# Quiet songs

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quiet-songs/978526>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Tags:** music\
**Created:** [January 20, 2023, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quiet-songs/978526 "2023-01-20T20:42:36Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Cardigan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cardigan/32/187_2.png) [@Cardigan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cardigan)\
**Post date:** [January 20, 2023, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quiet-songs/978526/1 "2023-01-20T20:42:36Z")

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Is it just me or was the 1984 song Axel F. (Harold Faltermeyer) featured in the movie _Beverly Hills Cop_, well, kinda quiet? Like you had to turn up the volume of whatever device you were using? Does anyone know if the sound engineers maybe did this on purpose?

[Harold Faltermeyer - Axel F (1984) Beverly Hills Cop - Soundtrack - YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qx2gvHjNhQ0)

They may have ‘fixed’ it now, but I swear historically it always sounded comparatively quiet.

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**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\
**Post date:** [January 20, 2023, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quiet-songs/978526/2 "2023-01-20T21:03:49Z")

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No More What Ifs from Persona 5 Royal. I had to seek out the track just to turn it up loud enough to hear.

[![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/dlZz50FA4y8/maxresdefault.jpg "Persona 5 Royal - No More What Ifs") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dlZz50FA4y8)

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**Author:** ![Crafter\_Man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crafter_man/32/458_2.png) [@Crafter\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crafter_Man)\
**Post date:** [January 21, 2023, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quiet-songs/978526/3 "2023-01-21T00:19:55Z")

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The link sounds O.K. to me.

Sometimes a track that “sounds quiet” was produced that way on purpose due to a high SPL somewhere on the track (e.g. a loud cymbal crash). In other words, they want to utilize the full dynamic range of the song. (An alternative is to compress the music, which I _hate_.)