What the hell, here's another one: songsfromsodeep.wordpress.com/2019/06/26/g...

In entirely separate news, here's a completely unrelated post. songsfromsodeep.wordpress.com/2023/02/23/a...

Afaik, all streaming services have a compression algorithm, so yeah, no point chasing loudness just to have the edge on the next band’s record. Raw Power-style loudness as an effect in itself is a different story - I’m sure folks still do that, and nowt wrong with that if that’s your aesthetic

I feel like the big difference (and I’m talking really indie/rock/roots/singer-songwriter stuff as it’s what I know best) is how drums sit beneath vocals, and how acoustic guitars sit in fixed audibility at all times. So i think that’s a fashion thing as much as anything else.

Not much you can do as a masterer if someone hands you a sausage, whatever peak value it’s limited to

I think most mastering engineers nowadays default to lower levels than were normal 10-15 years ago. A lot of the issue I have with modern records is more to do with the treatment of sound sources earlier in the process, tending to lead to quite a lot of dynamically flattened mixes, pre-mastering