Why do certain songs sound louder than others even when they’re played at the same volume?
In: Technology
There’s a lot of answers on here about modern mixing/mastering, overuse of compression for publication, and all that stuff is accurate. But at the heart of the question, if you really do play two distinct songs (or sounds) at the same exact volume, you will hear certain frequencies clearer than others.
This is described by what’s called the Fletcher Munson curve, and is important for any audio engineer to understand: https://ehomerecordingstudio.com/fletcher-munson-curve/
Basically our ears are tuned to hear the frequencies around the human voice the clearest, and even if there are lower/higher frequency sounds at the same volume, you’ll hear the midrange vocal frequencies the clearest. This is used to certain ends in audio mixing, like electric guitar frequently has a big midrange spike so that it “cuts through the mix”
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