What Is Dynamic Range, and Why Does It Matter?

The term “dynamic range” can be a bit daunting if you’re unfamiliar with audio terms generally. Thankfully, this is one of the easier concepts to understand and hear when it comes to audio. Dynamic range can make a big difference in your enjoyment of any audio, so here’s everything you need to know.

What Is Dynamic Range?

Dynamic range refers to the difference between the loudest and quietest sounds in a track, measured in decibels. Tracks with wider dynamic range therefore have a bigger difference between the loudest and quietest sounds compared to tracks with a lower dynamic range, which have a similar volume for each element throughout.

Dynamic range is important in audio because we need contrast between quiet and loud to be able to distinguish them from each other. Without a clear difference in volume throughout the audio track, everything sounds muddied and lifeless. It can be quite a drag to listen to audio lacking in dynamic range.

It can be a tricky concept to grasp since you can only sense it with your ears, but there are some ways to better understand it. For example, think about a time you put on a movie at home, and you had a hard time hearing some of the dialogue or background noises. You turn up the volume to better hear it, but then an explosion or thunderclap will happen, and suddenly it’s way too loud. That’s a wide dynamic range taken to a bit of an extreme.

Wider Dynamic Range Makes Audio Sound More Lively

Since a wide dynamic range means the loudest sounds on a track are quite loud compared to the quiet sounds, that means that various instruments on a track will sound more nuanced and lively. Building up sound from quiet to loud will come across much more impactful with a wide dynamic range. Instruments that the artist wanted to be more prominent will sound prominent compared to the more subtle instruments that seem to be in the background.

Because of this, a wide dynamic range can make it sound more like you’re listening to live music, or as if the instruments are around you in a physical space. It can create the feeling of distance or proximity, making a song sound more, well, dynamic.

Imagine that you’re listening to a recording of someone playing piano. The way a person normally plays piano includes notes that are quieter than the main melody, but make it sound lifelike and full. You also might have a big build-up where the pianist plays quietly and gradually builds up to a powerful, booming forte. If you made every note exactly as loud as the next, it would sound dramatically different.

Lower Dynamic Range Can Come Across Like a Wall of Sound

In contrast, low dynamic range can make a song sound very flat, or like a wall of sound. Having very little difference between the loudest and quietest sounds can make every instrument in a track sound a bit too similar in volume. This can make a song sound fairly boring, or significantly different from how it was intended to sound.

More compressed mixes will have lower dynamic range, leading to this effect. If you feel like a lower bitrate MP3 file sounds significantly different from a CD-quality track, a lot of that is due to dynamic range.

Because compressing a file means getting rid of details in order to reduce file size, dynamic range is one of those details that is sacrificed. However, most of the time you likely won’t notice the missing details like dynamic range, since most people listen to music on streaming services like Spotify that have lossy compressed files that still sound pretty good.

Dynamic Range Matters More for Close Listening in a Quiet Environment

For all this talk about the way dynamic range can impact a track, it’s important to remember that you won’t always notice differences in dynamic range. It’s the sort of thing that takes closer, more intentional listening to notice, and the noise level of your environment factors into that. If you’re in a noisier environment, you might not hear every element of the music you’re listening to, and you miss out on some of the nuance of a wider dynamic range.

In situations where you’re not doing close listening, or when you aren’t in a quiet environment, it’s not really necessary to worry about dynamic range. You’re likely going to be happy listening to a song with a standard dynamic range.That’s because the files most people listen to on streaming services are just compressed enough to not take up too much bandwidth, but still sound good.

Some streaming services have hi-res audio to choose from that can have a wider dynamic range, but it’s probably not going to make a big difference in the end. The average person really doesn’t need to worry too much about dynamic range.

But if you’re an audiophile, or just love doing close listening to music, you probably will want to listen to tracks with a wider dynamic range. So, in those cases, make sure you’re in a quiet enough environment, or have good enough noise-cancelling headphones, to fully appreciate the nuances of the music.

Wide Dynamic Range Can Sometimes Be a Hindrance

When you’re listening to music or watching a movie, it can sometimes be irritating to listen to audio that has too wide a dynamic range. If the quietest sounds are ultra-quiet and subtle and the loudest sounds are massive and booming, no volume is going to feel adequate. You’re going to have the instinct to turn up or down the volume as you go. That’s super annoying, at least for me.

There’s a sweet spot when it comes to dynamic range. You definitely don’t want it to be too low lest the audio sound lifeless and compressed, and you don’t want it too wide for the reason I just mentioned.

With all of that in mind, you can now feel better equipped to understand dynamic range, and make any changes according to your environment and needs. The average person doesn’t really need to worry about dynamic range all that much, especially if you’re listening to music at standard quality levels on streaming services like Spotify or Apple Music.