Editing Dynamic range compression (section)

=== Over-usage ===
[[File:Cd loudness trend-something.gif|right|thumb|305px|The trend of increasing loudness as shown by waveform images of the song "[[Something (Beatles song)|Something]]" by [[The Beatles]] mastered on CD four times since 1983]]
{{See also|Loudness war}}

Record companies, mixing engineers and mastering engineers have been gradually increasing the overall [[loudness]] of commercial albums. This is achieved by using higher degrees of compression and limiting during [[Audio mixing (recorded music)|mixing]] and [[Audio mastering|mastering]]; compression algorithms have been engineered specifically to accomplish the task of maximizing audio level in the digital stream. Hard limiting or [[clipping (audio)|clipping]] can result, affecting the tone and timbre of the music. The effort to increase loudness has been referred to as the [[loudness war]].