K-System

Bob Katz invented the K-System to stop the loudness-war which is very much dominating modern music production
since look-ahead brickwall limiters are commonly available.
As a consequence of the simple rule that your own production has to be louder than that of the next guy no matter what
music has suffered greatly from distortion, digital clipping, harsh and unpleasing highs and the
loss of almost any dynamic information causing the listener to turn the volume down in order to avoid these sounds.
Like in film mixing where engineers worked with a fixed calibrated monitor gain of 83 dB SPL for a long time,
the K-system introduces a calibrated monitor gain of 83dB SPL which equals the meter's 0dB point.
This makes the mix or mastering engineer actually feel when he or she is overdoing it in the loudness department.
With the K-system it is no longer possible to increase the loudness without
recognizing unwanted sound degragation due to soft monitor levels.