The loudness in scores such as Once Upon a Time and Brian Tyler's scores is something that always bothered me as well. The orchestra doesn't sound like an orchestra anymore, it sounds more like a mechanical sound, like if some instruments had been replaced by synths. It's hard for my ears to isolate a single instrument or a family of instruments and I must open the booklets of the Once Upon a Time discs each time to count all the orchestra players just to be sure this is real.
I have to specify for Ford that I listen to my music mostly on my stereo (and surround) system at HOME. I guess I'm just not the regular guy.
And I'm sad the people who "listen" to their music in cars, in the noise and heavily compressed are the ones who get all the attention from the mixers who like to brick-wall the music.
Most fortunately, I can still buy the new James Horner CD and enjoy a very detailed, refined, quiet orchestral sound... Hail to Simon Rhodes !
