And it goes without saying he makes great music ! Threat yourself, and take a listen to Hand. Cannot. Erase.

Full 2015 shortlist:

  • Mark Ronson - Uptown Special (DR8)
  • D'Angelo - Black Messiah (DR8)
  • Aphex Twin - Computer Controlled Instruments PT2 EP (DR8)
  • Jack White - Lazaretto (DR10)
  • Opeth - Pale Communion (DR11)
  • Tir Eolas - Stories Sung, Truths Told (DR9)
  • Steven Wilson - Hand. Cannot. Erase. (DR11)
  • The War On Drugs - Lost In The Dream (DR8)
  • Damon Albarn - Everyday Robots (DR10)
  • Paulo Nutini - Caustic Love (DR9)

 

 


Honourable mentions also go to:

  • J. Cole - Forest Hills Drive (DR8)
  • U2 - Songs of Innocence (DR9)
  • Horrendous - Ecdysis (DR10)
  • Imogen Heap - Sparks (DR8)
  • Snarky Puppy - We Like It Here (DR9)
  • Shellac - Dude Incredible (DR11)

In 2014 the winner was…

(To no-one's surprise !)

"Random Access Memories" by Daft Punk

 

 

We thought about being clever and giving the award to someone else, but that made no sense. This was one of the most successful albums of the year - AND one of the most dynamic ! If you ever wanted proof of the message behind Dynamic Range Day, you need look no further.

We genuinely hope this album will prove to be a watershed moment, a turning-point that we can look back on and say "the end of the war started here". Only time will tell...

For more discussion about why this album sounds so great, and how dynamics play a key part in that sound (and it's success) click here.

The winner of the 2013 award was...

"Blunderbuss" by Jack White (DR11)

To read a discussion of why this album made such a worthy winner, please click here.

Steven Wilson's superb "The Raven that Refused to Sing" came a very close second !

The other nominees last year were:

  • My Bloody Valentine - "MBV" (DR11)
  • Steven Wilson - "The Raven that Refused to Sing" (DR9)
  • Ólafur Arnalds - "For Now I Am Winter"  (DR11)
  • Mumford & Sons - Babel (DR8)
  • Ben Harper with Charlie Musselwhite - Get Up! (DR9)
  • Neil Young & Crazy Horse - Americana (DR8)
  • Orbital - Wonky (DR8)
  • Bobby Womack - The Bravest Man In The Universe (DR9)
You can hear tracks from many of these albums in this Spotify playlist:

 

 

The My Bloody Valentine album can be heard here

For even more great-sounding dynamic records from 2012, check out this list.

In 2012:

The winner of 2012's award was Björk for "Biophilia"

The winner of 2011's award was...

Elbow, for "Build A Rocket, Boys"

Watch a video of Craig Potter - Elbow's keyboard player, mixer & producer - accepting the award on behalf of the band here.

A truly worthy winner, this album sounds superb and is crammed full of outstanding songs and performances.

Proving that great music can (and should !) be full of dynamics, the album overall measures DR8 with the TT Loudness Meter, with individual songs measuring DR10 or DR12.

Measurements are only ever a guide though, and to re-enforce this point, several tracks are as loud as DR6. In the context of the whole album, these huge moments just emphasise the emotion and power of the music - dynamics used as they were meant to be.

Elbow, we salute you !

To see the announcement, click here

The full list of nominees was:

Laura Marling - "I Speak Because I Can"
LCD Soundsystem - "This Is Happening"
The Coral - "Butterfly House"
Elbow - "Build A Rocket Boys !"
Massive Attack - "Heligoland"
Neil Young - "Le Noise"
Mumford & Sons - "Sigh No More"
Four Tet - "There Is Love In You"
Norah Jones - "...Featuring"

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