Snow Patrol - You're All I Have (Dynamic Edit)

This is what I like to call a ‘dynamic edit’ of “You're All I Have” by Snow Patrol! Eyes Open as a whole faced quite a ton of dynamic range compression (not to confused with data compression, which concerns MP3s and such) in its mastering, and seems to have some audible artifacts added to the music as a result. This “dynamic edit” is meant to remedy to an extent that compression and those artifacts, making the result more dynamic and hopefully more listenable! For those not in the know, the Loudness War is a phenomenon beginning in the mid-90s onward, in which music was mastered louder and louder, with the underlying reasoning being that louder music sells better. As with any medium, however, there is a peak loudness a signal can reach, so dynamic range compression (which makes the louder parts of the signal quieter while keeping the quiet parts quiet) and sometimes even clipping (attempting to push a signal beyond its peak) were used to make music as loud as possible. The issue with this is that overuse of compression can make the music fatiguing to listen to, and sometimes even audibly distorted. Clipping or poor compressors as well can introduce audible artifacts such hiss or crackle into the mix. Eyes Open specifically seems to have faced some poor compression for the songs “You’re All I Have”, wherein there’s this crackle on the kick during the verses, and “Headlights on Dark Roads”, where the crackle seems to be present on some of the vocals. (Oddly enough, this crackle in both examples only seems to be coming from the right channel.) I have attempted to fix up the mastering compression and those artifacts with a program I have called “Perfect Declipper” (creating something I dub a “dynamic edit”). This editing process makes the album more dynamic and eliminate those audible compression artifacts! In this case, I was able to turn the dynamic range of the album from 5 into 11! It’s important to note that the dynamics are not being restored with the "Perfect Declipper" program that I use, but rather, they are being approximated. While one may not be able to "declip" an album as one would be unable to "unbake a cake", I find the results here to be a convincible attempt at doing so. Only in the most extreme examples have I heard the program produce odd artifacts that would appear unintended in the album’s mix. Keep in mind as well that “-” remains unedited, as it is too quiet to be affected by the mastering compression to begin with. I think it’s also important to note that dynamic range compression is not an inherently bad thing. It can tighten up performances, add grit, and help remove dynamic outliers that would take you out of the mix. I also have a links to all my dynamic edits on a Google Doc here (Reddit links, not download links): https://docs.google.com/document/d/19...